Time for Fury to build up its play for future
Final two matches coming up all about setting foundation for 2017
There won’t be any playoffs for Ottawa Fury FC, but there’s still plenty to play for.
Next up is a Saturday night road game against the Tampa Bay Rowdies, who are still chasing a North American Soccer League playoff spot. Ottawa’s final game will be Oct. 29 at home against Fort Lauderdale.
Playing the role of spoilers is all well and good, but Fury FC coach Paul Dalglish is looking at the bigger picture — deciding who he will bring back for next season.
“You learn a lot about the players in these next two games,” said Dalglish. “You probably learn as much about players when there’s nothing on the line than you do when there is something on the line. You know who you can trust in any situation based on how they perform over these next two games. That’ll help make our decisions for what we want to do for next year.”
One of those players under the microscope is forward Gerardo Bruna, who only recently returned from a nagging sports hernia injury. “With him being injured, there are people like Ryan Williams that have stepped up in Bruna’s position ... Carl Haworth has been arguably our best player this season,” said Dalglish. “It’s going to be tough for (Bruna) to be on the team. When people get injured, opportunities come for others and Williams and Haworth have snapped up that opportunity with both hands. They’ve done nothing in the past few games to lose their place. (Bruna’s) got to work hard now to try and be on this team.”
“It’s been a really frustrating year for me,” said Bruna. “It’s the first time in my life I’ve missed so many games. I’ve had little injuries, but this was for so long, it really tested me in my head. If the club can keep most of the team together, we have a really good team, we could have a really good 2017.”
Tampa Bay will be playing a second match in four days, coming off a 3-2 loss to the Indy Eleven on Wednesday. With two games left, Stuart Campbell’s side is trailing Minnesota United and Rayo OKC by three points. The last time the teams met back in July, Fury FC picked up a 2-0 win at TD Place.
“They’ve got good players, they’re a real good side,” said Dalglish. “They’re not quite as solid as other teams in the league at the back. I think because they play so expansive to create chances, they give up chances as well. We have to look at how Indy hurt them in transition right through the middle and learn from that. We also have to be prepared to defend against their offensive power. They’ve got some real, real quality players. They invested a lot of money in Tommy Heinemann who’s been sitting on the bench so it shows you the level of attacking players they’ve got.”