Playoff berth in sight for Fury FC
Playoff berth in sight for Ottawa side heading into USL stretch drive
Ottawa Fury FC has already surpassed its win total for all of 2017.
Victories against the Tampa Bay Rowdies and the Richmond Kickers in August have given Fury FC 10 triumphs through 26 games of the United Soccer League season, compared to eight wins in what was a 32-game regular season last year.
That’s not to say Fury FC can start making plans to continue playing beyond the close of the regular season in mid- October.
With Fury FC tied for the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot with Nashville SC, which has three games in hand, nothing is a given as the stretch run continues with the third-to-last home game of the campaign at TD Place stadium on Saturday evening (7 p.m.) against a struggling Penn FC that has produced just one point in its past five games and has lost three in a row.
It’s one of four very winnable games among Fury FC’s final eight contests.
“I know one thing,” Fury head coach Nikola Popovic said. “If we win all of them, we will be in the playoffs.
“But if you start doing calculations on who you think will beat who and who you should beat, there is going to be surprises along the way. Every single game matters. The teams are so even. All you can do is think about your next game and focus on that one. You have to win your next game. That’s all.
“Our (management) team said from the beginning we would fight to be in the playoffs, and we knew doing that would make for a very difficult run.”
Fury FC returned home by bus after a disappointing 2-0 loss in Bethlehem, Pa., on Wednesday night.
A win would have put Fury FC in sixth place in the conference but instead, it’s looking up at seven teams and sideways at Nashville, with North Carolina and Charlotte still very much in what is realistically a seven-team tussle for playoff spots five through eight.
The race should go right to the wire.
It took 44 points to nail down the final playoff spot in 2017. This year, with two games added to the schedule, it may take 50.
“Our goal was top four and now we need to make sure we just get into the playoffs,” conceded captain Carl Haworth, whose squad (10-11-5) has 35 points so far. “The best thing for us would be if the top four teams (Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Louisville City and Charleston) just win out. We have put ourselves in control of our own destiny, and our (upcoming) fixtures favour us, but we have got to take care of business at home.”
Ottawa’s upcoming USL schedule features with five straight on the road, including two trips to Toronto and one each in New York, Richmond and Louisville, before concluding with home games Sept. 30 against Bethlehem and Oct. 13 against Charleston.