EDMONTON, A.B. — After a long 13-day break in between matches, FC Edmonton returns to the pitch of Clarke Stadium to face the Indy Eleven on Saturday, May 27 in North American Soccer League (NASL) action. Kickoff is at 7:00 PM.
The Eddies have had ample time to recover from five matches in 15 days after the club’s match with the New York Cosmos on May 21 was rescheduled to June 7. The focus for the two weeks has been on rest, attacking, and working to snap out of a five-game winless streak (0W-2D-3L) across both NASL and Canadian Championship competition dating back to a 2-0 loss to Miami FC on April 29.
“Coming back into training it’s been business as usual, and I have to say the response from the players has been fabulous,” FC Edmonton head coach Colin Miller said. “We focused on a lot of attacking elements this week in training and we’ve seen the benefits of that with some terrific finishing in free play and small-sided games. We want to see some of that belief now coming in to Saturday night.
“We’re all disappointed with where we are in the league standings at the moment. We’ve had the chance to take a bit of a break and had a very good inter-squad match on Saturday, so plenty of positives this week in training.”
READ MORE: CanWNT’s Diana Matheson joins FC Edmonton for ‘Girls in Soccer’ Weekend
Two playoff teams from 2016 in the Eddies and Eleven meet in another rematch of last season’s Championship Semifinals after drawing 0-0 earlier this season at Michael A. Carroll Stadium. But both sides look to climb up the table after less than favourable starts through eight matches. The Eleven are winless (0W-6D-2L) and had their 21-game home unbeaten streak snapped in a 2-0 loss to Miami last Saturday.
Clarke Stadium has traditionally been a fortress for the Eddies over the past few seasons, but they’ve been slow out of the gate at home to start this season after losing three out of four matches in Edmonton. The road back up the table can be a difficult task, and it begins with picking up points in your own stadium.
“We have to start winning these home games that we’ve been throwing away, and that’s been unlike us as we’ve been very good at home,” Miller said. “We know [Indianapolis] are a tough side and I thought they did well for spells against Miami [last Saturday]. We know they’ll come here wanting three points after seeing what other teams have done.”
Defender Karsten Smith has returned from his lower-body injury suffered in training camp back in February and is available for selection. For Miller, the competition for places hasn’t been this high since training camp as the Eddies look to get back to winning ways this Saturday.
READ MORE: The Road to Recovery — Karsten Smith
“It’s game on now for the players,” Miller commented. “I need to see the right attitude, I need to see hunger and I need to see guys committed to helping us get back to the top half of the league. Some lads have really stepped up and put others under pressure for places, which is what I want now.
“We’re in this together, and we know it’s going to take nothing less than the continuation of the hard work that the guys have put in this week to get us the three points we need.”
Saturday, March 27 at Clarke Stadium is ‘Girls in Soccer’ Night with special guest Diana Matheson from the Canadian Women’s National Team! The international midfielder will be available for photos and autographs during the match, and the first 300 girls through the gates will get a free t-shirt and be invited on the pitch at half-time for a photo with Diana to commemorate the special night. Tickets are available at tickets.fcedmonton.com!