Ottawa Fury FC travel to Fort McMurray, Alberta this weekend to face “rivals” FC Edmonton in an all-Canadian clash.
The Fury haven’t played any club more frequently than the Eddies, this being their eighth meeting in their short history. That history hasn’t been filled with success, as only one Fury win came from their previous seven meetings. This has created a sense of antipathy from Fury supporters towards the Eddies. No one likes to be dominated in this way (well, not in sport anyway. Ahem.)
FC Edmonton are branching out and probing the borders of their kingdom by playing a pair of matches in Fort McMurray. You can see the logic: service town with nothing to do, a potentially captive audience to fill the town’s brand new stadium. The first match was against San Antonio on July 5th, and although the result was positive (a 4-0 victory), only 1,112 people could be bothered to attend. Perhaps the “rivalry” with Ottawa will draw more people out on Sunday.
This so-called “rivalry” between the Fury and FC Edmonton is hard to define. A road trip to Edmonton from Ottawa would entail 3,500 kilometers of travel. In fact, no other road trip within NASL would gobble up as much mileage – not even San Antonio. Edmonton, therefore, is not a natural rival to Ottawa. There is something at work here, however. First off, Ottawa is Canada’s capital and for the most part Westerners don’t exactly see us with a heart full of love because of past slights, real or imagined. Secondly, the aforementioned dominance of FC Edmonton over the Fury has created an angst amongst Ottawa’s supporters – they are eager to pile up some wins to even the scales. Many of the Fury’s losses to Edmonton have come in the Voyageurs Cup, thus preventing a 2nd round matchup with Ottawa’s true natural rivals, Toronto and Montréal. From that perspective, it’s essentially a hate-by-proxy.
Fury players and staff have been eager to manufacture some ill-feeling between the clubs, with Head Coach Marc Dos Santos even calling the matchup the most heated rivalry in NASL. Players have expressed their disdain for Eddies players as well. Whether these statements are genuine or a request from the marketing department is difficult to decipher.
The Fury take a 10-match unbeaten streak to Fort McMurray, of which the last 3 have been victories. The Fury have not been great on the road this season, however, having taken only 22.22% of the points on offer away from home. FC Edmonton, on the other hand, rank in the bottom half of the league in home points captured with only 52.38%.
The Fury offense have gotten going over this unbeaten streak, but a clear cut goalscoring leader has yet to emerge. Tom Heinemann leads the team with four goals, with Carl Haworth, Oliver, Andrew Wiedeman and now Aly Hassan hot on his heels. Scoring by committee seems to be the modus operandi this season unless someone quickly stakes a claim over the next few matches.
The same cannot be said for FC Edmonton, with Lance Laing clearly leading the club in goals and talent level. Laing has just returned from a successful Gold Cup campaign with Jamaica, in which the Reggae Boyz reached the final only to lose to Mexico. It will be interesting to see if the high of that success spurs Laing onto more conquests, or whether there will be a letdown period after attaining such heights.
Both teams will be going for it, which should lead to an exciting match. Ottawa will want to press their advantage at the top of the standings, whereas FC Edmonton could hurt their playoff ambitions beyond repair with a loss.
Catch the match on NASL.com at 16:00 EST this Sunday. Ottawa Fury supporters can catch the match at the Heart & Crown viewing party on Preston alongside Stony Monday Riot and the Bytown Boys.
