No one that cares about soccer in this country wants FC Edmonton to fail. Everyone in the country is terrified of what is about to happen.
With less than a month until the club takes on TFC in a cup tie, let’s have a look at what the club looks like:
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Keepers: Rein Baart is a 38-year-old that has played in one competitive game since 2007, Lance Parker last played game 18-months ago and didn’t get off the training pitch for Miami last year and local product Jaswinder Gill might have a future, but the future isn’t here yet.
Defenders: Alex Surprenant was a Montreal Impact depth player for the better part of two seasons and André Duberry has never played professionally before.
John Jonke is from Scarborough, so that’s something, but he failed to stick in Finland and is basically a PDL player. Niko Saler is another local product without pro experience and Paul Hamilton claim to fame is a CIS MVP season. He comes via Vancouver. Speaking of Vancouver, Antonio Rago is young, but hasn’t played higher than the Whitecaps academy.
Midfield: Paul Matthijs has played in the Eredivisie, but he is 35. Shaun Saiko is maybe the most interesting player here having played in the Middlesbrough system.
Chris Lemire is a journeyman that actually played for the Edmonton Aviators (so he should have an idea of what he’s in for) and Conrad Smith is making the jump straight from CIS soccer.
Mutanda Kwesele is a Portland Timbers reject and Chris Kooy is a young Albertan with his first pro club.
Meanwhile Dominic Oppong played USL-2 last year and Sam Lam had a good run at the University of Alberta while Shawn Chin was playing community college soccer in Alberta two years ago.
Forwards: Alex Semenets is a Whitecaps academy prospect (that the Caps didn’t want). Michael Cox is another kid from Alberta with his first pro club (which is why no one wants to see this team fail...), but Daniel Antoniuk is a career D2-er – so, one of the most accomplished players on the roster.
Kyle Yamada is another player that had his most success in that underrated (*cough*) community college league and Paul Craig was a great player for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.
It’s a young team – and that’s good, so long as the club sticks around long enough to make it matter. For that to happen, however, this club is going to need to do enough to convince a reluctant soccer market (based on history) to accept the game this time.
As for the NCC game...
The last time TFC played a team that looked like this they won 6-1.