With three points from three regular season games and a chance to secure a berth in the semi-final of the Canadian Championship/Voyageurs Cup, Ottawa Fury FC are carrying some momentum. A victory or draw in Edmonton on Wednesday will see Marc Dos Santos’ squad through to play his former club Montreal Impact.
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Saturday’s 4-0 win at home to Carolina was a coming out party. Not just for NASL Player of the Week Oliver, who scored two goals, and pressured an own goal, but for the franchise. They had some struggles coming together, some injury troubles and a dagger in the form of a 90 +7 injury time winner by Minnesota in their second home game. With Patterson, Ubiparipovic, Heinemann, Jarun all missing time, Mayard not playing and starting left back Maykon going down against Carolina, Ottawa have been challenged in all facets as an expansion franchise. But, to the credit of the players and the coaching staff, they’ve got inertia on their side. Coming out of a stretch of three games in eight days, they’ll now gun to play four more in 11 days.
Oliver’s burst of goals against the Railhawks were key, but, the return of Sinisa Ubiparipovic seemed to spark the Fury. His play, along with the fearless defensive mid performance of Richie Ryan, set the tone early against the Railhawks. Ryan has been a monster taking some nasty challenges in each of the Fury home games in stride and continuing to pop up in all the right places as the team transitions to offense. The loss of Omar Jarun against Edmonton saw Andres Fresenga inserted into Drew Beckie’s right back slot, with Beckie assuming the central defending partnership with Mason Trafford. Trafford has been playing extremely well. The only knock on the defenders in the recent stretch is their inability to clear balls in the air. Too many headed clearances are dropping to the feet of dangerous attacking players, in even more dangerous positions. Beckie, in particular, however has been making some fine tackles.
The key to the win against Carolina seemed to be the defending tactics. The Fury pushed into the attacking third to pressure the Railhawks. It wasn’t a high pressure, with the forward three – Carl Haworth in particular – applying only light pressure, but with the backline following suit pushing into the middle third, the Railhawks couldn’t mount any kind of prolonged possession or attack.
Maykon continues to baffle me. His positioning when the ball is on the opposite wing is incomprehensible. He rarely drops to help provide a switch of field opportunity – something the Fury have only done once all year, to my memory – and often moves into the midfield without a clear sign of someone dropping to support him. His service in the first half of Saturday’s game was impressive, until an injury took him out. But, combined with his lack of fitness, one wonders whether he is the best fit at left back. Ramon Soria came in after Maykon went down and served a perfect ball that lead to a goal. He’s not seen any minutes after starting much of the preseason. It remains to be seen how long injury keeps Maykon out and whether Soria did enough to see starting minutes over the next stretch of games.
Phillipe Davies and Devela Gorrick deserve special mention. Davies has been playing well and finally got a goal and set up Oliver well again and again on Saturday. And despite giving up the goal, and points, to Minnesota, Gorrick saved the game against Edmonton and did what was needed to get the clean sheet against Carolina.
The question of whether the high pressure and calm distribution via Ryan continues with Jarun back in the starting 11 and the timeline on Nicki Patterson, who’s been itching in the press box the past three games are important ones. The ties to Montreal through coaching staff, former players and loanees will surely drive the Fury against Edmonton on Wednesday night. Their stingy defence demands that Ottawa find a way to carry the momentum forward and get the away goal to put them in control. In Voyageurs play and against Atlanta and Tampa Bay.