Shaun Saiko Archive

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FC Edmonton veterans are A-OK with “trialist” tags

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/23/2013

Shaun Saiko

FC Edmonton is in the midst of two-a-day training sessions — which means a lot of drills without balls. Sprints. More sprints.

New FCE coach Colin Miller felt that, looking at the tape of last year’s matches, that the team wasn’t fit enough to compete at the NASL level, and it was a major contributor to the last-place finish. As the new coach, he has stressed fitness. And, for the veterans who spent the previous two years under coach Harry Sinkgraven, it’s a welcome change.

“It has been fantastic so far,” said midfielder and 2011 NASL Best XI member Shaun Saiko. “From my time at Middlesbrough, this was the kind of preseason training that we did. We’ve started the preseason off brightly, there have been no lulls. You have got to get after it.”
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Veterans slowly making their way back to FC Edmonton camp

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/08/2013

David Proctor

FC Edmonton’s players are slowly returning to camp.

Even though all players don’t have to officially report for their medicals until February 15, Thursday’s training session at Commonwealth Fieldhouse — featuring the Reserves and the available senior-squad members — featured a lot of newcomers and familiar faces.

Goalkeeper John Smits and Scottish defender David Proctor had just returned to the city and were working out. Fullback Wes Knight has been in Edmonton since January; same goes for holding midfielder Neil Hlavaty. Local products Antonio Rago and Shaun Saiko have been regular fixtures at the indoor training sessions since December.
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Ricketts’ name added to Edmonton dream team for Commonwealth game

By
Steven Sandor
– 12/18/2012

Tosaint Ricketts

A lot of FC Edmonton fans would love to see hometown hero and Canadian national-team regular Tosaint Ricketts wear the team’s black and blue strip; seeing him running onto a through ball from midfielder Shaun Saiko.

Well, they’ll get the chance — for an evening, at least. Ricketts is the final player named to a special squad of Edmonton-area players being put together by FCE star Shaun Saiko. That team will face FC Edmonton Reserves Tuesday night at the Commonwealth Stadium Fitness Centre fieldhouse. For fans in the Edmonton area who want to check out the game, kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. Click HERE to see who else is on the squad.

Ricketts finished the European season with Norwegian side Valerenga, after a long dispute over unpaid wages with his previous club, FC Politehnica Timisoara, and the Romanian Football Federation. Ricketts was recommended to Valerenga by the club’s goalkeeper, fellow Edmontonian and Canadian national-teamer Lars Hirschfeld.
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Eddies old and new will unite at Commonwealth fieldhouse

By
Steven Sandor
– 12/18/2012

Sam Lam in 2011 with FCE.

A mix of FC Edmonton players, past and present, will take on the FC Edmonton reserves Tuesday at the Commonwealth Stadium Fitness Centre fieldhouse.

On Monday, FC Edmonton announced the names of most of the members of the team, which is being put together by FCE hometown star Shaun Saiko. The FCE midfielder will be joined by current senior-roster teammates Antonio Rago, Paul Hamilton and Chris Kooy.

The identity of one more player is being held back. That player will be announced just before the game Tuesday.

The recently-released Dominic Oppong will also be on the squad. Ex-Eddies Andre Duberry, Sam Lam and Kyle Yamada — who all were on the Edmonton Scottish team that went to the national finals in 2012 — will join their old FCE teammates. And, Matt Lam, recently released by the club, will also be there.
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Breaking down FCE’s 2012 season, player by player

By
Steven Sandor
– 12/11/2012

Yashir Pinto: Not as bad a 2012 season as you might think?

The 11 wraps up its player-by-player analyses of the four Canadian first- and second-division pro teams with a stop in Edmonton.

Edmonton was just named the third-best city in the world for quality of life in a Numbeo study, and topped the Canadian quality of life list. Unfortunately, that quality didn’t extend to Clarke Stadium, where fans had to watch the team with the league’s highest payroll slump to the bottom of the NASL standings.

How bad was it? We put the Edmonton roster to the test, just as we have the three Canadian MLS teams: Montreal (CLICK), Toronto (CLICK) and Vancouver (CLICK). We took the minutes each player spent on the field, and came up with the team’s goal difference depending on who was on the pitch. (Think of a plus-minus in hockey) As well, we looked at each player’s W-L-T “record,” depending on the team’s performances in the matches they played.
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FCE’s Hamilton makes NASL’s Best XI

By
Steven Sandor
– 10/09/2012

Paul Hamilton

Despite a last-place finish in NASL, FC Edmonton has placed a player in the season-ending Best XI.

Eddies’ central defender Paul Hamilton was named to the squad, which was announced by the league on Tuesday. The centre back was named defensive player of week in mid-May and led the team in minutes played, with 2,024.

At the halfway point of the season, FCE midfielder/forward Shaun Saiko looked destined to make the Best XI for the second consecutive season. But, even though he finished as the Eddies’ leaders in goals and assists and represented Canada at the U-23 level during Olympic qualifying, he was sidelined for part of the second half of the season due to injuries and a one-game team suspension issued by former coach Harry Sinkgraven.
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Sinkgraven, Schrijver out of work as FC Edmonton lowers the axe

By
Steven Sandor
– 09/28/2012

Harry Sinkgraven: Fired

FC Edmonton has fired coach Harry Sinkgraven and assistant Hans Schrijver.

After meetings were held this past week by the FC Edmonton brain trust, including owner Tom Fath, director of soccer operations Joe Petrone and general manager Tom Leip, the decisions were made to axe the two Dutch coaches — even though both were signed to extensions in July. Those extensions would have carried them through the 2013 season.

But today’s decision was a clear message that ownership felt that, despite the vote of confidence issued to the coaches in July, the team’s finish in the bottom of the NASL standings was too much to bear.
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Smits relishes chance to play for FCE, even after team eliminated from playoffs

By
Steven Sandor
– 09/19/2012

John Smits

John Smits has never before been in a situation where he’s had to play out the string.

Every season before this, whether it was elite level amateur teams in the Greater Toronto Area, or during his collegiate career with the University of Toronto, the FC Edmonton keeper hasn’t been on a team that was eliminated from post-season contention well before the regular season came to a close.

That changed during Smits’ rookie pro season with the Eddies. The team has known for a couple of weeks that it is doing nothing more than playing for pride. FCE sits at the bottom of the NASL standings heading into Sunday’s season finale at home to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.

“Playing for pride, it’s a different feeling,” said Smits.
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Porter, Zimmerman trade braces as FCE draws with the RailHawks

By
Steven Sandor
– 09/13/2012

FCE’s Michael Cox, in white, finds himself surrounded by RailHawks.

It was the kind of game that coaches hate, but fans love to watch.

Neither the Carolina or FC Edmonton put on defensive clinics in a 2-2 draw which saw Eddie Kyle Porter trade braces with the RailHawks’ Nick Zimmerman.

It was a game between FCE, which had learned the night before that its NASL playoff hopes were dashed, and a Carolina team looking to rise as high as third in the table with a win at Clarke Stadium. Both teams scored inside the first 10 minutes in a game that saw very little in terms of tackling or physical play.

But, that was good for the fans, who saw plenty of scoring chances. It made the game easy on the eye (again, unless you were one of the coaches).
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Saiko’s last-gasp goal gets him NASL weekly honour

By
Steven Sandor
– 09/10/2012

Shaun Saiko

For the third time this season, Shaun Saiko has been named the NASL Offensive Player of the Week.

It wasn’t because the FC Edmonton midfielder had a lot of goals and/or chances in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Minnesota; it was more about the timeliness of his one killer strike.

Saiko got the nod for scoring the last-gasp equalizer against the Stars; that marker kept FCE mathematically alive in the playoff race, staying eight points behind Minnesota for the final playoff spot in NASL. Read the rest of this entry »

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