So, it was only fitting that Eddie Edward got the chance to meet and greet with his old FC Edmonton teammates at Ottawa International Airport. The Eddies were disembarking from their plane just as the Ottawa Fury players were returning from Charleston, S.C., where they drew the Battery over the weekend in USL play.

But, for the reigning NASL Young Player of the Year, it looks as if the work visa soap opera is about to come to a close.

But, starting this season, each team is required to start three Canadians for each tournament match.

And what of the Challenge Cup winner? Year after year, the team that wins the senior men’s amateur title is one that has links to pro soccer and the Canadian national-team program. There are former national-team and/or pro players who got real jobs and had families, but still remain in love with the game. There are former and current CIS standouts. There is quality in those teams.

The Fury’s front office says that the eligibility of each Montreal player will be set out in their contracts. There is no blanket policy that covers all loanees. So, if Ottawa and Montreal were to meet in a meaningful game, the status of the Impact loanees would be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Johnson went down injured after tripping over Ousted while in the act of shooting. In fact, not to overdramatize the whole thing, but it was reminiscent of another famous Cup-winning goal from another sport; Bobby Orr tripping over Glenn Hall while in the act of scoring a championship-deciding marker.

Ottawa’s Marcel de Jong got behind the Vancouver defenders and got a clear sight of goal. ‘Caps keeper Paolo Tornaghi scrambled off his line and stopped de Jong’s attempt, point blank.

Less than three minutes in, Jonny Steele got the Fury off to a dream start in front of its home fans, with a strike that found the top corner of the goal.

For the Eddies, the Timbo tackle will become just another chapter in a novel entitled Agonizing Ways to Be Eliminated From the Voyageurs Cup. At least the Eddies didn’t get knocked out by a 97th-minute goals in the second leg of a tie, as they have in the past two years. But, scoring two first-half goals in Ottawa is yet another way this team has brought its fans so close to Cup joy — only to have it go bad in the end.

At halftime, with FC Edmonton trailing 1-0, coach Colin Miller was so angry about his team’s performance, he said that “we’ll end up being relegated, and there is no relegation.”