It’s not often when there are six goals in a game — and the winning team scores four of them — that a goalkeeper is named the man of the match.

How about this: That the mathematical chance of FC Edmonton losing in the semifinal stage of the Amway Canadian Championship — on goals scored in the 96th minute of the second leg — is one in 1,137,777.77.

But, having more teams in the southeast will only serve to increase the travel bill for the Eddies, currently the only NASL team in the Mountain time zone. Just with the four Florida teams, the Eddies are looking at four road trips of 3,000-4,000 km (one-way) each. It’s given wisdom that flying an NASL team and paying for hotels and meals costs north of $20,000 a trip. But Fath told me that, when the Eddies faced Fort Lauderdale in the playoffs back in the FCE’s inaugural season, booking seats and hotels last-second ballooned the costs to over $40,000 for that trip.

FC Edmonton is developing a tragic history of giving up late goals to lose Amway Canadian Championship ties. Last year, it was a 96th-minute Patrice Bernier penalty that gave the Montreal Impact a last-gasp semifinal win over the Eddies. On Wednesday, Whitecap substitute Matias Laba rolled the ball across the goal line in the 96th minute of the semifinal’s second …

“For us, it we sit back in the 18-yard box, it is inevitable what will happen,” said FCE coach Colin Miller. “Our game plan worked to a T at BC Place, save for the last six minutes. And, I think we can score, I feel that way about every game we play, and that we need to score. But we are in a position where we’re not chasing the game, so there’s no need to do anything stupid.”

Late in the game, after intercepting a pass, Eddies’ central defender Mallan Roberts lingered on the ball rather than making the simple play and hoofing the ball out of danger. San Antonio’s Billy Forbes, who scored earlier in the game, nicked the ball off of Roberts’s feet and then went in alone on goal. He finished neatly, giving the Scorpions the late winner.

If Lance Laing enjoys an extended period with the Reggae Boyz, FC Edmonton will have to learn to play without him on the left wing.

“What a performance by these guys tonight,” said FC Edmonton coach Colin Miller. “It speaks to the culture that we’re trying to build here. We gave up some very poor goals to the best team in NASL on Sunday. But we came into this game not looking to draw; we thought we could win the game. We knew that, playing against the best team in the MLS Western Conference, that we couldn’t have one single player out there fail tonight. And we didn’t have any failures.”

Crazily, that marks only the fourth quickest goal the Eddies have given up this season in NASL or Canadian Championship play. That’s right. Even though the season began in April, the Mendes goal is only at No. 4 in the quick-goals chart.

After referee Dave Gantar deemed FC Edmonton’s home pitch unplayable, officials from the Canadian Soccer Association, FC Edmonton and the Whitecaps unanimously agreed to postpone the first leg of their Amway Canadian Championship semifinal, which had been set for Wednesday night. The Edmonton leg, now set for May 20, will be the second leg of the series. The Whitecaps still host a match on May 13, but it will now be the first leg, not the second.