Then, it all changed on what looked to be an innocuous play. Minnesota fullback Justin Davis got into the penalty are with the ball, and looked to have run himself into a corner; he wasn’t facing goal and he didn’t have a shooting angle. At best, he could hope to turn and pop a cross to the centre of the area. But FC Edmonton substitute Michael Nonni elected to dive in. Even though Nonni got all ball with the tackle, Davis went down and referee Geoff Gamble pointed to the spot.

“It wasn’t my choice; they didn’t have me in their plans,” Van Oekel said of the move from Minnesota. “They wanted to go in a different direction. And it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I have a coach here (in Edmonton, Colin Miller) who I get along with wonderfully, and a goalkeeping coach (Darren Woloshen) who really pushes me.”

Up 3-1 after the first leg of their Amway Canadian Championship preliminary round tie against the Ottawa Fury, FC Edmonton’s players had a bit of a surprise prepared. Instead of bunkering and trying to protect the three road goals they scored in the first leg, they came out onto the Clarke Stadium turf looking to break the backs of their …

“We know what we have to do — we have to go for it. We need three goals. It doesn’t matter if Edmonton scores a goal or they don’t score a goal, we need three. We can give up one, because it doesn’t change our job. Of course, if we give up a second, that’s a problem, because we’d need to score four. And I don’t think anyone has ever come here (Clarke Stadium) and scored four goals. But, for Edmonton, they don’t know how to handle it. They will be asking themselves: Do we defend? Do we play to win? Do we try and stay halfway?”

Both scored goals in last Wednesday’s 3-1 triumph in Ottawa, the first leg of the preliminary round of the Amway Canadian Championship. But for both of the forwards, they have had to prove themselves after finding themselves on the bench to start the season.

Icelandic club KR Reykjavik and midfielder Oskar Hauksson cut their losses Friday; the one-year loan deal that had sent the winger to FC Edmonton was terminated before the NASL season was a month old. The Eddies say they came to an "amicable" agreement with both the player and Reykjavik.

We saw this script again on Wednesday; the Eddies scored three goals in just over 11 minutes to transform a game that they were trailing to the Ottawa Fury 1-0 for the better part of 80 minutes. Instead, the Eddies will head home to Clarke Stadium for the second leg of the Amway Canadian Championship first-round series with a commanding 3-1 lead.

Sometimes, dammit, don’t you just love this game? How it could turn enemies into strange bedfellows? How Smits’s agony of defeat against the Impact a little more than a year ago could end up having the chance to be part of the greatest victory thrill in Canadian club soccer history?

Smits admitted he's received plenty of tweets and messages from friends and family wondering how he can bury the hatchet with Montreal, considering how many still feel sour about the way Montreal beat Edmonton last year.

Sunday’s battle between the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and FC Edmonton was one of these how-do-I-squeeze it all in matches. The Eddies fought back from a 2-1 second-half deficit and hung on for a 3-2 win. This game had so much to offer; two teams playing contrasting, attacking styles; lights-out goalkeeping from the Strikers’ David Meves, who deserves to be on the NASL team of the week despite giving up three; a penalty save; an assistant coach tossed from the game (Fort Lauderdale’s Ricardo Lopes felt that referee Robert Schaap should have given FCE striker Frank Jonke a harsh punishment for a challenge that bloodied the nose of defender Daniel Navarro); and what turned out to be a series of brilliant substitution decisions from FCE coach Colin Miller which changed the game.