Miller said that he felt the Eddies should have won the first leg going away. “In the game in Ottawa, we should have scored two or three. Ottawa created next to nothing, in all honesty.”

In an announcement that surprises absolutely no one who follows the NASL on a regular basis, Ottawa Fury forward Oliver Minatel has been named the league’s player of the week.

“In my life, I’ve never said so many bad words in such a short period of time. I should have been arrested, I was that angry. I said it after the Ottawa game and I will say it again, the standard of the officiating has got to be better."

In a game that had very few decent chances, FCE had a wonderful chance to steal the game at the death. Striker Frank Jonke got the ball in the middle of the box after Horace James was able to slide and make a pass after recovering his own blocked shot. But Ottawa keeper Devala Gorrick was able to make a sliding stop.

Despite the big crowd and an FC Edmonton attack that has been changed over from last season, there were some storylines that FCE supporters would find all too familiar. The Eddies, who boasted the worst offence and best defence in NASL last season, took until the 68th minute to actually place a shot on frame, an effort from striker Frank Jonke that was blocked by Cosmos keeper Jimmy Maurer.

As expansion ramps up, critics will claim MLS is watering itself down. But this next period of expansion offers a perfect time to answer those critics, to make the playoffs more exclusive. Even by knocking it back to eight teams, it would allow MLS to claim that, by 2017, you’d have just one-third of the clubs making the post-season. And you would have a situation like NASL, where games matter right off the bat.

To make it work, Citytv/Rogers will broadcast the games on Sunday afternoons through the season, but won’t be streaming the matches.

Now, whether you love or hate the NASL’s decision to create a spring season in which each of the 10 teams plays a nine-game schedule — with one of the top two playoff, er, “Championship” seeds going to the league champ — there’s no doubt it brought a sense of immediacy to the opening weekend.

The Eddies created more scoring chances, and were the better side based on style points. But a missed penalty and another effort that caromed off the post punctuated a night of missed opportunities.

Peterson said the league “will explore options on how we can better align ourselves with the CSA’s professional goals.”