“Before the game, I talked to (commissioner) Bill Peterson and I told him no way there’s going to be a trophy presentation tonight,” said Miller. “I told him ‘have you booked a flight for next week?’”

“No, there’s no way we want to see the trophy (presented),” said Miller after FCE’s training session Friday on the grass at Concordia College. “We’ve had a very good week, we’ve had to make one or two changes in personnel. And, anyone who is not motivated to go to New York and play the Cosmos, well that would be hard to believe.”

It will be hard to say the name “Martin Nash” without “Vancouver Whitecaps” being attached to it.

And, after a lightning delay it was Alen Marcina, the San Antonio Scorpions’ interim boss, who could claim the win over FC Edmonton’s Colin Miller.

The team announced Friday that it will play its first five home games at Keith Harris Stadium, a multipurpose campus facility that has artificial turf and, yes, permanent football lines. The stadium has new bleachers that can accommodate up to 3,000 fans. The Fury stated that the facility can be expanded to handle as many as 5,000 people.

In soccer, enforced parity is deadly. You yourself say that "draws are the norm" in NASL. For the teams placed 2–7, that's more or less true, especially for two teams. Second-place Tampa Bay (five draws) averages 1.4 points per game. In the Bundesliga, that rate would put them in seventh place. NASL's seventh-place Edmonton (also with five draws) averages 1.1 points per game, a rate that's good for 15th place in the Bundesliga (an 18-team league).

“If Carolina can go to New York and get a draw, we win our game, then we go down to New York and get a result… there are four games left. There are still points to play for.”

Think about it. With a month to go in the regular season, we’re already talking about a second-place team being eliminated from the race. That’s how lopsided the NASL fall-season, ahem, “race” has become.

FC Edmonton’s Northern Irish striker got both goals in the team’s 2-1 win over Carolina, Sunday. Fordyce nodded home the opener after fellow Northern Irishman Alberta Watson flicked on a long throw from Corey Hertzog.

Daryl Fordyce scored twice, pacing the Eddies to a 2-1 win over the Carolina RailHawks. The big winners out of the weekend? The New York Cosmos. With Carolina’s loss, the gap between the Cosmos and the RailHawks (tied for second place) is now seven points.