Eddies extend Laing, Ameobi; release Milton Blanco

Lance Laing

If you had to pinpoint the turning point of FC Edmonton’s season, you should go back to the final game of the spring season. As an experiment, coach Colin Miller moved Lance Laing from left back to the left side of midfield.

Since then, Laing has no doubt been Edmonton’s most valuable player, and has entrenched himself as the best left-sided player in NASL. The Jamaican has six goals and five assists, and has tormented opposing fullbacks with his speed.

And Laing is guaranteed to return next season. The Eddies announced Tuesday that it had inked Laing and striker Tomi Ameobi — who both take up international slots on the roster — to contract extensions. Terms of the contracts were not released.

Ameobi scored his fifth goal of the season in Sunday’s 3-0 win over Carolina, which put the Eddies just four points back of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers for the fourth and final playoff spot in the NASL with three games left to go — including what will be a do-or-die showdown two weeks from now in south Florida.

Each NASL team is allowed to bring in seven internationals. In the case of Edmonton and the Ottawa Fury, that means players who are not American or Canadian citizens, or landed immigrants who would qualify as domestics.

The Eddies also announced that the club has released midfielder Milton Blanco. The American midfielder has had his season derailed by a series of injuries, and didn’t get nearly the playing time that anyone had envisioned he’d get when he was signed as a free agent. Blanco spent last season with the Silverbacks, and helped make the case the FCE brass that his former Atlanta teammate, Beto Navarro, should be acquired. The Eddies purchased Navarro’s contract from the Silverbacks in between the spring and fall seasons.

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