Eddies need to treat Sunday match with Atlanta like a playoff game

Martin Nunez, right, battles FCE defender David Proctor last season.

FC Edmonton will play just its second home game of the NASL season on Sunday. It will be just the team’s sixth game of the campaign.

But it should feel like a Cup match. Not only will it be the first time the Eddies take the field at a new and improved Clarke Stadium, with capacity for 4,000 fans, but NASL is already entering a phase of the spring season schedule where every game is a must-win.

“Going into the season, we knew about the importance of winning the home games,” said FCE coach Colin Miller after training Tuesday. “Especially with this format. I am not a big fan of the way the league is set up; that’s Colin Miller’s opinion, not FC Edmonton’s opinion. I have no problem with the July break, but I believe that the league should have a champion and that there should be playoffs.”

What Miller is talking about is the new NASL format for 2013. The winner of the spring season gets to host the Soccer Bowl. The league takes most of July off and then begins a fall season. The winners of the fall season is the Soccer Bowl’s visiting team. If the same team wins both halves, the team with the next-best overall record gets to go to the big game.

As of right now, FCE has already played five of its 12 spring-season matches. It only has two road spring-season games left, the rest of the schedule is at Clarke. With FCE being just three points off the top of the table — thanks to draw after draw around the league — the Eddies know that a good run at home makes them a contender in a season that feels like it’s winding down the second it started.

And it turns a May game into a match with huge ramifications.

Atlanta is the league’s biggest surprise — the Silverbacks, who have been one of the league’s worst teams over the past two seasons, have a new logo and have started off quick under coach Brian Haynes. The Silverbacks are 2-1-1 and have a league-best 10 goals.

“In this league, you can never switch off at any time,” said Miller. “And Brian has done a hell of a job with his team. They have an exciting team and, like us, a very young team. They are very offensive-minded and they play a nice quality of football.”

FCE will get a boost with the return of David Proctor. The veteran Scottish defender has been out since preseason with a nagging calf-muscle injury. He’s fit and ready for selection.

“What I have seen from the sidelines so far this season has been promising,” said Proctor. “We look very well organized. We don’t think we’re ever out of a game. We went down 1-0 to Tampa on the weekend and we came back to tie the game. Our fitness levels were good and we looked good enough to get the three points in the second half. Maybe that’s something that might not happened last year.”

With fullback Lance Laing missing each of the team’s last two games with concussion, the Eddies have been stretched at the back, so the addition of Proctor, even if he can’t go the full 90, gives FCE a needed boost against a team that’s averaging 2.5 goals per game.