FC Edmonton gets bodies back as the club prepares for Impact rematch

FC Edmonton will try and break its jinx against the Montreal Impact this Sunday.

The largest crowd to ever see FC Edmonton play at Foote Field is expected for the weekend match-up, and they’ll want to see the home side, currently sitting second in the NASL table, reverse its recent run of form against the other Canadian team in the league.

While Edmonton is near the top of the table, Montreal is second from bottom. But, Montreal has its only two wins of the season against FC Edmonton; a 5-0 win at Foote, and a 2-0 win at home. Against the rest of the league, Montreal is winless.

“Beating Montreal, that’s the big question, isn’t it?” said FCE central defender Paul Hamilton at the team’s training session Friday. “We looked at the game film. We saw some things. We know that there are some areas where we can exploit them.”

Forwards Kyle Yamada, Chris Lemire and Alex Semenets — all coming off injuries — played in a reserve game on Thursday. All three hit the scoresheet. With only a couple of days off between the reserve match and the Montreal game, it’s ambitious to think any of them will start, but they are available for selection.

But midfield sparkplug Shaun Saiko, tied with Kyle Porter for the team scoring lead with four goals each, is out because of the red card he picked up last weekend in Minnesota.

Even though the Impact has dominated FCE in both of their earlier match-ups, the two games were radically different in terms of style. On the quick turf and small pitch at Foote Field, the Impact kept pounding long balls into the penalty area, depending on strikers Anthony Le Gall and Ali Gerba to win the physical battles. On the large pitch (and grass) at Stade Saputo, the Impact spread out its players and tried to move the ball through the gaps. The two centre backs played far away from each other. The right- and left-backs joined the attack.

But Hamilton expects Montreal to revert to plan A — the long ball — when it gets back onto the plastic pitch. So he’ll be a busy man, trying to cut out the crosses before they get to the forwards.

“The way they played us on their field is totally different to how they played us on this field,” said Hamilton.

Goalkeeper Justin Ammar, who signed an amateur contract to back up a couple of weeks ago, is expected to stick with the club until August. With goalkeeper Lance Parker out for the season with a broken arm, and No. 3 keeper Jaswinder Gill out indefinitely with a back issue, Ammar is the only back-up available for No. 1 Rein Baart.