Fury brims with confidence heading into crucial second leg

Marc Dos Santos

Because of the 0-0 scoreline going into Wednesday’s second leg of the Amway Canadian Championship’s preliminary round series, the Ottawa Fury will get one mulligan.

Why? With a 0-0 draw going into the second leg at Edmonton’s Clarke Stadium, the away-goals rule means that the Fury can spot the Eddies a tally. Whether it’s 0-0 or 1-0 to the Eddies, the mission remains the same for the Fury, to score a goal. A 1-1 draw is as good as a win.

That’s the advantage that comes with the Fury not allowing a goal in its home leg. The Eddies have no precious away goals on their side. That means Ottawa advances to face the Montreal Impact in the semifinals with a win or a scoring draw on Wednesday night. Only a 0-0 result after 90 minutes would send the game to extra time.

“If you would have asked me before the first game what would have been the perfect result, I would have said 5-0,” said Fury coach Marc Dos Santos after the team’s Tuesday evening training session at Clarke Stadium. “But, if you are going to have a tie, a nil-nil score is the best score you can have. It leaves everything wide open for the second game, you’ve given yourself a chance.”

The Eddies come off a 1-0 loss on Saturday to Minnesota United FC, the same team that a week previous spoiled the Fury’s home opener with a dying-minute goal. The Eddies have now gone three matches without scoring a goal. Meanwhile, the Fury beat Carolina 4-0 on the weekend, with NASL player of the week Oliver Minatel notching a hat trick. One team is hot, the other is not. But, even had the Fury not drubbed Carolina on the weekend, Dos Santos said his club would have come into Alberta with a positive attitude.

“To be honest, this team has always been very confident. Before this past weekend’s win, we felt that we had deserved a little something more from our games. We felt that against Minnesota we deserved at least a point. And, the first game against Edmonton, a tie was a fair result, the teams were equal. For us, it was an excellent result and it gives us a lot of confidence going into the second leg.”

Earlier in the day, the Eddies finished their practice session by taking penalties, even though coach Colin Miller said he’ll let the players decide who takes spot kicks if the tie comes down to a shootout. The only way the game can go to penalties is if it does finish 0-0 after extra time.

Dos Santos, like Miller, won’t make a list of five potential shooters. He’ll look at who should be taking penalties after extra time, if that’s what it comes down to. And he’s not a big believer in taking up practice time with penalties. That’s because taking a penalty in practice, without pressure, is nowhere close to replicating what it’s like to convert a spot kick in a packed stadium with a game on the line.

As well, when the Fury practiced at Clarke, the football lines were covered in a coat of bright green paint. So bright, in fact, that the lines were still visible, the contrast was that great. But, as soon as the Fury players stepped off the pitch, crews were back on the field, applying a new coat of paint that was much closer to the colour of the field.

But Dos Santos, who has heard many bad things about the Clarke turf, said the surface wasn’t as bad as advertised.

“The ball bounces on this a lot. It is very bouncy. At the same time, this field is quite a bit better than we thought it would be.”