Miller will give bad news to five FC Edmonton hopefuls on Saturday By Steven Sandor Posted on March 1, 2013 7 0 794 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Colin Miller On Friday night, FC Edmonton coach Colin Miller and his staff will undertake the most unpleasant of their tasks; they will identify the final five players who will be cut from the team. On Saturday, they’ll inform those players of their decisions. In the end, the team expects to have 26 players on the roster. Sixteen already have been signed. But included on that list bubble players are FC Edmonton vets such as 2012 NASL Best XI defender Paul Hamilton, midfielders Chris Kooy and Kenny Caceros, plus strikers Elvir Gigolaj and Michael Cox. As well, NASL vets like Canadian fullback Edson Edward and former Minnesota Stars attacking midfielder Martin Nunez will find out their fates. “It’s not a nice situation,” said Miller after the first of the team’s two training sessions Friday at the Commonwealth Fieldhouse. “We’ve worked with these players for two weeks; it’s a situation where some of them have really got to liking the city… And I understand that these can be life-changing decisions for some of these players, both positively and negatively.” FCE’s Elvir Gigolaj, in white, in action against the U of A Miller said the staff wanted to get the roster down to size well ahead of the NASL regular season (NASL doesn’t kick off till April) so the players who do get let go will have chances to find work elsewhere. Leaving them hanging until a few days before the season kicks off simply isn’t fair to players who aren’t earning massive paycheques to play soccer in North America. “We have players who are very similar, in some instances,” said Miller. “And we also have the budget side of it. We have a budget to stick to. (Owner) Tom Fath has been very generous over the years, but we have to make sure we don’t go overboard.” The players in camp have been in two-a-days over the last two weeks. And the unsigned players participated in a friendly against the University of Alberta earlier in the week; in that game, Massimo Mirabelli, who played in Finland last year, looked very strong, scoring goal and making a series of very good passes from the wing. But, playing on the short indoor field at the Fieldhouse does make it difficult for coaches to assess players. “It doesn’t make it easy,” admitted Miller. “There’s no space in behind the back four, any lack of pace from the defenders doesn’t get exposed here.” And, once these final cuts are made and the team moves from “try out” mode to the “preparation” phase, the staff will incorporate new drills that put more emphasis on the defenders being forced to cover the space behind them. “We’ll be trying to expose the spaces behind, and it will also benefit the forwards with pace up front.” Goalkeeper Lance Parker — who is one of the 16 players who are already signed — was also at training Friday; he came to camp late as he had to wrap up some modeling commitments.
