NASL releases spring schedule — FCE starts with four of five on the road

The NASL has announced its spring schedule — and FC Edmonton will spend four of the first five games of the season on the road.

And, as they have for the previous two seasons, the Eddies will open up the season in Fort Lauderdale. The two teams have split the previous two openers. It begins a stretch of four of five games on the road for the Eddies. With the winner of a very short schedule (12 games per team) getting the right to host the Soccer Bowl, a poor start could kill the Eddies’ hopes, as there won’t be time to recover.

NASL went to a split season format for 2013. The winner of the spring session will play the winner of the autumn session for the title. The spring winner gets to host the game. If the same team wins both sessions, the team with the second-best record over both sessions gets to go to the final.

After the NASL announced the split season, the expansion New York Cosmos and the established Puerto Rico Islanders announced that they wouldn’t be ready to play in April, and withdrew from the spring session. They are set to play in August. But it would have been nice to see NASL announce the whole schedule, with the fall games including the Cosmos and Islanders, as a show of confidence for the fans and the teams. Only announcing the spring session still gives the air that the Islanders and Cosmos are in limbo.

The league is getting some badly needed good news next week. In maybe the worst-kept secret in NASL history, Indianapolis is expected to be announced as the newest expansion franchise, joining Ottawa and D.C.’s Virginia ‘burbs as teams that will join in 2014. A group of Indy investors has been working with former Chicago Fire exec Peter Wilt on the team’s launch.

FCE is set to host the Vancouver Whitecaps in their Amway Canadian Championship semifinal on April 24. The Eddies don’t have their NASL home opener till the 28th, when they face the Scorpions. With a game on the 20th in Minnesota, that will make the final week of April the toughest on the team’s schedule.

The good news for Edmonton supporters is that all of FCE’s spring home games are set for Sunday afternoons.

The season runs till July 4. FCE has a bye on the final week of the season, meaning the Eddies could be in a situation where it has to sit and wait for results during the final weel of the season. But, as the Eddies finished last in the NASL in 2012, it makes sense that, in seven-team league, that they’d get the final week off — as the oddsmakers would give them the least chance of any of the teams of being in it.

FC EDMONTON SCHEDULE
April 6 @FTL 5:30 p.m. MT
April 13 @CAR 5 p.m. MT
April 20 @MIN 6:30 p.m. MT
April 28 SA 2 p.m. MT
May 4 @TB 5:30 p.m. MT
May 12 ATL 2 p.m. MT
May 26 FTL 2 p.m. MT
June 2 TB 2 p.m. MT
June 8 @ATL 5:30 p.m. MT
June 16 CAR 2 p.m. MT
June 22 @SA 6:30 p.m. MT
June 28 MIN 2 p.m. MT