Proctor signs contract as FC Edmonton prepares for Atlanta trip

David Proctor

Scottish defender David Proctor has inked a contract with FC Edmonton, but it’s unsure if he’ll be available to play on the team’s upcoming road trip, which will see the Eddies go to Atlanta this Saturday and Tampa next weekend.

FC Edmonton is waiting on the Scottish Football Association to finish filing some paperwork to the Canadian Soccer Association to make the transfer official. And, as the former Inverness Caledonian Thistle player has been out of action a couple of months — the Scottish Premier League season wrapped up in the spring — he may need to work to get back to match fitness before he’s ready to make his Eddies’ debut. Proctor said the deal keeps him in Edmonton for the rest of the season with an option for 2013.

But Proctor did have a chance to look at his new teammates in action over the weekend, a disappointing 1-0 loss to the Rowdies, despite the fact FCE was up a man for more than an hour. The loss leaves FCE a point behind Atlanta, in dead last in the NASL.

“I didn’t think there was much between the two teams,” said Proctor, who scrimmaged Wednesday as a left back. “Tampa may have been a little more aggressive.”

But he already noted differences in style between the NASL and the SPL.

“The game is more possession-oriented here,” he said. “In Scotland the tempo of the game is a bit higher, as the ball is played forward more, and there’s usually a fight for that second ball in midfield.”

Both midfielder Matt Lam and defender Kevin Hatchi are out of the Atlanta match — each will serve a one-game suspension for yellow-card accumulation. As well, Hatchi will begin fasting on Friday, as he begins his observance of Ramadan.

Midfielder Ilja Van Leerdam sat out Wednesday’s training session with a knee problem, while strikers Elvir Gigolaj and Paul Craig trained with the first team.

For Shaun Saiko, FCE’s leading scorer, admitted the last two months have been the most frustrating of his pro career. FCE hasn’t scored in five of its last six games, and Saiko has been stuck on five goals for more than a month.

“In this sport, in any sport, you want to win games in order to be satisfied,” he said. “As a team we are not getting enough going forward. When we attack there will only be one or two players in the box when there could be four or five. We have to keep our lines close. When the strikers move, the midfielders have to stay close, and the defenders have tpo move up to support the attack.”

And FC Edmonton, which lost to Atlanta for the first time ever the last time these clubs met, is expecting the Silverbacks to be even tougher under interim coach Eric Wynalda. The Silverbacks, which have brought in players who Wynalda coached at U.S. Open Cup Cinderella side Cal FC, have won two in a row and have moved out of the league basement.

“Even before, when we played Atlanta we never looked at it like it was an easy three points,” said Saiko. “And now they have shored up their organization with a few new players. It’s going to be a very tough game, especially in front of the good crowds that they get in Atlanta, and on that small pitch.