Saiko says FCE must improve its possession game ahead of Rowdies tilt

Antonio Rago, John Smits and Shaun Saiko in a training session

The 4-3-3 system is based on keeping the ball. Players move around the pitch and make themselves available for passes.

FC Edmonton is focusing on doing a much better job at possessing the ball, something that midfielder Shaun Saiko felt the team failed to do in its NASL season-opening loss to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday.

“We have been working hard,” said Saiko from Florida, as the Eddies prepare to face the Tampa Bay Rowdies on Saturday. “We were disappointed in the loss, but there were some positives that we felt we could build on, and there are things that we’d like to correct.”

The first thing is possession. Edmonton had a man advantage over Fort Lauderdale for more than 50 minutes, but Saiko said the team was giving the ball away too easily. FCE needs to make the opponents chase shadows, and wear down defences by making them chase, chase, chase.

“It was disappointing that we didn’t do more when we were up a man,” said Saiko. “We needed to dictate the pace of the game. Some times, we sat off too much, and we were giving the ball away too cheaply. Defensively, you work so hard to get the ball back, that you want to keep it.”

Because Edmonton didn’t take the winter off — the team trained indoors at a high tempo while the snow was on the ground —Saiko felt that FCE did have an advantage over the Strikers in terms of fitness, and he thinks the same will be true when the Eddies face the Rowdies, even though Tampa will have the heat and humidity on its side.

But, the Eddies are on an extended road trip, and with the season starting with a Fort Lauderdale-Tampa-Puerto Rico road trip, and have been getting used to the warmer weather.

“The trip has given us a lot of time together, and the chance to practice outdoors,” said Saiko. “We build our camaraderie and we can work on our tactics. Playing together like this, we get to know our tendencies. It’s a good way to get the year going.”

Look for Michal Misiewicz to be back in goal when the Eddies face the Rowdies on Saturday. Saiko has trained with Misiewicz since Janaury, but practices aren’t the same as game situations. So, he admitted that even he was a little surprised by just how well Misiewicz performed for Canada’s U-23s at the Olympic qualifiers, where they were teammates.

“I knew from where he’d played before that he must be a great keeper,” said Saiko. “But I had never seen it firsthand. So, yeah, I was a bit surprised. And it looks like he’s carrying it over to FC Edmonton. He made some great saves on Saturday. The team has got a lot of confidence in him, and that’s what we need right now. It looks like he’s our guy for now.”