Miller joked that it was “handbags, lipstick and eyeshadow,” but it was clear the emotions weren’t being kept in check on the field. Maybe the biggest surprise is that no one was sent off, though Eddie Corey Hertzog was stretchered off late in game after being scythed to the turf by Milton Blanco, who saw yellow. Hertzog has a knock on his hip.

“Corey’s been here for three days, I’ve been here for a week, and for us to click like that, it’s great,” said Adur, a former Maccabi Haifa youth player who has also had pro stints in Singapore and Thailand. “I think the two of us are going to become a special story in this league as the season progresses.”

“It was a catalogue of disasters, it was a shocking trip,” FCE coach Colin Miller said of the trip “Finally, the rain delay set it right up for us to have the kind of first half we did. But I don’t want to make excuses, we set high standards at this club.

Mirabelli wasn’t the only Eddie who needed medical attention after the game. Captain and central defender Albert Watson also needed emergency dental work after his two front teeth were knocked out (more on that later). The Eddies dressing room may have resembled an NHL team's.

"I don't think they'll be tired," said FCE's central midfield catalyst. "They're at the bottom of the league, so they need a result. I think they'll put a priority on the league over the Cup."

The Eddies are now just three points back of the NASL-leading Carolina RailHawks as they hit the midway mark of the NASL spring season with a 3-0 lead over the Silverbacks in front of 1,161 fans at Clarke Stadium.

“We know we have to keep our lineup fresh,” said Miller. “After the game in Vancouver we have a big game Saturday against Tampa. We know what we have to do against the Whitecaps. We have to score two goals and can’t give away anything. The Whitecaps will need to be poor and we’ll have to be at our best."

FC Edmonton Colin Miller wasn’t around to see the Vancouver Whitecaps score the game winner.

FC Edmonton has a new coach and an almost entirely new starting XI. But Saturday’s 2-0 loss on the Metrodome turf to Minnesota United FC felt a lot like the 2012 season.

Hlavaty will be in the state of Minnesota, playing for the first time against his old team. But it won’t be all familiar — since Hlavaty left the Minnesota Stars and signed with FC Edmonton as a free agent late in 2012, his old team changed its name to Minnesota United FC and went to a sky-blue home kit.