“It was Ritchie Jones who reached out,” said Eckersley. “And I wanted something a bit different for my family. And my little brother has played in Canada, for Toronto, and he had nothing but good things to say about Canada.”

FC Edmonton coach Colin Miller feels this has been the most promising off-season in the club’s history.

Last November, after he’d wrapped up his NCAA season as the No. 1 shot stopped at Florida Gulf Coast University, the Canadian keeper got a call from FC Edmonton goalkeeping coach Darren Woloshen. Ingham learned that the NASL club had a lot of interest in signing the him — but the team had to know ASAP if the feeling was mutual. The Eddies wanted to get their roster sorted sooner rather than later.

Nik Ledgerwood felt the time was right to come back home.

A preseason trip to Europe in no way suggests that Fath is doing anything more but increasing his investment in a team he and his brother, Dave Fath, have lost money on since day one. But, with the dollar slumping to less than 73 cents US on Friday, and it likely to drop even further as the oil price continues to sag, the fact remains that a trip to America has become increasingly expensive, and will likely be even more pricey in the spring of 2016.

“I’ve been with the team for three years. And, through my career I have remained loyal to the people who have been good to me. Colin and FC Edmonton have been good to me, and I want to make the playoffs with FC Edmonton. We haven’t done that in the time I’ve been here, and that’s one of my ambitions."

FC Edmonton announced Wednesday that it has re-signed Daryl Fordyce, the club’s all-time leading scorer. The club has also brought back winger Sainey Nyassi. Nyassi, who had an injury-filled debut season with the Eddies in 2015, will likely be leaned on a lot more heavily in 2016. He and Dustin Corea are the two players who look most likely to …

“The first thing is that if you sign for a club, you want to do well for that club,” Keegan said. “I’m not looking too far ahead at this point, but I’d be lying if I said the reason I came over wasn’t to hopefully play in MLS one day. That’s kind of been a goal of mine… You want players to do well for your club, but you don’t want players who are satisfied with what they are doing. You want players with high ambitions.”

So, he wondered if his time in Edmonton was done, if he should take a new challenge. But, after weeks of reflection, he made his decision: He will remain with FCE. The team announced Thursday that Watson signed a new deal.

If Ottawa wins on Sunday, Dos Santos would be the second Canadian coach to win the NASL title.