Miller said that he felt the Eddies should have won the first leg going away. “In the game in Ottawa, we should have scored two or three. Ottawa created next to nothing, in all honesty.”

In a game that had very few decent chances, FCE had a wonderful chance to steal the game at the death. Striker Frank Jonke got the ball in the middle of the box after Horace James was able to slide and make a pass after recovering his own blocked shot. But Ottawa keeper Devala Gorrick was able to make a sliding stop.

Despite the big crowd and an FC Edmonton attack that has been changed over from last season, there were some storylines that FCE supporters would find all too familiar. The Eddies, who boasted the worst offence and best defence in NASL last season, took until the 68th minute to actually place a shot on frame, an effort from striker Frank Jonke that was blocked by Cosmos keeper Jimmy Maurer.

Now, whether you love or hate the NASL’s decision to create a spring season in which each of the 10 teams plays a nine-game schedule — with one of the top two playoff, er, “Championship” seeds going to the league champ — there’s no doubt it brought a sense of immediacy to the opening weekend.

The Eddies created more scoring chances, and were the better side based on style points. But a missed penalty and another effort that caromed off the post punctuated a night of missed opportunities.

And while the two players wore different colours, there was definitely some mutual admiration. When the chance came for Ameobi to get a trial with FC Edmonton, Jonke told coach Colin Miller that the English striker would be a good fit with the club. And, on Monday, Ameobi’s trial turned into a contract, as he fills the last international spot on the Eddies’ roster.

“I think the number of chances we’ve been able to create has been excellent,” Miller said after the SFU match, a 3-1 win for the Eddies. “We really could have had a couple more tonight. But I’ve been really pleased with the style of football we are playing. In fact, there were times I thought we were guilty of overplaying. Some of the chances they created were more a product of us giving the ball away in poor areas.”

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