FC Edmonton’s rivals in the NASL post-season race — the ones who have yet to clinch their spots, that is — all endured miserable weekends. Miami FC lost. The New York Cosmos got hammered. Minnesota was beaten by the Ottawa Fury for the second consecutive time.

Daniel Fernandes grew up just a couple of blocks away from Clarke Field. He remembers walking past the stadium day after day. He kicked his first ball in Edmonton.

Nik Ledgerwood was born and raised in Lethbridge, but left town when he was a teenager so he could pursue his soccer career. More than a decade later, he’s come back to his home province... 

Miller said that, when healthy, Jones was the “best box-to-box midfielder” in NASL. He added that the injury is not forecast to be a career-ender, and that he hopes Jones can eventually make a full recovery.

It is becoming clearer with every FC Edmonton match that Diakite is a real diamond-in-the-rough signing for the Eddies. He may be one of the meanest tacklers NASL has ever seen. He’s dominant in the air. He’s unorthodox at times, but he’s an absolute shutdown defender.

“I’d take that every day,” said Miller. “Every club I played at, I’d fought. Not that I’m condoning fighting or promoting fighting, but I’ve been in a few of those. But it’s only because I cared and other people didn’t care quite as much. I don’t think that was the case this morning. The guys, I think, are in a very good place. I don’t mind that so long as they shake hands after and we’re all good. We can’t all be the very best of friends all of the time, that’s for sure.”

The slump in oil prices? Tom Heinemann’s fault. The Leap Manifesto? Tom Heinemann. The LRT line to NAIT? Tom Heinemann designed that.

No word if Tom Hanks will play FCE coach Colin Miller in the Edmonton version of The Terminal.

“The defending was a calamity,” said FCE coach Colin Miller after the match. “We didn’t give ourselves a chance.”

"I'm absolutely delighted," said Miller after the game. "This stadium is one of the most difficult places to come in the league. They have so many quality players here [in San Antonio]. But the credit has to go to our guys, they just never gave up."