“If we wouldn’t have slipped up in Miami two weeks ago, we’d be having a party right now,” said Keegan, who opened the scoring with his foot and scored the second with the back of his head.

Crews worked to clear the snow off the artificial pitch in the morning but, by 2 p.m. kickoff, there were patches of ice that could clearly bee seen on the surface. According to Environment Canada’s Weather Office, the temperature at kickoff was -2C, but it felt like -8C with the wind chill. With members of the Canadian national women’s team in attendance ahead of their game Wednesday against South Korea, Clarke Stadium offered a home-field advantage that needed the words “frozen tundra” to do it justice. For the final home game of the season, FCE finally did have a distinct advantage over the opposition.

“I spoke with him, just himself and me,” said Miller. “I told him that I thought he was an underachiever. I told him that I thought he could put his stamp on games the way that (Nigel) Reo-Coker does for the Whitecaps. I am delighted with the way he’s now getting into the box, delighted that he hasn’t been involved in silly changes. We all know he’s a brave lad, but I think he’s got it in him to be a special player.”

After John Smits put in a man-of-the-match performance Sunday, allowing 10-man FC Edmonton to escape its home date against the Tampa Bay Rowdies with a 0-0 draw, coach Colin Miller that Lance Parker is in no danger of losing his No. 1 job.

Canadian defenders Paul Hamilton and Andres Arango can both claim MLS scalps after they both played roles in major U.S. Open Cup third-round upsets.

“Most of the guys weren’t here last year, but as one of the players who has been here, we go down 1-0 on the road and it would be easy to think ‘here we go again.’ But, by the second half, we were taking the game to them."