The Eddies were routed 5-0 by the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in their NASL quarterfinal, as FC Edmonton’s season came crashing down around its ears.

Shaun Saiko is the lone Canadian to make the NASL’s year end best XI. Saiko, who led his hometown FC Edmonton in scoring, was the only member of the Eddies to make the team, though defender Paul Hamilton was nominated.

FC Edmonton hopes to learn from its mistakes when it faces the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in their NASL quarter-final on Saturday.

The Montreal Impact will not take part in the NASL playoffs. Sure, the Impact did its part — crushing the last-place Atlanta Silverbacks by a 4-0 count on the final day of the regular season. But, the NSC Minnesota Stars preserved its one-point advantage over the Impact with a 2-1 win on the road over the first-place Carolina RailHawks.

But this week has been strange, because FCE doesn’t actually know yet who it will be playing. It can focus on itself, but not the other team. The players can’t talk about systems or key matchups.

Undistracted from the task at hand in tonight’s match against the visiting FC Edmonton, getting the three points needed to close the gap between them and Minny, the Impact came through in the clutch with a 2-0 win and has almost climbed out of the hole that it has dug for itself with its dismal play in the first half of the season. Montreal is now just a single point behind Minnesota with each team having a game left on the schedule. Montreal owns the tiebreaker between the two teams.

If the NSC Minnesota Stars can earn even a single point when it faces FC Tampa Bay Saturday, FC Edmonton can eliminate the Montreal Impact from the NASL playoff race with a win at Stade Saputo that same night.

In a game the Eddies needed to win to improve their chances of home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs, they surrendered a 1-0 lead and lost 2-1 to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the regular season finale at Foote Field.

Veteran Dutch defender Paul Matthijs left the FC Edmonton fold on Friday — and chances are he won’t be back.

A last-gasp header from substitute Paul Craig has guaranteed FC Edmonton a trip to the NASL playoffs. Craig scored at the death, heading home a corner from Shaun Saiko to give the Eddies a 2-1 win over the last-place Atlanta Silverbacks, who were reduced to 10 men at the half-hour mark.