FC Edmonton coach Hans Schrijver sat down and chatted with The 11 about his decision to come back to the club, his dismissal at Japanese side JEF United, and about how much the team has progressed in the year that he was gone.

Hans Schrijver is returning to Edmonton. FC Edmonton’s former Dutch assistant coach is the team’s new Dutch assistant coach. The NASL side announced Schrijver’s hiring Thursday afternoon.

FC Edmonton fans could be dealing with mixed emotions; they want to see midfielder and hometown hero Matt Lam succeed on the international stage, but they’d also love to see him back in Edmonton for the 2012 NASL season. Lam didn’t dress this weekend as JEF United played its second game after coaches Dwight Lodeweges and Hans Schrijver were sacked by the team. The Japanese second-division side lost 1-0 to Tosu, as it continued its slide down the standings.

FC Edmonton will find out on New Year’s Eve whether or not midfielder Matt Lam will be returning to the NASL club or staying in Japan. But, FCE president Tom Leip confirmed that the club has exercised the option on Lam’s contract. If Lam comes back, FCE would have him on the books for the 2012 season.

Matt Lam had just returned home from a training session when the earthquake struck. Even though Chiba, a suburb of Tokyo, was nearly 400 kilometres from the epicentre of the 9.0 temblor that triggered the tsunami that has claimed thousands of lives, the Canadian midfielder — and his mother, who was visiting at the time — they understood the gravity of the situation. “The whole building rocked back and forth,” said Lam, who is back in Edmonton, training on his own, after his club, JEF United, decided to send players home after the quake. “Even though we were 350, 400 kilometres from the epicentre, we could really feel the shake.”

Matt Lam is safe and sound, but he won’t be playing anytime soon.

FC Edmonton is looking more and more like the farm club of JEF United. On Monday, the club announced that local product Matt Lam will leave on loan to the Japanese second-division side, following former FC Edmonton coach Dwight Lodeweges and Dutch veteran midfielder Sander Van Gessel.

Like former coach Dwight Lodeweges and assistant Hans Schrijver, van Gessel had a clause in his FC Edmonton contract that allowed him to leave the club if a better offer came along. So, he is following his former coaches to Japan, FC Edmonton announced Monday.

FC Edmonton has a new coach in place, just days after Dwight Lodeweges and his assistant, Hans Schrijver, used out clauses in their contracts to take more lucrative positions in the second division of Japanese football. The team introduced another Dutch boss, Harry Sinkgraven, to the media Monday at a downtown hotel. “Harry is someone equal or better” to the outgoing staff, said general manager Mel Kowalchuk.