The analysis of FC Edmonton’s spring-season finale — a 3-0 loss on the road to the Indy Eleven — has to begin by looking at the decision to yank keeper John Smits at halftime.

Coach Colin Miller said that Ameobi is officially listed as day-to-day, and is undergoing a scan to assess the severity of the injury to his foot.

FC Edmonton is developing a tragic history of giving up late goals to lose Amway Canadian Championship ties. Last year, it was a 96th-minute Patrice Bernier penalty that gave the Montreal Impact a last-gasp semifinal win over the Eddies. On Wednesday, Whitecap substitute Matias Laba rolled the ball across the goal line in the 96th minute of the semifinal’s second …

Late in the game, after intercepting a pass, Eddies’ central defender Mallan Roberts lingered on the ball rather than making the simple play and hoofing the ball out of danger. San Antonio’s Billy Forbes, who scored earlier in the game, nicked the ball off of Roberts’s feet and then went in alone on goal. He finished neatly, giving the Scorpions the late winner.

“What a performance by these guys tonight,” said FC Edmonton coach Colin Miller. “It speaks to the culture that we’re trying to build here. We gave up some very poor goals to the best team in NASL on Sunday. But we came into this game not looking to draw; we thought we could win the game. We knew that, playing against the best team in the MLS Western Conference, that we couldn’t have one single player out there fail tonight. And we didn’t have any failures.”

Crazily, that marks only the fourth quickest goal the Eddies have given up this season in NASL or Canadian Championship play. That’s right. Even though the season began in April, the Mendes goal is only at No. 4 in the quick-goals chart.

“It wasn’t my choice; they didn’t have me in their plans,” Van Oekel said of the move from Minnesota. “They wanted to go in a different direction. And it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I have a coach here (in Edmonton, Colin Miller) who I get along with wonderfully, and a goalkeeping coach (Darren Woloshen) who really pushes me.”

We saw this script again on Wednesday; the Eddies scored three goals in just over 11 minutes to transform a game that they were trailing to the Ottawa Fury 1-0 for the better part of 80 minutes. Instead, the Eddies will head home to Clarke Stadium for the second leg of the Amway Canadian Championship first-round series with a commanding 3-1 lead.

Sunday’s battle between the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and FC Edmonton was one of these how-do-I-squeeze it all in matches. The Eddies fought back from a 2-1 second-half deficit and hung on for a 3-2 win. This game had so much to offer; two teams playing contrasting, attacking styles; lights-out goalkeeping from the Strikers’ David Meves, who deserves to be on the NASL team of the week despite giving up three; a penalty save; an assistant coach tossed from the game (Fort Lauderdale’s Ricardo Lopes felt that referee Robert Schaap should have given FCE striker Frank Jonke a harsh punishment for a challenge that bloodied the nose of defender Daniel Navarro); and what turned out to be a series of brilliant substitution decisions from FCE coach Colin Miller which changed the game.

“It was as poor a half as I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” FCE Coach Colin Miller said of the Eddies’ first 45 minutes against the RailHawks.