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.

Once again, VanOekel showed off why he’s the league’s best player so far this year. He made a series of fantastic second-half saves to help preserve 0-0 draw Saturday at the New York Cosmos.

The Eddies saluted Sunday’s awful, blustery weather by giving goals away like it was Christmas, losing 2-0 to Miami FC. Dario Cvitanich and Vincenzo Rennella got the goals, but each were presented what amounted to open-net tap-ins thanks to critical errors from the home side.

The Fury’s 2-0 lead evaporated thanks to two goals from Eddies’ forward Daryl Fordyce — and it took a last-second goal-line clearance from Ottawa’s Rafael Alves to preserve the 2-2 tie.

In a year where the Eddies’ keeper has recorded excellent performance after excellent performance, the clean sheet over the Rowdies might have been his best game yet.

“I’ve been here four seasons, and I think the league has always underestimated our players,” said Watson. “We’re surprised about it this year, because we have better calibre of players. But, we’ve always been underestimated, even in stupid things like player of the week, and team of the week, which we really don’t really take into account. Because some of the selections, you put your head in your hands and go ‘where did that come from?’

Once again, Matt VanOekel will be an NASL play-of-the-week candidate. He could be the league’s player of the week, week after week after week. You get the feeling that the brass at NASL is just being nice, letting other players have the awards.

If the Eddies are indeed putting together a special sort of season, they may look back on Wednesday’s 2-1 win at home over the New York Cosmos as the day they went from “the team that’s on a hot streak” to a “team that’s a genuine contender for a Soccer Bowl.”

It was only the Eddies second loss in 10 games. But, you might have figured that this one was gonna be a problem for FCE.

After a 46-minute delay because of lightning and torrential rain, the Eddies got spectacular goalkeeping from Matt VanOekel and a fantastic goal from Daryl Fordyce as they beat the Strikers 1-0.