In the summer of 2017, Jalali will be fighting a different kind of battle. He’ll be the subject of a preliminary inquiry, as the legal process begins on charges of cocaine trafficking that were brought against him this past August.

Soccer officials in the United States are moving to ban heading of the ball in youth soccer. Similar measures have been debated in Canada — but we’ve decided to go with an approach that stresses education over regulation. But, is there hard, peer-reviewed evidence out there that supports the notion that heading the ball leads to brain injuries?

Instead, the Eddies chopped Torindo and are now in the marker for a third keeper. The team announced Tuesday that Torindo and Ramos had been waived.

“We want to drip-feed these young men into our first-team environment and, hopefully, get them into our first team as quickly as possible,” Miller said. “In the first team, there will be massive changes, but there always will be a continuing influx of Canadians into the first-team group.”

This week, FC Edmonton supporters — and followers of the Canadian national program, too — got some very good news.

The players were on hand at St. Joseph Composite High School, where they will attend school while they train and play for the reserve squad. Through the school’s individual self-directed learning program, the kids get core subjects in the morning, have study/consultation time and should be free to train by the early afternoon.

The reserve team will compete in the Alberta Major Soccer League, which has a playing level that’s about equal to the Canadian Soccer League in Ontario and Quebec. The junior players will play with FCE's non-starters. But the 12 junior players are ineligible to be called up to play in NASL this season

“To work with Harry and Hans is a great opportunity for a Canadian college coach like myself, but it is also very intimidating,” Paulus admitted. “Harry and Hans have so much experience, and they have coached at the highest level. But, at the same time, it’s a smooth transition to make. I watched this team a lot last year and I am familiar with the style.”

The team announced that Jeff Paulus, who led Edmonton’s Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) side to a national collegiate championship in 2011, will be an assistant to coach Harry Sinkgraven for the 2012 season.