“I’m excited, it’s been a long time coming,” Ingham said after the Eddies trained Friday.

Maybe this was just a bit of karmic payback for the Cosmos scrambling to postpone their May 21 home date with the Eddies just so the New York side could jaunt off to Saudi Arabia for a friendly.

The timing was impeccable. On the same day that Canadian national-team coach Octavio Zambrano revealed his 40-man provisional roster for the upcoming Gold Cup, came news that Edmonton-raised teenage phenom Alphonso Davies has got the citizenship test out of the way and will have a Canadian passport very soon.

Cyle Larin and Will Johnson have run away and hid at the top of the minutes-played-by-Canadians-in-MLS list.

“The buck stops with me,” said the coach. “I’m big enough to accept that when things go like that, it’s a reflection on Colin Miller.”

But, Edmonton, despite the logistical problems its soccer clubs and coaches face, still manages to punch above its weight when it comes to producing talent.

The 5,600-kilometre trip is so daunting, so logistically difficult for a travelling contingent of 22 people, that the only way it can be done is to break the group into two.

So far this season, Toronto FC looks to have shaken the “finalists’ curse” that has haunted so many MLS Cup runners-up in the past.

Maybe this Saturday night was the night soccer finally arrived in Edmonton.

So, the extra week off gave the Eddies a chance to hit the restart button on their season. At least, that’s how the team sees it as it prepares for a visit from the Indy Eleven.