“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.

“I think it was something weird. And it won’t happen again. I will guarantee that to any media.”

FC Edmonton has parted ways with six players — including NASL veterans Lance Parker, Neil Hlavaty and Horace James.

Farago deserved a ton of credit for getting the Eddies the three points they needed to finish third in the NASL fall season table. After the Silverbacks cut the lead to one, Farago made a fantastic leap to parry Pablo Cruz’s dipping shot over the bar. And he came out of the goal to block an effort from Ryan Roushandel, who found himself alone at the far post.

This season, Carolina has played the Eddies three times, lost all three, and given up 12 goals. To put it in perspective, the Eddies have 30 total goals this season. That means 40 per cent of the Eddies' goals have come against Carolina — in just 270 minutes of football.

And, then, it all changed with one blow of a whistle. Unkel blew a play dead after a cross went into the FCE area. A few players had gone down in the scrum. The Rowdies players went to complain, as they were sure the foul was being called on them. But Unkel, instead, pointed to the spot, claiming that FCE defender Kareem Moses had impeded the Rowdies’ Keith Savage.

During the first half of Sunday’s match between the Tampa Bay Rowdies and FC Edmonton at Clarke Stadium, NASL Commissioner Bill Peterson came into the broadcast booth and compared the two teams to heavyweight fighters. They were pushing each other, feeling each other out, looking for weaknesses.

“It’s not just the free kicks, I thought Neil played his best game of the season for us tonight,” FCE coach Colin Miller said after the match. “And it’s not a fluke, he practices those free kicks every day.”

All in all, it was a pretty good day at the office for FC Edmonton left winger Lance Laing.

After a controversial penalty call against Edson Edward allowed the RailHawks to tie the game 2-2 on a Zack Schilwaki spot kick, the Eddies didn’t accept that things weren’t simply going to go their way. Instead, they pressed the RailHawks late into the game and into stoppage time.