Highlighting this week’s USL action was a goal from Keven Aleman, the former Canadian youth star who’s become somewhat of a forgotten man in the current national team set-up.

FC Edmonton’s fall-season performance breaks all the conventional wisdom about second-division soccer in North America.

Even the rally rabbit couldn’t save FC Edmonton, this time. Down 1-0 to North Carolina FC early in the first half of Sunday’s NASL match at Clarke Field, the Eddies had their good luck charm run onto the field; a grey rabbit interrupted the match. Now, history tells us that whenever the rabbit is seen, good things happen for the …

“There’s nothing we can do about it as players,” said FCE captain Nik Ledgerwood of the latest episode of As the NASL Turns. “We try to go on with our work, although it is a distraction. It’s your workplace, it’s up in the air. But, at the same token, it’s the same thing as last year. We were dealing with the same thing in the off-season. Nobody knew if there was going to be a league, a team, whatever it was. We’ll continue to work hard and do our stuff, and we hope the fans will come out and continue to support the team.”

Well, North Carolina FC keeper Brian Sylvestre’s own goal on Saturday night will get the NASL that exposure. It’s going to find its way onto blooper reels on sportscasts around the world. It's that, well, odd. Sylvestre’s gaffe allowed FC Edmonton to get a 1-1 tie in Cary, N.C.

Coach Colin Miller looks back to a June 3 loss at Puerto Rico as the turning point for the Eddies. FCE was hammered 3-0 in the Caribbean that night, and Miller called it the worst performance by the Eddies since he took over as coach before the 2013 campaign.

“I felt in preseason that I was doing really well,” Fisk said. “And then I kind of fell out of the team a bit. Now that I have gotten myself back in, I feel that it’s taken a few games to kind of find my feet, to find my full 90-minute fitness. I think in the last couple of games, I’ve done a lot better, and I think Carolina was one of my better games so far. Hopefully I can build off of that.”

“A Portuguese player once said, the goals come like ketchup. Once you get one, all the rest come after it,” said Eustaquio. This is especially poignant considering that Eustaquio grew up in Leamington, Ont., which is the tomato and ketchup capital of Canada. Damn, do I love it when the player provides the poetry for me. Makes this “game story” thing so much easier.

As the Carolina RailHawks, the NASL franchise now known as North Carolina FC never won a game at Clarke Field, and were on the end of the some real pastings. Look at the history of FC Edmonton, and the list of most-lopsided wins in club history are filled with “home to Carolina.”

“I do a report [after every game] and that was as poor a report that I’ve written for the team,” said Miller. “And that’s very hard to take when you’re the one steering the ship. I’ve always said it’s our team when we win, and my team when we get beat. There were portions of that game I was cringing, watching, because it was one of Colin Miller’s teams and I don’t want that to happen again.”