Last season, Calgary United FC was eliminated after the first game of the Professional Arena Soccer League’s North American Championships by giving up four goals to the California Cougars in the dying minutes. This season, the defending Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League champs didn’t leave anyone in suspense. Oswaldo Medina scored just nine seconds after the match kicked off, and the PPM Sidekicks del Estado de Mexico rolled to a 10-2 win, eliminating Calgary from the Cincinnati tournament with ease.

Calgary United FC captured its second consecutive Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League Championship Saturday, and punched its ticket to the North American Arena Soccer Championships in Cincinnati, with a 9-3 trouncing over the rival Edmonton Drillers.

If Calgary United comes from way back in the standings to win the Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League title and go on to the Professional Arena Soccer League playoffs in Cincinnati, followers of the league may have to hold their noses. Calgary showed a heck of a lot of guts last week when the club came to Edmonton — where it hadn’t won all year — and beat the Drillers 10-7. That win put United one game back of the Drillers with each team having three to play.

Felix Napuri’s five-goal effort Saturday kept Calgary United’s quest to defend its Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League title alive. Arthur Paszkowski added three more goals as United went into the Edmonton South Side Soccer Centre and beat the Drillers 10-7 in a card-filled, nasty affair. Immediately after the game, league president Mel Kowalchuk went into a closed-door meeting with the match officials.

A diving goal-line clearance from the Edmonton Drillers’ elder statesman has given the club a massive lead in the Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League standings. Calgary United held a 4-2 lead in the third quarter of Saturday’s tilt at Edmonton’s Soccer Centre South and was simply dominating the game — outchancing, outpassing the Drillers. Calgary’s Arthur Paszkowski looked sure to make it a 5-2 game; on a break, he rounded Drillers’ keeper Jay Vetsch and rolled the ball towards the open goal. But Chris Devlin, who spent the 2004 season in the USL with the Edmonton Aviators/Edmonton FC franchise, hustled back, threw himself at the goal line, and got enough of the ball to deflect it just wide. That play energized the Drillers; the team scored three unanswered goals in the third to take a 5-4 lead, and went on to a 7-5 win.

The California Cougars only accomplished half of what they set out to do on their trip to Canada. Following a thrilling 8-7 overtime win in Edmonton over the Drillers on Saturday night, the Cougars suffered a disappointing 6-5 setback to the Calgary United at the Subway Soccer Centre on Sunday afternoon.

The indoor Edmonton Drillers will act as a proving ground for some FC Edmonton prospects. Antonio Rago, a former member of the Vancouver Whitecaps residency, and 16-year-old keeper Matt Preston were in the lineup for the Drillers’ indoor season-opening 7-6 loss in Calgary on New Year’s Eve. “Preston’s a player who has got a bright future,” said FC Edmonton general manager Mel Kowalchuk. The Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League (CMISL) is an amateur circuit, so no player with a professional contract with FC Edmonton, which kicks off its inaugural NASL season in April, is eligible to play with the Drillers. But Rago and Preston currently retain their amateur status, so they can play in the indoor circuit.