After John Smits put in a man-of-the-match performance Sunday, allowing 10-man FC Edmonton to escape its home date against the Tampa Bay Rowdies with a 0-0 draw, coach Colin Miller that Lance Parker is in no danger of losing his No. 1 job.

While MLS wrapped up its regular season, the Tampa Bay Rowdies and Minnesota Stars gave us an NASL championship that was far more enthralling than any MLS Cup in recent memory.

With a two-goal lead after the first leg of the NASL Championship, the Minnesota Stars’ grip on the Soccer Bowl has tightened. Now, the team that entered as the No. 6 seed is the odds-on favourite to repeat as North America’s Div. 2 champion.

Coming into tonight’s game against FC Tampa Bay — needing to make up a point a game on the sixth-place Fort Lauderdale over the course of the season’s last nine games in order to take part in the postseason — the Montreal Impact tonight snatched a draw from the jaws of victory, as the visiting FC Tampa Bay came back from a two-goal deficit at the 84-minute mark to end the night in a 3-3 draw.

In an entertaining, end-to-end match which saw both teams create their fair shares of scoring chances, FC Tampa Bay got a second-half goal from Shane Hill and an insurance marker from Pascal Millien to give the home side a 3 -1win over FC Edmonton.