“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.

On Monday, FC Edmonton’s brass brought in each of its players for face-to-face end-of-season meetings. And, on Tuesday, the club announced the status of all its players who were under contract at the end of the 2013 season.

“If Carolina can go to New York and get a draw, we win our game, then we go down to New York and get a result… there are four games left. There are still points to play for.”

Give FC Edmonton credit. When a team like the New York Cosmos comes to town, a lot of players would revert to cliches like "it's just another game." The Eddies didn't do that. They know the occasion will be special.

“I don’t think too much about it. Obviously, it was a bad challenge. And he hasn’t apologized to me. Maybe I’ll get an apology on Sunday. Maybe, if I do, then I might lay off of him a bit. If not, we’ll see what happens. Maybe I’ll get Nursie (hard-edged midfielder Chris Nurse) to sort things out.”

“It was just as I was starting to get going,” said Fordyce of the break. “When you get in a good routine, you don’t want it to end. But, for the three of us (Fordyce, Robert Garrett and captain Albert Watson, who all came to FCE from Belfast’s Linfield FC), it’s the first break we’ve had in a year. It was June of last year that we started training camp, went six to eight weeks, then the start of the season."

Finding the goals to turn draws into wins is a priority for the team, but there were no new faces at training sessions Monday at the Commonwealth Fieldhouse.

“We’d like to bring in one or two new faces, possibly players on loan,” said Miller. “We are already have the best defensive record in the league, despite having so many different players back there. The players have been excellent. If we could get the best goal-scoring record, we’d be set.”

Roberts vs. the Vancouver Whitecaps front line promises to be one of the more fascinating storylines that will develop out of Wednesday night’s first leg of the Voyageurs' Cup semifinal at Commonwealth.

FC Edmonton has a new coach and an almost entirely new starting XI. But Saturday’s 2-0 loss on the Metrodome turf to Minnesota United FC felt a lot like the 2012 season.