2022 CPL Regular Season — Match #77
York United vs. FC Edmonton
August 14, 2022 at 4 p.m. ET
York Lions Stadium in Toronto, Ontario
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Week 19 in the Canadian Premier League comes to an end on Sunday afternoon at York Lions Stadium, when FC Edmonton come to town for a matchup with York United.

The Eddies arrive in North Toronto hoping to rekindle some of the magic from their last meeting with York. They beat the Nine Stripes 3-0 on Canada Day for just their second win of the season, but since then they’ve gone winless, losing four out of five games. Last weekend, Edmonton travelled to the nation’s capital for a clash with Atlético Ottawa, but they fell 2-1 after a strange, storm-delayed match.

As it stands, FCE remain at the bottom of the table with 11 points. Their 2-5-12 record has them firmly in eighth place with a -18 goal differential, although Alan Koch’s Eddies have been quite difficult to beat all season. The coach will be hoping that Sunday is no different, as they take on a side they’ve done well against before this season.

Meanwhile, York return home likewise looking for a result to turn things around for them. They’re just six points ahead of Edmonton in seventh place, with a 4-5-10 record for 17 points. They’ve scored the fewest goals in the league, so Martin Nash is looking at this game as an opportunity to get the attack clicking again.

The past few weeks have been a roller-coaster for the Nine Stripes. Their 1-0 win over Cavalry FC on July 19 allowed them to snap a 10-game winless streak, but they lost 3-0 at home to Atlético Ottawa the following weekend. After that, they travelled to Nova Scotia and pummeled HFX Wanderers 4-2 in perhaps their best attacking performance of the year, but York followed that up with a sluggish 2-0 defeat at Valour FC last Sunday.

All that is to say, it’s unclear who the real York United are. They’ll need to figure that out fast, though, with the playoffs now 14 points away with just nine games left on the schedule.

These sides have met twice this season, both times at Clarke Stadium. The first was a 1-1 draw, in which the two teams traded highlight-reel goals from Masta Kacher and Osaze De Rosario in the final 10 minutes. The second was a stunning 3-0 win for the Eddies, which saw Bicou Bissainthe, Mamadi Camara, and Gabriel Bitar all score to lift FCE to their biggest win of the year so far.

That said, Edmonton boss Koch pointed out that the York United of this weekend is a very different side to the one that lost to the Eddies in July.

“The difference between when we played York last and now is we’re still the same, and York have tweaked and adjusted and manipulated their roster, like every team hopes they can do to try and put the best team possible forward,” Koch said. “We don’t have that luxury to adjust… It’s not going to be the same game, we’re not playing the same team. They’ve brought in countless good players in the last few weeks, and I expect we’ll see a lot of those players in the game.”

York will therefore be hoping for a measure of revenge on Sunday, while the young Eddies look for another memorable moment to build on.

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All CPL matches are available to stream on OneSoccer, or on TELUS Optik TV Channel 980.

3 THINGS TO WATCH

• Reinforcements on the way for York: This was a busy week off the pitch for York United, who made headlines several times for major player transactions. They signed striker Mo Babouli on Wednesday, and on Thursday they announced that Matthew Baldisimo had joined the club on loan from Pacific, with Cédric Toussaint going the other way in a swap. It’s unclear how much those moves might factor into Sunday’s game; Baldisimo is unlikely to be ready, but Babouli has been training with the club so could feature in some capacity. Toussaint is gone, though, and with him appearing in York’s last six matches, Martin Nash will have a little less depth in midfield to choose from. Still, knowing that a player of Babouli’s quality is on the way is sure to add some confidence and positivity to the York locker room, even this weekend. “Babouli over the last couple years has been one of the best attacking players in this league,” Nash said Friday. “He’s got the quality, the final pass in him. He can score goals, he can create, he can do a lot of different things in this league.”

• Expect 16-man contribution from Eddies: One thing that stands out about FC Edmonton this year is that Alan Koch has not been afraid to use his bench as much as possible. According to the Eddies boss, that’s by design, as he tries to make full use of the five substitutions available to him in almost every match in order to give minutes to as many players as possible. “It has to do with rewarding the players that we have in our group, and how committed they are to what we’re doing. Obviously we want to win games, we want to see good performances, but at the end of the day because of who we are right now I do feel an obligation to support and reward the players. I’m pretty sure we’ll continue to make five, if not very close to five, substitutions in every game.”
  

• De Rosario entering Golden Boot race: One of the greatest bright spots from this York season has been the emergence of young striker Osaze De Rosario, who is now up to eight goals in league play in just his first year with the club. With Alejandro Díaz leaving Pacific for Norway this past week, it seems the CPL’s Golden Boot race has blown wide open. As it stands, De Rosario is fourth — five goals behind Díaz’s 13 — but neither Woobens Pacius (10) nor Moses Dyer (9) is very far ahead of him, so it could now be a three-horse race to the finish for the scoring title. York have struggled to score goals this season, with the fewest in the league (14), of which De Rosario has more than half. Expect him to continue to be the focal point of this side’s attack, as the 21-year-old forward looks to continue his torrid run of form.

ALL-TIME SERIES

York United wins: 5 || FC Edmonton wins: 2 || Draws: 5

Previous match:

July 1, 2022 — FC Edmonton 3-0 York United

KEY QUOTES

“We’re really behind the eight ball, we’ve put ourselves in that spot. But we’ve got to go try and win every game, pick up as many points as we can, leave everything we have out on the pitch. That’s all we can do at this stage, and chase. It’s a tough task, but it’s not impossible yet.” — York United head coach Martin Nash.

“We’re a pretty resilient group. We just put our heads down and get on with it, and we’ve done that since everything that could’ve got thrown at us started happening. We just rolled up our sleeves and got on with it. ” — FC Edmonton head coach Alan Koch