EDMONTON — It may only be a closed-door pre-season friendly, but FC Edmonton’s players and coaching staff have their sights firmly set on Saturday’s match in Calgary against Cavalry FC.
The teams met in a series of friendlies last season, but the rosters have changed dramatically — and the teams are now fully ramping up to be ready for the opening of the Canadian Premier League season. So, really, it’s a new beginning for the Al Classico rivalry. For each side, this weekend’s game will be a measuring stick, to see how they’re progressing and how they’re stacking up to other CPL sides.
“For us, we have to play this level of competition, we have to see where we’re at,” FCE coach Jeff Paulus told CanPL.ca. “This is only our third week. We started a week after everyone else, on purpose, so they have the extra week on us.”
What Paulus is alluding to is the fact that the Eddies spent the opening week of training camp doing team-bonding exercises rather than on-field exercises — such as a winter camping expedition in the Alberta wild.
Paulus said the Cavalry game will allow him to judge where the gaps are in the team’s defensive shape, and that “we can see how we will attack a CPL back line.”
“It’s going to be nice to play a good, competitive team,” said Eddies defender Kareem Moses. “It’s a team that should be on our level, and we’ll get some sort of competition from it. It will be a really tough one, but we’re looking forward to it.
“We’ll get to see exactly where we’re at. We get to put into a game exactly what we’ve been working on.”
It will also give Paulus a chance to assess Canadian trialist David Velastegui, who has played in the Dominican Republic, with Sigma FC of League1 Ontario and is currently with the Mississauga MetroStars of the Major Arena Soccer League. Paulus said that he’s in the market for a left-footer to fill his one vacant roster spot, and that Velastegui will get his chance to show what he’s got in game action against Cavalry.
And, Paulus admitted that, while the sessions at the Edmonton soccer dome have been productive, that his team is getting a bit stir crazy. His players desperately need to face someone other than themselves.
“Our sessions have been really good and really intense, but they can only kick each other so many times,” said Paulus. “Frustrations will start to set in if that continues. We need to start kicking somebody else. This will be good for us to release some of that built-up tension.”
Goalkeeper Dylon Powley is an Edmonton native, but he spent time in Calgary with Foothills FC, under the watchful eye of Cavalry FC coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. He said it will be nice to get back to his old Calgary stomping grounds, but there’s a time for pleasantries and a time to get down to work.
“The term ‘friendly’ is very relative in this case, because it’s still the (Al Classico). I think this will be our first real taste of a truly competitive game. Our games in training camp are competitive, but it will be something else to go against a different team. We don’t know their tactics. So it will feel a bit more real, for sure.”
CAMP NOTES
Haitian midfielder James Marcelin is slated to join the Eddies on April 2. Marcelin was rated the top defensive midfielder by the CanPL.ca editorial staff.
Marcus Velado-Tsagaye broke a bone in his hand as he was struck by a ball in training. Paulus expects the teenager to be back soon. “It was ball to hand, it was not a hand ball,” joked Paulus.
Canadian defender Mele Temguia has been sidelined with a knee ailment, but Paulus expects that the former Montreal Impact Academy player will be fit to play when the team travels to the Dominican Republic in April.