The Ottawa Fury FC’S 10-match Spring season reads as a reversal of sorts by head coach Marc Dos Santos, in that since the club’s inception he had been preaching the gospel of exciting, attacking football. Fans were told ad nauseam to expect the club to assemble players who had bought into the head coach’s philosophy, and who would be competitive in the NASL.
After reaping 27 points from 28 matches in 2014, pragmatism appears to have been the modus operandi of the coaching staff for 2015. A slew of defenders were signed in the offseason to replace a porous back line. Canadian Men’s National Team player Julian de Guzman was signed to bring stability to a midfield that lacked much shape. The result has been a Fury team that gives up very few goals. In the 10 matches of the Spring season, the Fury only gave up 8 goals.
The stalwart defense, however, seems to have come at the cost of offense. Although the team continues to produce attractive forward movement, the Fury’s lack of punch has prevented them from acceding to the upper echelons of the table. When your scoring rate is one goal every 2 matches, you’re not going to threaten for titles.
That’s why, although it is cliché in the utmost, what supporters desire more than anything for the Fall season are some goals. Goalkeeper Romuald Peiser’s current record-breaking streak of 526 scoreless minutes is a point of pride for the club, and four of the Fury’s 10 Spring matches (including the final three) were 0-0 draws. Every true lover of the game can find beauty in 0-0 draws, but the frequency of such results had some supporters willing to sacrifice a win or draw in order to see a few goals from their team.
The signing of Aly Hassan from the Fort Lauderdale Strikers has given a glimmer of hope to the fan base. Hassan is a player who’s scored wherever he’s gone. His strike rate of one goal per three appearances (0.32) is right on pace with the Fury’s current forward Tom Heinemann (0.39) but dwarfs Brazilian Oliver Minatel (0.17). The signing also marks the second Fort Lauderdale player that Dos Santos poaches from the team’s starting lineup of last fall’s Soccer Bowl. The first such signing was Rafael Alves, whose presence in defense has been critical to the limited success the club had in the Spring.
The laws of probability suggest that the Fury’s current shutout streak will come to an end, but that same law dictates that they will also start finding the back of the opposition’s net. That task will be made difficult following the news that Julian De Guzman will be representing Canada at the Gold Cup in July and that the Fury’s first-ever signing Nicki Patterson will miss the rest of the season due to a torn ACL. However, if Dos Santos can fix his now-broken midfield, properly balance the league’s best defence while adding a few goals in the Fall season, the Fury could quickly climb the table.
As it stands, the table sees the Fury just three points out of third place. The NASL’s table is currently so tight that every fan base is saying this, but it’s not pie in the sky to think that the Fury could find some scoring form and make the playoffs.
July also marks the return of the Fury’s noisy neighbors, the CFL’s Ottawa RedBlacks (real name, no typo) and, much to the supporters’ lament, Sunday afternoon matches. Despite the lack of goals, the Spring season was especially pleasing to the eye for the lack of washed away gridiron lines and on-pitch advertising. If the Fury is to make a stand in this Fall season it will have to do so at home while sharing its space.
One more thing to keep an eye on is whether the club will see a Women’s World Cup attendance bump. Lansdowne was one of six venues for the tournament, and averaged over 20,000 fans per match, showing once more that for the right occasion this is a soccer city. It is hoped that newcomers to the stadium enjoyed the experience so much that they will want to return to see professional soccer (at a much reduced price). Let’s hope Fury brass has a strategy to capitalize on the soccer fever that swept through the city, and increase its current average crowd of about 5,000 fans.
The mid-season break has the hardcore supporters of the Fury eager to return to the stadium to cheer on their team, and there is hopeful optimism permeating the air. Continued strong defense combined with a few goals that would lead to a few wins which would then result in a position near the top of the table, bringing with it proper media coverage and attendance bumps: those are the present objectives before the Ottawa Fury FC.
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