{"id":22716,"date":"2019-05-13T00:23:48","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T04:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonsoccer.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=22716"},"modified":"2019-05-13T00:23:48","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T04:23:48","slug":"fc-edmonton-pacific-fc-draw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2019\/05\/13\/fc-edmonton-pacific-fc-draw\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacific FC and FC Edmonton Battle it Out in Scoreless Draw"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editorial (May 12, 2019)<\/strong> – FC Edmonton had their home opener for their inaugural season in the Canadian Premier League<\/a> on Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 They played host to Pacific FC who were playing their fourth match of the season, whilst it was only Edmonton\u2019s second.<\/p>\n

CPL: FC Edmonton and Pacific FC Battle it Out in a No Score Draw<\/h2>\n

Just over 4,200 fans filled Clarke Stadium on a warm Sunday afternoon, with a strong wind out of the northwest that caused long high kicks to hang in the air.\u00a0 Roman Soria admitted post-match that it did make cause problems with his corner kicks.<\/p>\n

Lineups<\/h3>\n

For FC Edmonton<\/a> it had been eight days since their victory over Valour FC in Winnipeg, on May 4th<\/sup>.\u00a0 There, coach Jeff Paulus employed a 4-2-3-1 formation<\/a>, and he used the same formation today with the same players.\u00a0 Captain, Tomi Ameobi, still did not play although he was on the bench.\u00a0 With Ameobi on the bench, it left Randy Edwini-Bonsu in the number nine spot.<\/p>\n

For Pacific FC, they were still without their star forward Marcus Haber and their first-ever goal scorer, Hendrik Starostzik.\u00a0 With Haber and Starostzik missing, the size difference on the field was noticeable between the two sides.<\/p>\n

First Half Opening<\/h3>\n

The Eddies started out the match with good ball possession in the opening minutes.\u00a0 Both sides were playing well defensively in the first ten.\u00a0 Ramon Soria had opportunities to make some free kicks after a foul on Son Yongchan in the 16th<\/sup> minute, and again one minute later on the outside edge of the box in PFC\u2019s end.\u00a0 Neither ended up resulting in any chances<\/p>\n

Red Card Philippe Lincourt-Joseph<\/h3>\n

In the 27th<\/sup> minute, Philippe Lincourt-Joseph was handed a red card after sliding in feet first in an attempt to get the ball.\u00a0 Both Lincourt-Joseph and PFC<\/a> defender Ryan McCurdy both slid feet first.\u00a0 McCurdy knocked the ball away while Lincourt-Joseph hit McCurdy cleats up.\u00a0 Eddies played the next 60-plus minutes down with 10 men.<\/p>\n

In the post-match press conference, Paulus said, \u201cthat anytime you see a foot go over the ball and strike a player\u2019s leg, it has to be a red card consideration.\u201d\u00a0 If it had been against his own team, he would have called for it himself.\u00a0 Paulus didn\u2019t think Lincourt-Joseph was trying to be malicious in any way but trying to get control of the ball back.\u00a0 \u201c[Lincourt-Joseph] is an honest player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zebie Subbed for Zebie<\/h3>\n

Just before half-time, Allan Zebie went down with an injury.\u00a0 His younger brother, Bruno Zebie came in as the substitute for Allan Zebie.\u00a0 Paulus was pleased with how the younger Zebie stepped up when he came in to play to get his first serious game minutes.\u00a0 \u201cWhat a job he\u2019s done to come in, so [I\u2019m] delighted for the kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruno had been a very late sub against Valour FC the previous week.<\/p>\n

Second Half<\/h3>\n

The second half saw the Eddies come out strong, pressing hard, and getting lots of chances through set pieces.\u00a0 Son had numerous long throw-ins creating and some corner kicks that helped create several chances.<\/p>\n

PFC defended well with several blocked shots or cleared balls.<\/h3>\n

Oumar Diouck had great corner kick in the 69th<\/sup> minute after getting fouled himself.\u00a0 He kept it low and curved it in towards the corner, but it was blocked.<\/p>\n

Rookie Goalkeeper Starts Again<\/h3>\n

Connor James received the nod to start in goal again for his second consecutive start this season.\u00a0 Although the match did not end up being the shooting gallery he faced against Valour FC, he still had to make a few key saves to keep his team in it this afternoon.<\/p>\n

One of the best chances that Pacific had was in the 72nd<\/sup> minute after Diouck turned over the ball at centre field with a poor back pass.\u00a0 Terran Campbell for PFC picked it up, went around Mele Temguia, and was hauled down by James Marcelin, setting up a free-kick for Pacific.<\/p>\n

Zachary Verhoven, Pacific midfielder took the free-kick. The ball deflected off Campbell and bounced towards the net. \u00a0James had to come out and snatch it away from an attacking Pacific FC player.<\/p>\n

As in Winnipeg, James played aggressively when needed, coming out of his net several times late in the match to smother the ball or make key saves.<\/p>\n

He had a beautiful save off of former-Eddie Ben Fisk in the 76th<\/sup> minute. After the save Fisk was deemed offside.<\/p>\n

Draw Despite Being Down<\/h3>\n

FC Edmonton managed to battle it out for a 0-0 draw despite being down a man for over 60-minutes.\u00a0 They played aggressively after receiving the red card, pressing hard, and creating chances \u2013 especially off the set-piece plays.<\/p>\n

Kareem Moses, playing fullback on Sunday, after the game said, \u201cEven with 10 men we know we are the better team, and we know we had the momentum. We actually looked like we had 11 players, and we kept that going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Fisk, forward for PFC, mentioned post-match that it was disappointing not to come away with the win, especially after the Eddies were down a player.\u00a0 He was quite pleased to return to Edmonton, where he has played previously with FC Edmonton in the former North American Soccer League.\u00a0 He appreciated the welcome he received from the Edmonton Fans.<\/p>\n

On the Road versus Cavalry FC<\/h3>\n

FC Edmonton is on the road next weekend to play Cavalry FC after a five-day break.\u00a0 Given the recent performance of top-of-the-table Cavalry squad, this may prove to be the toughest match yet for the Edmonton squad.\u00a0 Cavalry FC is coming off of their third-straight win after defeating Forge FC 2-1 on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The game is Saturday, May 18, at 4 PM MDT at Spruce Meadows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editorial (May 12, 2019) – FC Edmonton had their home opener for their inaugural season in the Canadian Premier League on Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 They played host to Pacific FC who were playing their fourth match of the season, whilst it was only Edmonton\u2019s second. CPL: FC Edmonton and Pacific FC Battle it Out in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2989,"featured_media":22719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2782,2927,3,2807],"tags":[2982,2997,2953,743,2808,2951,2995,2889,2996,2891],"class_list":["post-22716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cpl","category-fc-edmonton","category-news","category-pacific-fc","tag-allan-zebie","tag-ben-fisk","tag-connor-james","tag-fc-edmonton","tag-pacific-fc","tag-philippe-lincourt-joseph","tag-ramon-soria","tag-randy-edwini-bonsu","tag-ryan-mccurdy","tag-son-yongchan"],"modified_by":"Matt Pollard","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2989"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}