A 2-3 roster

— issue 003 — — 2012 edition —

A 4 wag A 7 amway cup A 8-9 team poster A 11 player of the week

BELOW THE BELTJelena Mrjenovich hits below the belt. Local eddies fan has some tips for edmonton’s soccer stars.—By Jill Horbay

FC Edmonton’s got a world-champion boxer in its corner in the form of 30-year old Hay River native Jelena Mrdjenovich.

Mrdjenovich is the current two-time WIBA featherweight world champion and former three-time world champion, the current WBC

featherweight champion, former WIBF lightweight champion, WBC super featherweight champion and WIBF super featherweight champion who boxes out of Panther Gym in Ed-monton Alberta.

“Female boxing has been both empowering and frustrating at the same time,” Mrdjenovich says, as she still finds it frustrating trying to break into a male dominated sport.

Boxing since she was a student at the U of A, she fell in love with the sport while recovering from a basket-ball injury.

— JUNE — HOME SCHEDULE

ATLANTA SILVERBACKS2pm Sunday, June 3

Clarke Stadium

FT. LAUDERDALE STRIKERS2pm Sunday, June 10

Clarke Stadium

Stars align to bring fans a qual-ity broadcast on game daysM31 design group hope their work will be on live tv soon.—By Jill Horbay

The Andromeda Galaxy is well

known for the simple fact that it’s the closest galaxy to our own. How does this relate to FC Edmonton? The shortened name for the Androm-eda Galaxy is M31 – and is the name sake for the software development and video production company, M31 Design Group. M31 is a member com-pany in The Fath Group of companies.

M31 is responsible for the live broadcasts of all FC Edmonton home

games, CBC and U-Stream webcasts, audio broadcasts, promotional vid-eos, video advertisements and in-terviews for FC Edmonton. They are responsible for the lion’s share of the video that fans see and hear from the team.

Beyond all that the group does on game day and game production – they are also responsible for the software development of the FC Ed-monton website. M31 has software production as its core business and is currently working on programs for use by sports teams to make the fan experience a better one.

Eric Fath-Kolmes, manager of M31 Design Group, along with ex-ecutive producer Kori Chilibeck and

a team of 20-strong game day staff, work countless hours to bring a TV quality broadcast to the FC Edmon-ton home games.

Most recently, the group was ac-knowledged by an IMS Soccer news editorial, which hailed the FC Ed-monton broadcast as “Premier Divi-sion”. The Eddies broadcast was given top marks in camera work, profes-sionalism and in their commentary team, Gareth Hampshire and Steven Sandor. Hampshire works with CBC, while Sandor runs www.the11.ca and is the editor for Avenue Magazine.

“Hampshire is cool, calm and collected in his play-by-play that is well-timed and free flowing and Sandor provides some great colour

commentary that is obviously well researched and interjected at a good pace,” Tim Hayes, editorial writer acclaims. “Every team in the NASL should watch the coverage that FC Edmonton puts together and do all they can to emulate it.”

M31 is extremely thrilled with this recognition.

“It was great to see and it makes us very proud of our work,” Fath-Kolmes says.

But they humbly accept this praise and immediately turn it around to an NASL success.

“We appreciate all the other teams’ efforts in creating good qual-ity broadcasts this season,” says Fath-Kolmes.

Being a female boxer in Edmon-ton, Mrdjenovich is all for supporting local teams, especially FC Edmonton.

“I support FC Edmonton, being from Edmonton we support our own,” Mrdjenovich shares.

Yet, it’s difficult to say that all Ed-montonians share her attitude when it comes to FC Edmonton games.

“You have to ‘wow’ Edmonton, you have to be a hard worker and will-ing to do whatever to get it done,” was Mrdjenovich’s advice to the Eddies.

It’s easy to see that FC Edmon-ton is certainly on its way to ‘wow-

ing’ Edmonton. In the first two home games of the NASL season, the Eddies thrilled the crowd by finding the back of the net six times, with Shaun Saiko claiming four of those goals.

Being a FC Edmonton fan, Mrd-jenovich went to the Eddie’s practice on May 23.

“Soccer players are extremely fit athletes, their endurance is insane!” she commented while there as either side tried not to look too intimated by one another while some photos were snapped at training.

The Eddies, however, are no strangers to tussles on the field. Some may fondly recall a bit of a scuffle be-tween FC Edmonton and the Carolina RailHawks during the 2011 regular season in the tunnel while in Caro-lina.

When asked for her advice for

the team if they should ever find themselves in a similar situation, Mrdjenovich jokingly said to, “punch first, ask questions later.”

The Eddies and Edmontonians will be able to see Mrdjenovic at her next fight on June 22. Starting at 7 p.m. at the Shaw Conference Centre, she will be defending her WIBA feath-erweight title.

“It takes a lot of perseverance, hard work, dedication and a thick skin to become a world champion,” Mrdjenovic advised – all of which are surely qualities that she shares with the Eddies.

While Mrdjenovich hopes to de-liver a knock out punch on June 22, the local footie fan will be cheering on the Eddies to take home a title of their own this season

For tickets to Mrdjeovich’s title fight, go to www.ticketmaster.ca.

LIVE ON GAME DAY

WWW.FCEDMONTON.COM

When asked about the appar-ent disparity between FC Edmonton’s broadcast and the rest of the NASL teams Fath-Kolmes claims there is a simple reason for the difference.

“Our budget, a resource cour-tesy of The Fath Group,” he says. “And our goal is to broadcast FC Edmonton games on live TV in the near future.”

As for any more information on when we could see the Eddies on live TV- they’re currently in discussions with a few organizations. Hopefully in the near future, FC Edmonton will be able to reach a wider audience and it will surely be thanks to all of the hard work done by M31.

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FC EDMONTON

1 Lance ParkerGK – 6’4”, 200lbs

22 David Monsalve GK – 6’2”, 180lbs

23 John SmitsGK – 6’4”, 185lbs

25 Michal MisiewiczGK – 6’1”, 163lbs

3 Adam WestD - 6’0”, 175lbs

24 Antonio RagoD – 5’8”, 165lbs

5 Kévin HatchiD - 5’11”, 172lbs

26 Fabrice LassondeD – 5’8”, 165lbs

13 Jonathan Joseph-AugustinD – 6’0”, 175lbs

27 Fabien VorbeD – 6’0”, 182lbs

18 Paul HamiltonD – 6’1”, 175lbs

GOAL KEEPERS

DEFENDERS

4 Sérisay BarthélémyF – 5’6”, 147lbs

14 Paul CraigF – 6’0”, 182lbs

7 Alex SemenetsF – 5’7”, 155lbs

17 Elvir GigolajF – 6’1”, 166lbs

9 Michael CoxF – 6’2”, 180lbs

19 Kyle Porter F – 6’0”, 160lbs

11 Matt LamF – 5’11”, 165lbs

29 Yashir PintoF – 5’9”, 168lbs

STRIKERS

6 Shaun SaikoM – 5’10”, 160lbs

20 Chris KooyM – 6’0”, 175lbs

8 Ilja van LeerdamM – 5’7”, 165lbs

21 Dominic OppongM – 6’0”, 175lbs

10 Kyle Yamada M – 6’1”, 175lbs

16 Kenny CacerosM – 5’11”, 170lbs

MIDFIELDERS

WWW.FCEDMONTON.COM

A3 June 3, 2012 2pm Kick Off

ATLANTA SILVERBACKS# Name Pos. Ht. Wt.9 Stephen Ademolu F 5’10” 185 16 Eric Ati GK 5’10” 170 19 Borfor Carr M/F 5’9” 15514 Nico Colaluca M 5’9” 15521 Raphael Cox M 5’7” 150 6 Jordan Davis M 5’10” 160 12 Fernando Gonzalez M 5’9” 175 18 Matt Horth F 6’3” 194 13 Willie Hunt D 5’10” 163 1 Daniel Illyes GK 6’2” 197 27 Martyn Lancaster D 6’1” 180 15 Kohei Matsushita M 5’9” 16030 Tony McManus M 5’9” 155 3 Shane Moroney D 5’11” 165 8 Joe Nasco GK 6’3” 205 11 Reinaldo Navia F 5’7” 1637 Ciaran O’Brien M 5’9” 155 5 Lucas Paulini M 6’1” 17544 Rilla D 6’3” 185 4 Patrick Robertson D 5’10” 170 99 David Santamaria F 5’11” 170 10 Danilo Turcios M 5’5” 135

June 10, 2012 2pm Kick off

FT. LAUDERDALE STRIKERS# Name Pos. Ht. Wt.20 Mark Anderson F 5’10” 167 6 Nickardo Blake D 6’1” 167 22 Lionel Brown GK 6’0” 183 25 Nicolas Clavijo M 5’7” 140 14 Abel Gebor M 5’9” 170 24 Matt Glaeser GK 6’5” 183 18 Yoximar Granado M 5’7” 160 15 Aly Hassan F 6’3” 184 26 Andy Herron F 5’9” 160 21 Darnell King F 5’8” 155 16 Lance Laing D 6’0” 185 3 Scott Lorenz M 6’0” 173 1 David Martin GK 6’0” 175 11 Leopoldo Morales F 5’9” 135 2 Alfonso Motagalvan M 5’11” 170 19 Halili Nagime F 5’10” 15712 Emilio Orozco D 5’10” 155 7 Patrick Otte M 5’8” 170 8 Pecka M 5’7” 152 23 Hosman Ramos M 5’7” 145 10 Walter Restrepo M 5’8” 169 17 Conor Shanosky M 6’4” 185 5 Toni Stahl D 6’3” 180 13 Jack Stewart D 6’2” 190 9 Abe Thompson F 6’0” 180

2012 Amway Statististics

FC EDMONTON# Pos Name: Min: Goals Assists YC RC1 GK Lance Parker - - - - - 3 D Adam West - - - - - 4 M Serisay Barthelemy 21 - - - - -5 D Kevin Hatchi 180 - - - -6 M Shaun Saiko 167 - - 1 -7 F Alex Semenets - - - - -8 M Ilja van Leerdam 103 - - 1 -9 F Michael Cox 55 - - - -10 M/F Kyle Yamada - - - - -11 F Matt Lam 159 - - - -13 D Jonathan Joseph Augustin 90 - - - -14 F Paul Craig 23 - - - -16 M Kenny Caceros 90 - - - -17 F Elvir Gigolaj - - - - - 18 D Paul Hamilton 180 - - 1 -19 F Kyle Porter 111 - - - -20 M Chris Kooy 96 - - 1 -22 GK David Monsalve 180 - - - -23 GK John Smits - - - - -24 D Antonio Rago 90 - 1 - -25 GK Michal Misiewicz - - - - - -26 D Fabrice Lassonde 90 - - 1 -27 D Fabien Vorbe 90 - - 1 -29 F Yashir Pinto 17å1 1 - - -

2012 NASL Statististics# Pos Name: Min: Goals Assists YC RC1 GK Lance Parker 90 - - - - 3 D Adam West 193 - - 1 - 4 M Serisay Barthelemy 264 - - - - -5 D Kevin Hatchi 546 - - 3 16 M Shaun Saiko 720 5 2 2 -7 F Alex Semenets 16 - - - -8 M Ilja van Leerdam 687 1 3 2 -9 F Michael Cox 197 1 - 1 -10 M/F Kyle Yamada - - - - -11 F Matt Lam 626 - 1 - 113 D Jonathan Joseph Augustin 457 - - 1 -14 F Paul Craig 115 - 1 1 -16 M Kenny Caceros 168 - - - -17 F Elvir Gigolaj - - - - - 18 D Paul Hamilton 622 1 - - -19 F Kyle Porter 354 1 - - -20 M Chris Kooy 389 - - 1 -22 GK David Monsalve 90 - - - -23 GK John Smits 180 - - - -24 D Antonio Rago 477 - - 1 -25 GK Michal Misiewicz 362 - - - - 26 D Fabrice Lassonde 444 - - 2 -27 D Fabien Vorbe 105 - - - -29 F Yashir Pinto 450 1 2 - -

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The eddie introduces the people behind the scenes…

Lyndsay Stewart#11 Matt Lam’s roommate–Q: Ummmmm…. Roommate?

A: It’s complicated.

Q: Complicated like… we should move on?

A: Yeah.

Q: Ok. How did you guys meet?

A: Ranch Wednesday with Janelle Janis (From FCE HQ). Nuff said.

Q: Sounds interesting. How do you guys stay in touch when Matt’s out of town?

A: Well, Matt’s a diehard romantic so I’m always getting love letters in the mail.

Q: If only there were more men around like Matt. Speaking of be-ing out of town, soccer has taken Matt to some pretty foreign places. Where have you visited him?

A: I first visited him when he was playing with Ajax in Amsterdam. Last year I also went to watch him play in Japan.

Q: Were you there during the tsu-nami/earthquake

A: I was there right after it hap-pened. There was still quite a bit of damage around Matt’s place. I saw a lot of cracked roads and side-

walks. There were still aftershocks. In general I found Japanese people to be calm and self less. I was there 15 days later and it was already back to normal. Pretty impressive.

Q: Did the beautiful game bring you and Matt together?

A: Without the soccer world, we definitely would never have met, that’s for sure.

Q: How far did you take your soccer career?

A: I played for the Edmonton Aviators when they were around. I spent five years with the Pandas and won Nationals three times with Victoria.

Q: If you could change one thing about Matt, what would it be?

A: I’d make him score more goals.

Q: Who’s your favourite FC Edmon-ton player?

A: Becca Ferguson’s finacée (Paul “Kelly Slater” Hamilton).

WAGWIVES &GIRLFRIENDS—of fc edmonton

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Vancouver takes the first game with a 2-0 win—By Jill Horbay

Edmonton, AB. (May 2, 2012) – FC Edmonton head into this match against the Vancouver Whitecaps as the obvious underdogs. The Eddies have yet to win a game this NASL sea-son, where the Whitecaps have four MLS wins to their name so far.

It was clear shortly after kick off that the Whitecaps were the more physical team and muscled their way into plenty of plays. It took about 10 minutes for FC Edmonton to find their rhythm and have some tense moments in the visitor’s 18-yard box. Eddies Ilja Van Leerdam could not quite reach a cross from Yashir Pinto and with some unlucky bounces and a potential handball, the ball soon headed into towards the home team’s defence.

At the 18 minute mark the Whitecaps broke through the Eddies backline. Whitecaps player Omar Sal-gado picked out Eric Hassli at the top of the box who coolly slid it past FC Edmonton’s goalkeeper David Mon-salve to put the Whitecaps in the lead.

Eddies In It For Most Of The Match Against The Whitecaps—By Andreas Morse

Vancouver, BC. (May 9,

2012) – One of the more popular chants coming from the Southsid-ers during Wednesday night’s game against Vancouver Whitecaps FC asked the question, Who are ya?

Now they must know.It was the mighty Vancouver

Whitecaps FC, a first division MLS team, against FC Edmonton, a sec-ond division NASL team in the sec-ond leg of the Amway Canadian Championships.

On paper, the Eddies probably didn’t have a shot, coming in two goals down on aggregate but the first half told a completely different

FC EDMONTON EARN FIRST THREE POINTS OF THE SEASONShaun Saiko’s hat-trick leads the Eddies to a 3-0 victory —By Jill Horbay

Edmonton, AB. (May 6, 2012 ) – The sun shines for the sec-ond home game in Edmonton’s NASL season. For the first time since the season opener against Fort Lauder-dale, Adam West started in defence for Fabrice Lassonde, who pulled his groin in warm-ups just prior to the match. FCE’s Chris Kooy also started on the bench after an extended time due to an injury. Kévin Hatchi was also unavailable for the match after receiving a red card in the last home game against Minnesota Stars FC on April 22.

The first half of the game was mostly played in midfield, however it was RailHawks ‘keeper Ray Burse who was forced to make three big saves – while Eddies man between the posts, David Monsalve, wasn’t tested. The best chance of the half came just before the halftime whistle with a give and go play between Kyle Porter and Yashir Pinto, but the shot from Pinto was well saved.

The half ended scoreless with both teams surely coming on the field in the second half looking for the win.

The second half saw the Eddies really push for the win. With the crowd behind them, the team rallied the effort to turn the game in their fa-vour. In the 54 minute, Shaun Saiko struck for the first time in the game and found the back of the net from a long distance effort, a goal that was reminiscent of the one he scored against Fort Lauderdale for the first goal in franchise history.

Saiko was not done scoring, as he doubled FC Edmonton’s lead a few moments later with a shot that curled into the back post. Saiko finished off his hat-trick with a penalty kick in the 81 minute which saw the Eddies earn their first victory of the season with a final score of 3-0.

Fellow striker Yashir Pinto should feel hard done by, as all five of his shots on net were well saved by Burse. Midfielders Matt Lam and Ilja van Leerdam wrapped up the game with an assist each.

The Eddies now head to Van-couver to play the Whitecaps in the second leg of the Amway Canadian Championship and then head to At-lanta to take on the Silverbacks. The next home game for FC Edmonton is not until May 27 against the San An-tonio Scorpions.

The play continued to favour the visiting team as the half moved on. In the 41 minute Salgado chipped the Eddies ‘keeper and the shot bounced off the post to find the foot of Atiba Harris, who made no mistake in find-ing the back of the net for the second time to further Vancouver’s advan-tage.

For the second half, FC Edmon-ton continued to press for a home goal and the game continued to get more physical. It did not take too long for the Eddies to find their way in front of the net. Ilja Van Leerdam tried a long distance shot and forced Whitecaps ‘Keeper Brad Knighton into making a good save in the 52 minute.

Eddies goal keeper Monsalve was also forced into making a couple big saves as the half continued, one of which came from Whitecaps forward, Long Tan.

The game was much more stop-and-go as both Canadian teams de-fended well. The match ended with both sides not conceding any further goals and the Whitecaps heading back to Vancouver with a 2-0 win.

The Eddies head to Vancouver to play the second leg of the semi-final on May 9.

story.FC Edmonton, led up front by

Shaun Saiko, Yashir Pinto and Mi-chael Cox gave the Whitecaps de-fense fits in the first 45. Eight shots on net for the Eddies and just four for the home team. The only thing standing between FC Edmonton and the championship finals was White-caps ‘keeper Brad Knighton who had to make a number of key saves – the toughest coming off the boot of Cox from a Pinto cross in the 20th min-ute.

The team went into the locker room at halftime brimming with confidence and that confidence cre-ated a goal, Pinto’s first ever for FC Edmonton, in the 53 minute.

Unfortunately for the Eddies, the goal seemed to wake up a sleep-ing giant and in the 75 minute,

FC EDMONTON FALL TO THE VISITORS IN FIRST AMWAY CANADIAN CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

EDDIES OUT OF AMWAY

Sébastian Le Toux tied it up for the ‘Caps after coming off the bench.

FC Edmonton continued to fight for the tie and as substitute, Etienne Barbara came rushing into the box, he was bundled over. A pen-alty kick was given and Barbara was the one to take it. Monsalve, how-ever, guessed the right way for the shot and got a good piece of the ball to push it on to the post and eventu-ally out for a corner kick.

It was off of the corner kick where Vancouver doubled its lead with another goal from Le Toux as the ball found its way between Mon-salve and the goal post.

The Eddies seemed to lose a little steam as the final minutes of the game ticked away – enough to concede a third goal from substitute Darren Mattocks in injury time to

bring the final score to 3-1 for the Vancouver Whitecaps. Vancouver will advance to the final round of the Amway Canadian Championship with a final aggregate score of 5-1 and face Toronto FC, who won 2-0 against the Montreal Impact earlier on in the evening.

“I’m a little torn,” said Eddies head coach Harry Sinkgraven. “We did lose the game 3-1 but I am still extremely proud of the team. We played hard. We played to win. But in the end, we came up short. It hap-pens in sport sometimes. But I am still very proud.

FC Edmonton now travels to Atlanta for their next game on Sat-urday May 12 against the Atlanta Silverbacks.

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Eddies lose 2-0 in San Antonio—By Andreas Morse

San Antonio, Texas (May 19, 2012 ) – For the second surprise start in a row FC Edmonton’s John Smits was guarding the net for the Eddies against the Scorpions on Sat-urday night.

Aside from Smits, the other story line of the game was that both NASL Players of the Week, Campos and Hamilton, were playing against each other for the first time this sea-son. Through the first 25 minutes, the Eddies defender got the better of the play, keeping Campos at bay with no shots on net. The other side of the ball for the Eddies wasn’t having as much success as offensively they struggled to get a shot on net. Striker Shaun Saiko came close, just missing the near post with a hard shot.

The game changed in the 39th

Smits maintains a clean sheet in first ever pro game—By Andreas Morse

Atlanta, Ga. (May 12, 2012) – After a strong performance in Vancouver against the Whitecaps on Wednesday night, it was Michael Cox who continued his quality play and put the Eddies up front early on Saturday night in Atlanta.

Cox pounced on a through ball from Ilja van Leerdam in the 14th minute and calmly slotted it passed Daniel Ilyes in the Silverbacks net to put the visitors up 1-0.

Atlanta’s best opportunity came late in the half when Reinaldo Navia just missed the far post with a low shot.

John Smits got his first pro-fessional start and played solid through the first 45, keeping a clean

minute when Kévin Hatchi fell down in the area and Campos fell over top of him to which the referee awarded a penalty. Greenfield took the penalty shot, and it just escaped Smits’ gloves to put the Scorpions up by one just be-fore half time.

Saiko nearly got the Eddies back to even ground minutes later as a long pass went over the defence, Saiko was able to control it but it was well saved by Sattler.

“We had some chances, espe-cially at the beginning of the game. In my opinion it wasn’t a penalty, but we can’t do anything about that now,” said head coach Harry Sinkgraven after the half time whistle “Our strik-ers were on a bit of an island, so we have to bring our midfielders up in support – then I think we’ll have suc-cess.”

In the second half FC Edmonton came out with purpose, controlled most of the play and kept the pressure

sheet going into the second half. The Eddies now have three goalkeepers with shutouts this season, all Cana-dians.

“As a goal scorer Michael (Cox) has been important to us,” said head coach Harry Sinkgraven about his big striker at the half. “He’s been dangerous up there. But we have to score the second goal. The last pass isn’t precise enough and we have to watch out for Navia because he’s a sniper up there.”

Atlanta came out of the locker room with much more purpose in the second half and were unlucky not to beat Smits in goal as the rook-ie ‘keeper had to get low to smother a close range effort just a few minutes after the restart.

The Silverbacks’ positive play took a major hit in the 58th minute however when Shane Moroney slid into a late tackle on Matt Lam and

SCORPIONS TAKE FIRST OF TWO IN A ROW

FC EDMONTON EARN SECOND WIN OF THE SEASON

in the Scorpions end. Paul Hamilton and Kenny Caceros were both subbed off due to injury at HT for Jonathan Joseph- Augustin and Paul Craig. Fa-bien Vorbe played with a broken nose.

Scorpions took control of the game in the 75th minute when Green-field took a free kick along the near sideline which was flicked into the far top corner by Ryan Cochrane leaving Smits stranded.

Sinkgraven made one last sub-stitution to bring on Dominic Oppong for an injured Vorbe, but nothing could spark the Eddies’ offence. The game ended in a 2-0 loss.

FC Edmonton face the Scorpi-ons again next week. Sinkgraven said his team needs a bit of a break after a tough stretch of games.

“We have three really tough games so we we’ll give the guys a couple days off to recover so we will be fit for next week.”

was shown a straight red for the dangerous play.

Sinkgraven made a tactical change at the hour mark bringing Dominic Oppong on to strengthen the midfield and Yashir Pinto came off.

Despite being down to 10-men, Atlanta continued to pressure the Eddies for much of the second half but van Leerdam finally iced it in the 87th when he cut through the defence and unleashed a powerful shot that beat Ilyes.

Final score FC Edmonton 2 – Atlanta Silverbacks 0.

Up next for the Eddies is a trip to San Antonio to take on the Scor-pions for the first time in club his-tory next Saturday.

FC Edmonton earn a point against the Scorpions.Pitchkolan scores late to earn draw.—By Andreas Morse

Edmonton, Ab. (May 27, 2012) – It was a somewhat success-ful first trip to Canada for the San An-tonio Scorpions after a late goal tied things up for the visitors at Clarke Stadium on Sunday afternoon in front

of 1,515 fans.The Eddies were unlucky not

to be up by a few goals early in the match. A few missed opportunities from inside the 18-yard box and a controversial offside call on a Paul Craig header, and the story could have been slightly different.

The best chance for San Antonio came shortly after the Craig offside when striker Esteban Bayona looked like he was going to get a shot off but FCE defender Paul Hamilton was able

to get in front of it at the last second to deflect it away harmlessly.

The Eddies broke the deadlock in the 37th minute when Shaun Saiko sent a long ball into the box looking for Yashir Pinto who was able to get just enough on the ball with his head and guided it past a helpless Daryl Sattler.

for the Eddies.Just eight minutes after the re-

start and FC Edmonton doubled its lead. Ilja van Leerdam intercepted a

pass at midfield and made a menacing run up the left side. The midfielder crossed it in for Saiko who finished expertly putting the Eddies up 2-0.

Scorpion Josue Soto got his team back in the game in the 61st minute when he took a nice pass and finished it calmly passed Lance Parker, start-ing in goal for the first time since suf-fering a broken arm last season.

The Scorpions tried to make it interesting late. They brought on dangerous striker Pablo Campos with

20 minutes to go in search of a tying goal but it was Aaron Pitchkolan who proved to be the hero when he headed the ball passed Parker in the 82nd minute off a free kick crossed into the box.

FC Edmonton is back in action next Sunday as the Eddies host the Atlanta Silverbacks at Clarke Stadium (K.O. 2 p.m.).

FC EDMONTON EARN A POINT AGAINST THE SCORPIONS

FC Edmonton2012

FC Edmonton2012

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By Jeff Paulus

FCE Reserves - AMSL Game 1FCE Reserves 6 - Lethbridge FC 0

The game got off to a slow start with both teams unable to maintain much possession. For the young FCE Academy players, it could have been the 200-300 fans in the University of Lethbridge stadium that caused the nervous start.

Midway through the first, the team began to find its passing game and the possession arrow began to point convincingly in FCE’s favour. The positive possession would lead to the first goal by Alex Semenets, followed soon after by a great run through the Lethbridge defense by Ajeej Sarkaria who calmly finished a through ball from Elvir Gigolaj.

Impact had a great May Long weekend band camp this Victoria Day long weekend. Our members depart-ed from our practice facility, Parkdale School, on Friday evening for a week-end to remember!

On a coach bus provided by their associates, the Lions Clubs Interna-tional, Impact’s members took the 45 minute trip out of the city to Onoway High School, in Onoway, AB where they were to spend the weekend learning plenty of new music so that they can continue entertaining FC Edmonton fans at home-games!

All of Impact’s members had fun during the camp, and learned several new pieces which they will be show-casing before the game on May 27th! Even though they returned to the city tired, all Impact’s members were in

With FCE enjoying a large edge in ball possession, the reserves would go into half with a 4-0 lead.

The second half was much the same for the young Eddies, as they would continue to enjoy much of the ball, although they did have to deal with a much more physical and ag-gressive Lethbridge side for the last 45 minutes.

First team keeper, Lance Parker, looked strong in goal, recording the shutout. Parker was called on to make a few saves with one spectacular stop from close range that he pushed onto the crossbar.

Goal scorers: Alex Semenets (2), Elvir Gigolaj, Ajeej Sarkaria, Bruno Zebie, Aymar Sigue

high spirits on the trip home, because their hard work and perseverance paid off as they conquered all their goals for the weekend. Impact is ex-cited to perform again, as we “Stand United” with FC Edmonton and cheer on the home team! Make sure you ar-rive early on June 3rd and June 10th, so you can march with Impact to the stadium in support of FCE!

For more information, or to join IMPACT please call 780-2-IMPACT or visit them online at www.impac-tarts.ca

EDDIES RESERVES START OFF THE AMSL SEASON PERFECTLY

BAND CAMP

FCE Reserves – AMSL Game 2FCE Reserves 1 – Lethbridge FC 0

Much like on Friday night, the FCE Reserve squad controlled much of the ball possession against Leth-bridge FC.

Despite several solid scoring opportunities, including a missed

penalty shot, the reserve squad was unable to build on their half-time 1-0 score and would see out that score un-til the final whistle.

On a positive note for the game, was the composure that our young players had against a very aggres-sive Lethbridge team that uses their strength and fitness well. Defensively,

FCE held Lethbridge to only one shot on goal with Lance Parker earning his second straight shutout.

In five matches so far this year (friendlies included), the FCE re-serves have yet to concede a goal.

Goal scorer:Elvir Gigolaj

June 3rd – Xtreme FC Day!

The XTREME FC is the Elite Youth Program of the EDMONTON NORTH ZONE SOCCER ASSO-CIATION. Our Club program is the largest in Edmonton and we are ex-tremely proud to have such amazing and talented youth players. We host teams in both Boys and Girls from U10 – U18.

We strive to offer the best op-portunities for our players to fos-ter physical, mental, and emotional growth and development on and off the soccer pitch. As a Nonprofit Orga-nization we are constantly looking for fun and exciting ways to fundraise to keep our fees down and keep the kids on the pitch.

This year we decided to try some-thing different in terms of fundrais-

ing for our Xtreme FC Program. We approached FC Edmonton to see if they were interested in assisting us with a fundraiser that would not only benefit our youth but assist in grow-ing FC Edmonton’s youth fan base.

FC Edmonton not only stepped up but has taken our fundraiser to a whole different level by involving our program in one of their upcoming home games, from our players being

ball kids, player escorts, 50/50 ticket sellers, and even hosting a banner contest for our teams. FC Edmon-ton is making this an Xtreme day our youth soccer players and their fami-lies will not soon forget.

We can’t thank the FC Edmonton organization enough for stepping up and showing not only their commit-ment to their community but being an inspiration to all our youth.

WWW.FCEDMONTON.COM

A11SHAUN SAIKO NAMED OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

EDDIES DEFENDER EARNS PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONOURSPaul Hamilton impressive in both games last week– By Andreas Morse

Edmonton, Ab. (May 14, 2012) – FC Edmonton’s veteran centreback Paul Hamilton is easy to notice on the field. Whether his long, blonde hair is f lying wildly in the air as he wins a header in the box or he’s throwing in a last-second slide tackle, taking the ball off an opposing attacker’s feet – Hamilton gets noticed.

After a strong performance against Vancouver Whitecaps FC, in which the team led for most of the match until the ‘Caps found their legs late and recorded the win, mov-

Eddies midfielder/striker nets hat-trick against the RailHawks– By Andreas Morse

Edmonton, Ab. (May 7, 2012) – FC Edmonton began the season not being able to find the back of the net in its first three games.

The next two NASL games saw the team score six goals, four of them have come off the boot of Shaun Saiko and three of them in Sunday’s game versus the Carolina RailHawks. He also added one as-sist against Minnesota Stars FC on April 22.

“It was amazing to score my first career professional hat-trick in front of my family and friends,” Saiko said. “It definitely was a proud moment for me but most important-ly, it was a huge three points for the team and hopefully something to

spark us for the rest of the season. It really was a great team effort to get these points. Full credit goes to the boys.”

Saiko is no stranger to the world of professional soccer. The local product signed with FC Ed-monton in 2010 after spending the two previous years in England with Middlesbrough.

The talented midfielder has also pulled on the red and white jer-sey for Canada at the U15-U20 levels and most recently in the U23 Olym-pic qualifiers where the team nar-rowly missed earning a spot in the tournament in London.

The team travels to Vancouver on Wednesday to take on the White-caps in the second leg of the Amway Canadian Championships (Vancou-ver leads 2-0). They then move on to Atlanta to take on the Silverbacks in NASL action on May 12.

ing on to the finals of the Amway Canadian Championship; and an even stronger performance against the Atlanta Silverbacks on Saturday night, in which the Eddies recorded a shutout and Hamilton was a force on the backline and threatened of-fensively as well; the 24-year-old defender has been named the NASL Defensive Player of the Week.

“It’s an honour obviously,” Hamilton said, after hearing the an-nouncement. “It’s great to be recog-nized but on this team it’s all about the group effort. We work hard for each other and we’ll take team suc-cess over individual honours any day.”

Hamilton was one of the first-ever signings for FC Edmonton. The

Calgarian played collegiately for Cape Breton University and Trin-ity Western University before sign-ing with the Whitecaps’ PDL side in 2008.

“Paul (Hamilton) has been an important member of our team since the beginning,” said head coach Harry Sinkgraven. “He’s ag-gressive in the air and in his tackles and has done well as captain a few times this year filling in for Chris Kooy. I’m happy for Paul and hope his good form continues.”

FC Edmonton travel to San Antonio on Saturday to take on the Scorpions for the first time in team history.

WWW.FCEDMONTON.COM

A12

EIYSA MISSION STATEMENTEdmonton Interdistrict Youth Soccer Association is the coordinating body of club soccer organizations dedicated to the leadership and development of elite youth soccer programs in the Edmonton and surrounding area. www.eiysa.com

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A13

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WWW.FCEDMONTON.COM

A14

EDDIE CHANTSEvery wonder who those guys standing in the corner are? You know, the ones who are standing, singing, chanting, holding their scarves in the air, waving flags and generally being loud? The Edmonton Supporters Group has been standing united with FC Edmonton since 2010, and have been creating a repertoire of songs and chants since then. Feel free to sing along and help cheer on the Eddies with us!

1) Ole Edmonton

Oooooooole

Oooooooole

Ole, ole, ole!

Edmonton!

Edmonton!

Oh, FC Edmonton!

(Repeat)

2) Where you go we’ll follow

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee love you! We love you! We love you!

And where you go, we’ll follow! We’ll follow! We’ll follow!

‘Cuse we support the Eddies! The Eddies! The Eddies!

And that’s the way we like it! We like it! We like it!

Woah oh oh oh oh oooooooooooooooooooooh

Woah oh oh oh oh oooooooooooooooooooooh

Woah oh oh oh oh oooooooooooooooooooooh

Woah oh oh oh oh oooooooooooooooooooooh

(Repeat)

3) Stand up

Stand uppppppppppp for the boys in black!

(Repeat)

4)We’re Edmonton

We’re Edmonton! We’re Edmonton!

Everywhere we go! Everybody knows!

We’re Edmonton!

(Repeat)

5) S.A.I.K.O (sung to “Bingo was his name-o”)

There was a lad from Edmonton

And Saiko was his name-o!

S! A! I! K! O!

S! A! I! K! O!

S! A! I! K! O!

And Saiko was his name-o!

6) He’s big

He’s Big! He’s Red!

His feet stick out of bed!

Mon-salv-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Mon-salv-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

(Repeat)

7) Walking in a (insert player name here)-wonderland (sung to Walking in a Winter wonderland)

There’s only oooooooooooonnneee (Shaun Saiko, Kyle Yamada, Paul Hamilton)!

There’s only oooooooooooonnneee (Shaun Saiko, Kyle Yamada, Paul Hamilton)!

Walking along, singing a song, walking in a (Saiko, Yamada, Hamilton) wonderland!

(Repeat)

8) His name is Ilya (Sung to The Great Escape Theme)

His name is Ilya!

He looooks like Schnider!

Do-doooo, do, do, do-do-do, do-do

(Repeat)

THE EDDIE WORD SEARCHBARTHELEMY

CRAIG

HATCHI

LAM

MONSALVE

PINTO

SAIKO

VAN LEERDAM

YAMADA

CACEROS

GIGOLAJ

JOSEPH AUGUSTIN

LASSONDE

OPPONG

PORTER

SEMENETS

VORBE

COX

HAMILTON

KOOY

MISIEWICZ

PARKER

RAGO

SMITS

WEST

WWW.FCEDMONTON.COM

A15

Dutch midfielder, Ilja van Leer-dam gives us a look into what it’s like playing in Canada for the first time, his great start to the season and what he thinks the Netherlands chances are at winning the 2012 Euros.—Q: Two assists and a goal already this season – what do you have to say about the start of your season? A: I’m very happy with my first goal for FC Edmonton. Last year I hit the post and the crossbar a few times and didn’t score. Q: Performance wise – what do you think happened between the first road

games of the year and now? Some people saw Vancouver as a turning point – would you agree? A: We played a very good game against Vancouver, we know that we can play on this level and I’m happy that we showed that. Right now we need some good results in our league. Q: Tell us a little about that Vancouver game? What was it like playing in front of a crowd of 15,000? A: It was nice to play in a big stadium again, I played in Holland almost every week in that kind of

environment but that’s already a long time ago. Q: In 10 words or less can you describe your time in Edmonton? A: It’s a great adventure, I like it a lot. Q: You have played your whole career in the Netherlands before deciding to see the world a bit a come to Canada. What are the major differences in the places that you’ve played? A: In the Netherlands soccer is sport number one. Almost everybody plays it or watches it. In Canada it’s getting more popular and hope-

fully some day it’s going be as big as football or hockey. Q: What is the coolest city you’ve been to so far? A: Vancouver. Q: What did you think of your girlfriend as the WAG in our first edition of the Eddie? A: Really cool. Q: What’s better – poutine or fries with mayo? A: Fries with mayo (onions and curry)

Q: What do you miss most about home? A: Friet special with a frikandel special. Q: What do you think the Netherlands chances are at winning the Euros? A: It’s hard to guess, because the groups phase is pretty tough. Holland plays against Denmark, Portugal and Germany. If we can make it to the next round I give us a good chance of reaching the final.

PLAYER PROFILE

ILJA VAN LEERDAM

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2pm Apr 22

8pm May 2

2pm May 6

2pm May 27

2pm Jun 3

2pm Jun 10

2pm Jul 1

2pm Jul 15

7pm Aug 4

7pm Aug 8

2pm Aug 12

2pm Sep 2

7pm Sep 12

2pm Sep 16

2pm Sep 23

Minnesota

Vancouver

Carolina

San Antonio

Atlanta

Ft. Lauderdale

Puerto Rico

Tampa Bay

Minnesota

San Antonio

Puerto Rico

Atlanta

Carolina

Tampa Bay

Ft. Lauderdale

Home Games

5:30pm Apr 7

5:30pm Apr 14

5:30pm Apr 18

9pm May 9

5:30pm May 12

6:30pm May 19

5:30pm Jun 16

5pm Jun 23

6:30pm Jul 4

5:30pm Jul 7

5:30pm Jul 21

5:30pm Jul 28

5pm Aug 18

6:30pm Aug 25

6:30pm Sep 8

Ft. Lauderdale

Tampa Bay

Puerto Rico

Vancouver

Atlanta

San Antonio

Ft. Lauderdale

Carolina

San Antonio

Puerto Rico

Atlanta

Tampa Bay

Carolina

Minnesota

Minnesota

Away Games

— 2012 —game schedule

www.fcedmonton.com