On Wednesday night, the Impact will open play in the Amway Canadian Championship at Clarke Stadium in Alberta against NASL representative FC Edmonton, looking for its third Canadian title in club history.
As the 2014 champs, the bleu-blanc-noir earned the top seed of the tournament, and thusly, opens its ACC tournament against FC Edmonton, winner of the preliminary round series against Ottawa Fury FC with a 3-1 aggregate win.
FC Edmonton was launched in February 2010. The team then played its first competitive season in 2011, which was the Impact’s last season in NASL.
The Impact faced Edmonton twice that year, with the Impact shutting out FC Edmonton 5-0 on May 1 in Alberta and 2-0 on June 4 in Montreal.
Although Edmonton sits at the bottom of the 2014 NASL regular season standings the blue and white side from Western Canada has kept every game close, losing by identical scores of 1-0 to Minnesota United FC and the New York Cosmos.
With its 1-1 draw to the Tampa Bay Rowdies in its opening game of the season, and the lone goal allowed in the Canadian Championship versus Ottawa, the Eddies have been playing stingy defence, never allowing more than one goal a game.
FC Edmonton had struggled offensively, scoring just once in three league games and will be looking for more from former Canadian international striker Frank Jonke, who’s played every minute for the Eddies so far.
However, the Eddies may have found an answer to their scoring ineptitude with midfielder Hanson Boakai, 17. The Edmonton native of Guinean descent had played just 23 minutes so far in league play before exploding in the home leg of the preliminary round of the ACC, while helping 2013 team leading scorer and former Ireland youth international Fordyce break out of his early season scoreless drought.
The return match will take place at Stade Saputo, next Wednesday, May 14, at 7:30pm (ET).
