Welcome to Part 1 of my 3 part Ottawa Fury FC season preview feature! This part will be a general overview of the club, the league in which they play and their history, this will be great for those who are newer to the club or are just beginning to follow soccer in Ottawa. Part two will cover the coaching staff and tactics that Ottawa Fury play with, as well as some of the off season moves. Part three will be a complete breakdown of the roster, player by player, as well as who I believe the starting XI and key players will be for 2015.

History and Overview of Ottawa Fury FC

Ottawa Fury FC play in the North American Soccer League, which operates as a division two league in North America. Fury originally began as a women’s soccer team in 2000, being bought over by current owner John Pugh in 2002. Following the introduction of a male academy system, Ottawa Fury Soccer Club were given a team in the United Soccer Leagues’ Premier Development League (USL – PDL) in 2005. In 2011, John Pugh formed a partnership with Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG), which includes RedBlacks and 67’s owner Jeff Hunt, to have the three teams play at the newly renovated Lansdowne Park and TD Place. This partnership went a long way to earning Ottawa Fury FC a spot in division two NASL. The Ottawa Fury Soccer Club (PDL) operated until 2013, when it was replaced with the Ottawa Fury Football Club (NASL) in 2014, while the women’s team operated from 2000 until 2014.



Ottawa Fury’s head coach is Canadian Marc Dos Santos. Dos Santos coached Montreal Impact (NASL) to a championship in before they went to the MLS, as well as coaching a winning U15 Palmeiras side in Brazil. The Montreal native used his connections in the soccer world to bring in such players as Vini Dantas, Sinisa Ubiparipovic and Tony Donatelli for Fury’s inaugural season. Former Canadian Internationl and Vancouver Whitecap Martin Nash is Ottawa’s assistant coach, bringing his expertise in North American soccer to the coaching staff. Operating as Technical Director is Phil Dos Santos, who has a long history of working with Canada’s national youth system, including working with current Fury midfielders Misik and Eustaquio in the Canada U20 program. Former Chelsea academy coach Darko Buser is working with the Ottawa Fury academy alongside Phil Dos Santos, while former Liverpool European Cup Winner and original NASL Vancouver Whitecap Bruce Grobbelaar works as goalkeeping coach.

More on the Fury Coaching Staff in Part 2 of the Fury Fanatic Season Preview

In their first season Ottawa Fury FC had a mix of both highs and lows, including breaking the modern day NASL attendance record with their TD Place home opener vs New York Cosmos (14,593); but also having a bad run of results that cost Fury a spot in the playoff race. Marc Dos Santos was happy with the foundation the squad built in their first season, keeping important players such as Richie Ryan, Oliver Minatel and Ryan Richter around for the 2015 season. During the off-season he has also brought in the likes of Brazilians Rafael Alvez and Paulo Jr, Irishman Colin Falvey and Canadian Patryk Misik, making Fury a much more competitive team on paper heading into their second season in the NASL.

Ottawa Fury Gameday

Ottawa Fury FC play their home matches at TD Place stadium, which is located at the newly renovated Lansdowne Park. The stadium has a capacity of 24,000 and is one of the top stadiums in the North American Soccer League. Last season home games were aired through TSN 1200 on the radio, as well as on the local Rogers channel, while away games were streamed through NASL Live.. Although Fury’s plans for 2015 have yet to be officially released, it is expected that both home and away games will be featured on local Rogers, while TSN 1200 will continue to air home games. In the USA it is expected that ESPN 3 will carry all NASL matches, however most of these streams will likely be blacked out for copyright reasons north of the border, however it has yet to be confirmed.

Section W is where you can find the two Ottawa Fury Supporters Groups, Stony Monday Riot and the Bytown Boys Supporters Club. Both groups create the atmosphere at TD Place on game-days, bringing both an audible and visual displays of support to every match, making it a sports experience unlike any other in the capital. Both of the supporters groups are the backbone of the game-day experience, and it is highly encouraged that anyone interested in becoming part of the supporters culture in the city join them before, during or after the games to experience soccer in Ottawa.

Building For The Future

Ottawa Fury are known to be active in community programs and getting children activated in youth soccer programs. Last season several youth teams were invited to matches, while youth children enjoy the experience of being flag bearers and walking out with the squads. Just recently Ottawa Fury announced the launch of the Fury Fanatics Youth Program, a program designed a giving thousands of youth soccer players in the Ottawa-Gatineau area free season tickets to the 2015 season.

Since Marc and Phil Dos Santos have taken over the operation of the first team and academy, there has been an overhaul in the way the youth system works. Over the course of the 2014 season we saw the Fury Grassroots Program take off as well as the announcement of the U19 academy team participating in the La Première ligue de Soccer du Québec (PLSQ) and the U17 in the PLSQ reserve league. Darko Buser was brought in to help with the academy coaching, and along with Phil Dos Santos, they hope to bring Ottawa/Gatineau area youth players into the academy and eventually into the first team. The Fury U15 team (pictured above) won the North American Super Y-League Championship this past year.

Coming Up

In just over one week, April 4th, Ottawa Fury will kick off their 2015 NASL season in Carolina against the Railhawks, while they have their home opener on April 18th vs Minnesota United. You can stay up to date with all the Ottawa Fury news by following Namu Yoon on twitter, his blog OFFC Review and his articles for Canadian Soccer News. Also follow Blogsmith on twitter as well as his blog BlogFury, and Kendra Lee on twitter and on Northern Starting XI and the podcast they both work on Ours Is The Fury with Ryan and Jon.

I will be releasing Part 2 and Part 3 of this blogs preseason feature in the next 10 days, leading up to the beginning of the NASL season. Also stay tuned for more features of mine on RedNation Online as well as some other fun projects.