With the FIFA Women’s World Cup taking over most of the soccer facilities in town, the local professional team has been forced out of town, not to be seen again around these parts until late July.

FC Edmonton are hitting the road on an extended trip to close out their North American Soccer League Spring Season.

It begins Friday against the Ottawa Fury with FCE in good spirits.

“Going away from home has never scared us and it doesn’t scare us now,” said FCE head coach Colin Miller. “We played Ottawa recently in the Amway Championships and beat them away from home. We know it’ll be a tough game. It’s a Canadian derby again.

“It’s a game to look forward to. They had a very good win at home on Saturday and we had a very good win at home on Sunday.”

FCE goes into the game off a 4-2 victory against the Atlanta Silverbacks in their sendoff in front of over 3,700 at Clarke Stadium.

Edmonton took control of the contest by jumping out to a 3-0 lead, then complicated matters somewhat, conceding a pair of second-half goals.

Ottawa earned a 1-0 victory over the Indy Eleven last week. The winning goal was scored with two minutes left in regulation by substitute Nicki Paterson.

Following their game against Ottawa, FCE will move on to play the Tampa Bay Rowdies, then close out the first half of the year at the Indy Eleven.

“We’re looking forward to our next three games, where we believe if we apply ourselves, they are all winnable,” Miller said. “That will be the goal, to come back with nine points (three per win) or as close to nine as we can get.”

Currently, both Edmonton and Ottawa have identical league records, sitting in the middle of the standings. FCE, however, have scored three times the goals that Ottawa have managed through their first seven league games.

Edmonton is currently the highest-scoring team in the NASL, but they’ve also conceded the most goals as well. The 17 goals they have given up is three more than the next worst team, the San Antonio Scorpions, who are second-last in the league standings.

“We’re not under any illusions. We’re going into three very difficult fixtures (games) here, but the confidence the group has scoring goals is fantastic,” Miller said. “And we’ve worked with the team from a defensive point of view and so by the start of the Fall Season, we will have got it right. I can assure you that we won’t be giving away some of the comical goals that we’ve given away, which have cost us, in all honesty, and we need to address it.”

John Smits started in place of Matt VanOekel on Sunday and had a strong game. He made a number of key saves early in the contest and was instrumental in keeping Edmonton in front late in the game.

Despite Smit’s performance, Miller would not divulge who his starting goalkeeper would be against Ottawa.

It is possible both Smits and VanOekel could both see time in goal during the last three games of the Spring Season at the rate FCE have conceded goals this year.

“We kept a clean sheet (shutout) for 70 minutes against Atlanta and we’ll have to extend that to 90 against Ottawa,” said FCE captain Albert Watson. “On a positive note, the boys are playing really well offensively and as a team we’re playing well offensively. For the most part, we did well on Sunday although we did concede a couple of silly goals and gave up some good chances. But that’s going to happen against a decent team.

“We know Ottawa is going to be on a high because of winning their last game, so we need to go in there and play well against them defensively and try to frustrate them, then do what we’re good at, scoring goals.”

FC Edmonton at Ottawa Fury Tonight (5 p.m.) TD Place

Who to Watch

FCE: Lance Laing

Midfielder is creating a lot of havoc for opposition defenses with his runs down the left wing. Laing was to the NASL team of the week along with forward Ritchie Jones for his performance in Sunday’s 4-2 win against the Atlanta Silverbacks.

Fury: Nicki Paterson

Also named to the league’s team of the week, Paterson scored the winning goal in Ottawa’s 1-0 victory over the Indy Eleven last weekend. The goal came in the 88th minute after Paterson was brought on as a substitute.

Coming In

FC Edmonton (2-2-3)

Ottawa (2-2-3)

The first of three road games for FCE to end the NASL Spring Season. They won’t be back in Edmonton until late July due to the Women’s World Cup.

FCE have faced Ottawa twice already this season in the Amway Canadian Championship, defeating them 3-1 in both legs of their first-round matchup.

Ottawa picked up their second win of the season last week, getting an 88th minute goal in a 1-0 victory over the Indy Eleven. The win lifted the Fury out of last place in the league standings.