A few days after an uninspired performance in their home opener, FC Edmonton head coach Colin Miller was trying to rally his troops ahead of another tough North American Soccer League encounter.

FC Edmonton have yet to score a goal in their first two league games and face the Tampa Bay Rowdies, on the road, on Saturday (5:30 p.m.).

FC Edmonton heads into the contest off a disappointing 2-0 loss to Minnesota United FC on Sunday at Clarke Stadium.

“There were positives in that game no question, we got into some good areas of the park,” Miller said prior to departing for Florida. “You can’t fault some of the players for their effort. The disappointment, overall, was that we were flat against a very good Minnesota team.

“I’ve watched our game twice now and there were some positives to come out of it. (Goalkeeper) Matt VanOekel played very well of course. (Nik) Ledgerwood and Cristian (Raudales) worked very hard in the middle of the park (midfield). Pablo (Cruz) did well at times, too.”

FC Edmonton were out-played by a Minnesota side gearing to move up into Major League Soccer next season. Minnesota were by far the superior team and were unlucky not to win by three or four goals as they took the play to Edmonton from the opening kick-off.

“We’re not at that level yet,” Miller said. “There are some players coming in that need to do better and there are players that should know better at this stage.

“But it’s not all doom and gloom by any stretch of the imagination. We’ve got a good squad of players, a good group of guys as well, that know we underachieved on Sunday, and that’s the positive thing. We are now looking for a positive reaction down in Tampa against a good Tampa Bay team.”

With a core of their group back from last season, FC Edmonton believes they can be competitive and challenge for a playoff spot this year. Miller believes his team’s performance in their home opener was not a true representation of the way his club is capable of playing.

“You wonder about this first-game scenarios, this first home game, you wonder if different factors come into play,” Miller said. “I don’t want to make excuses for the guys, but the preparation all week long in training was terrific, their attitude, the way they played in training was terrific. That to me was the biggest disappointment. That’s the angriest I’ve been in a long, long time, how I felt after the game on Sunday, because of what I’d seen during the week and then what we get on Sunday.

“I’m a positive-thinking guy and I know there is a good squad of players and once (Adam) Eckersley comes back into the team (from injury), once (Albert) Watson comes back into the team, I think there will be a lot of positives coming out of this group.”

Heading into Tampa, Edmonton is facing a team who have also struggled, at times, out of the gate.

Tampa drew their first two games of the season and go into Sunday’s contest also looking for their first win.

FC Edmonton expects to put out a better effort in Florida than they did at home on Sunday.

“After watching the game again, there were some things that were really good, that we did,” Ledgerwood said. “We had some good possession. I think we do definitely need to work on our game shape, whether we’re pressing or dropping off, we need to be compact unit and I think that’s going to be key for this weekend going down in Tampa.”

FC Edmonton will be bolstered by the return of Watson, who was suspended for the home opener after picking up a red card in the season opening scoreless-draw at Rayo Oklahoma City.

Edmonton felt they played well against Oklahoma City despite being a man down for a good portion of the contest.

“The speed of play, the way we need to play, we need to pick things up a little bit quicker and our play out of the back needs to be a little bit sharper,” Ledgerwood said. “But as far as the work ethic that we put in day in and day out, that has been great you can’t take that away from us. We’ve been working hard, we just have to build on that and sharpen out a little bit and prepare for a good game down in Tampa.”

Dvandiest@postmedia.com

twitter.com/DerekVanDiest