Apologies for the delay in posting the game recap, but if you listened to the latest Ours is the Fury podcast, you’ll know why. Thankfully, NASL Live uploaded the game Monday night and I was able to watch it completely.

The Ottawa Fury FC failed to win when they visited the Ft Lauderdale Strikers at historic Lockhart Stadium, losing 2:0 in the club’s inaugural match in the North American Soccer League. A disappointing loss, no doubt, for all the fans who have waited years for the return of professional soccer to the National Capital region, but only disappointing because they lost a game which they clearly could have, and perhaps should have, won.

From the opening kick-off the Fury controlled possession and frustrated a Striker side that came out flat and committed several badly timed fouls. Early in the first Dantas fired a shot from the top of the box that forced Macedonian keeper Nikolov to make a great outstretched save. A little later the Fury would be exposed in an area that has plagued them during the off-season, the set-piece. Ft Lauderdale’s Mark Anderson sent in a low cross across the 6-yard box, that somehow went through all the players, the commentators and even the band before Rafael Alves was able to slide it home to score the first goal in the 2014 NASL season. To the Fury’s credit the goal did little to effect their game play and they continued to pressure the Strikers back four with several missed crosses and shot attempts. A bright spot, which Fury fans can looks forward to all year, was the combination of Minatel and Maykon down the left wing. With several give-and-go’s, overlapping runs and scoop passes this Brazilian duo looks to have some very early chemistry. The first half ended, with the Fury practically dominating and very unfortunate to be down.

Starting the second half the Fury continued to hold possession, but instead of passing it through Ryan and Maykon the primary attacking route was long balls directed at the wingers: Minatel and Haworth. As the half wore on the Fury were getting more and more frustrated, but still were employing the long ball that was being affected by the strong winds at Lockhart with several passes missing their mark. In the 64th minute Mayard came on replacing Dantas and had an immediate impact using his speed and strength to run at defenders and create scoring opportunities. In the 80th minute the Strikers would capitalize on a slightly miss-timed offside trap that sprung Darnell King who would finish off his own rebound past Gorrick and a diving Ryan into the net. Except for a Maykon miss from in front of the net in injury time, the Fury did little else.

While the Fury dominated the Strikers with 64% possession and pressured the Strikers most of the game, their final touch in the box led to their downfall. Defensively Ottawa played great, Trafford and Jarun shut down Strikers striker Marcus Ebbers and the three midfielders Ryan, Paterson and Ubiparipovic were strong in coming back to help defend. You could tell that the Fury haven’t gelled quite yet, there was a lot of communication (yelling) when passes were misdirected and a lot of offensive runs were improperly judged and passes went wayward to the Striker defenders. These are all fixable mistakes, and I really enjoyed the Fury’s aggressive game style which made for quite an entertaining match.

After the second goal, I’ll admit I was hoping the Fury wouldn’t score as I’m selfish and want to see the first Fury goal in person at Carleton U.

Blog Smith @BlogFuryFC