WHO: Ottawa Fury, 7W-7D-3L, 28 points, 7th place Eastern Conference

WHAT: A regular season USL Championship match

WHEN: Sunday, July 14, 2019, 2:00 p.m., a totally normal date and time that is bound to inure to the benefit of Ottawa fans and the club’s box office

WHERE: TD Place, 1015 Bank Street, Ottawa, ON K1S 3W7, Canada

WATCH: On FloSports ESPN+ if you’re a streamer, WBKI-58 if you’ve still got cable or whatever, and listen on 840 WHAS or 790 or 1080 maybe.

WHO, AGAIN? Ottawa’s still a pretty decent team, recent form notwithstanding. LouCity only managed a 1-0 win at Slugger against the Furries earlier this year. The (almost) French Canadians went on a 10 game unbeaten run after that, which has only recently been slowed by an understandable loss away to Tampa Bay and a 1-1 draw last week against the Baby Bulls.

Names to remember on Sunday, which is so, so far away, include leading goalscorer Mour Samb (7), a legitimately dangerous attacking threat up front and on the wing, as well as man-mountain Wal Fall and Christiano Francois. Carl Haworth is a human Swiss Army knife for the Fury and does just about everything well, including leading the team in chances created. Kevin Oliveira is also not to be ignored.

The Fury, thanks to that dynamic midfield, is a possession-oriented team and efficient with their passing, averaging over 70% completions in the opposing half, and over 450 passes per game. They can also boast an 18% conversion rate, which is truly spectacular. Nikola Popovich’s second season in Ontario has really been a much better reflection of his philosophy than the last one.

The Fury played a domestic cup match on Wednesday this week, so several of their players might be on short rest. LouCity should have most of its roster available, though captain Paolo DelPiccolo doesn’t sound like he’ll be available. The good news is Speedy and Franno are back, so Hackworth actually has some flexibility in his tactical and personnel choices for once. Ottawa seem to like playing a 4-3-3, and TD Place has a pretty big field, so there could be opportunities in wide areas. That said, the Fury center backs are huge, so City will have to find a way to spread them out as finding aerial chances there won’t be easy.

This is a good opportunity for Morados to pick up some points they dropped earlier in the season to some teams they shouldn’t have. Let’s go get ’em. VAMOS MORADOS.