Ottawa Fury FC Wins 2015 NASL Fair Play Award

Ottawa Fury FC are the recipients of the 2015 North American Soccer League (NASL) Fair Play Award, which is given annually to the team that compiles the best disciplinary record during the regular season.

Fury FC, the winners of the league’s Fall Season title and the No. 2 seed in The Championship, the league’s four-team postseason tournament, captured the award in the club’s second season in the NASL.

“It makes me proud,” Ottawa head coach Marc Dos Santos said. “I think we’re a very aggressive team, we’re a team that plays with a lot of passion, a lot of commitment, and yet we’re a clean team. We’re a team that manages the game well, that respects the officials, the game and the people around us starting from the players and coaching staff.”

In 30 regular-season games this year, Ottawa recorded just one red card and 45 yellow cards.

“Discipline is something that we preach - not putting the team in trouble with bad actions,” Dos Santos said. “It shows a team that isn’t selfish and gives everything that it has and it makes me very proud to see the team get this reward.”

After finishing in ninth place in the 10-game Spring Season, Ottawa rounded into form at the outset of the Fall Season, winning the title with a 13-6-1 record. Fury FC allowed a league-low 15 goals in the Fall Season, and just 23 overall in its 30 league games. Ottawa finished second in the Combined Standings, having been overtaken on the final weekend of the season by the New York Cosmos.

Fury FC is the third NASL club to win the Fair Play Award in the league’s Modern Era, joining the three-time winners Tampa Bay Rowdies (2011, 2012 and 2014) and Minnesota United FC (2013).