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    Guest

    Fight for your right to paaaaaaarty!

    By Guest, in 24th Minute,

    New England Revolution captain Shalrie Joseph has been arrested for trespassing. The incident occurred last weekend and resulted in Joseph and defender Kevin Alston being suspended from the team. However, at the time the Revs did not release details as to why the two players were sent home.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    Today the Boston Globe reports that the discipline came after Joseph was arrested for refusing to leave a common area of the team's hotel. Both he and Alston were at a room rented by two unidentified women. Police were called to the room on a noise complaint.
    Joseph is alleged to have refused to vacate the hallway after police ordered him back to his room. He was then arrested.
    Alston was not arrested.
    The Revs are not commenting on the incident.
    It's possible that the arrest could prevent Joseph from playing in Toronto and Vancouver
    Guest

    Fan 590 retains TFC radio rights

    By Guest, in 24th Minute,

    Play-by-play man Dan Dunleavy blogged this morning that The Fan 590 has retained TFC radio rights for the 2011 season.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    A club official confirmed the news and said that an official announcement was forthcoming.
    There had been some thought that the new TSN radio might be a better fit. Several TFC games were bumped to fan590.com last season by Blue Jays games. Although the station did lose Argos football to TSN radio the Jays will still create scheduling issues.
    There was no indication that The Fan was changing the nature of its coverage from what fans saw in 2010.
    Guest
    Canadian soccer supporters – at least those who speak English most of the time – seem disproportionately keen on Canadian footballers in England. It's not a huge mystery why: English soccer has always enjoyed more exposure here than other European leagues, making it easy to follow.
    Yes, the tribulations of David Hoilett and Canada’s quartet of Championship footballers have caused much hand-wringing. Beyond the obvious will-he-or-won’t-he stuff with Hoilett, there’s Simeon Jackson and what’s left of his once promising season with Norwich, the screeching halt to Jamie Peters’ run at rightback for Ipswich Town since Roy Keane departed as manager, and David Edgar, who can’t catch a break off the pitch, nevermind on it. His January transfer to Swansea was scuttled because of paperwork trouble and he continues to languish on the subs bench or worse with Burnley. Iain Hume has fared better, but he’s out with a pulled groin.
    Yes, it’s all tragic stuff for the England lads, but it’s also unfortunate that their stumbles should overshadow a tidy little story unfolding in Germany.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    Earlier this season it looked like all of Rob Friend, Adam Straith and Marcel de Jong could win promotion to the Bundesliga. That pipe dream is squelched somewhat, what with Energie Cottbus slipping to seventh spot and the coaches there deciding Straith isn’t quite ready for prime time anyway. And Friend is used ever more sparingly at Hertha Berlin. The third member of that 2.Bundesliga triumvirate, however, is humming along quite nicely. Marcel de Jong has three goals in 18 appearances for Augsburg this season. That stat is good for two reasons. First, he’s enjoying consistent playing time, and second, two of those goals have come in his last three matches.
    Check out his goal on the weekend, which helped Augsburg to a 2-0 victory over 1860 München. With the result Augsburg stays second in 2.Bundesliga behind Hertha. Part of the original worry was that even if their clubs did make it to the German top flight, Straith, de Jong, and even Friend, wouldn’t get playing time.
    That’s fair enough, but if the 24-year-old de Jong is playing regularly now, and puts together a nice scoring run as the season climaxes, Long Balls sees no reason why he wouldn’t be right there fighting for a regular spot in the Bundesliga next year.
    To those of you out there who know your German football, what do you think?
    Other Canadian performances of note.
    Josh Simpson played his customary 90 minutes in a 2-1 loss to Trabzonspor on Monday, while Atiba Hutchinson also went 90 in a 4-1 win over NAC Breda on Sunday.
    Pedro Miguel Salgadinho Pacheco de Melo played 90 minutes too! He's fully back at it after injury struggles early in the season, setting up the winning goal in a 2-1 victory for Santa Clara against Feirense in the Portuguese 2nd division.
    The only action the four Championship footballers mentioned above managed in the five combined games their clubs played on the weekend and mid-week was an 88th minute substitute appearance by Simeon Jackson in a 1-1 draw with Doncaster on Tuesday.
    Guest
    Today, we're joined by Earl Cochrane, Toronto FC's Director of Team Operations, to speak about the goals of the MLS/CSA taskforce, Canadian quotas in MLS, pathways for the CIS university players into MLS and making Toronto 'the epicentre' for training facilities in Canada.
    We'll also discuss the Canadian U-17s qualifying for the World Cup, debate the benefit of the new MLS playoff structure and talk about TFC's newest trialists.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    <embed src="http://itscalledfootball.podhoster.com/FlowPlayerLight.swf?config={embedded:true,videoFile:%27http://itscalledfootball.podhoster.com/download/2540/22081/feb23.2011final.mp3%27,initialScale:%27scale%27,controlBarBackgroundColor:%270x778899%27,autoBuffering:false,loop:false,autoPlay:false}" width="400" height="25" scale="fit" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>
    Guest
    Canada has qualified for the World Cup.
    You're right, it's not a senior World Cup. But it's a tournament that Canada hasn't participated in since 1995. So our boys' 2-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago on Wednesday afternoon should give some hope not only to fans of the national program, but of our pro club teams in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    The star of the game -- and, if the Jamaican television announcer is to be believed, of the entire tournament -- was midfielder Keven Aleman. Though he wilted somewhat in the 37-degree heat as the game wore on, he and his offensive teammates ripped apart the Trinidadian defence in the first half. Aleman himself scored an absolute cracker, shoulder-faking two defenders before pushing the ball to his left foot and ripping it into the goal from 20 yards out.
    His pedigree? Toronto FC Academy.
    There was captain Bryce Alderson, calmly controlling the play from the centre of midfield. The reigning Canadian male U17 player of the year was a low-key contributor, but kept things under control enough to allow teammates such as Aleman and Michael Petrasso (another TFC Academy product) to burst forth with flourishes of forward movement.
    His pedigree? Vancouver Whitecaps Academy.
    And Canada kept a clean sheet for the third straight game, after a 0-0 draw with Honduras and a 8-0 shellacking of Barbados. The Canadian backline was never severely tested in the showdown with Trinidad, but an organized defence can often be attributed to a strong organizing influence from their goalkeeper. In this case, that's Maxime Crepeau, who showed bravery and timing when call upon to thwart the limited attacks the Trinidad side threw in Canada's direction.
    His pedigree? Montreal Impact Academy.
    Last but not least, we've got Christopher Nanco. Though he did miss a few sitters in the first half, he got on the end of a tic-tac-toe play (long throw-in, header and another header) to bury Canada's first goal and get the momentum fully swinging in their direction. His bursts of speed down the right flank caused some trouble for Trinidad's defence, and he had an uncanny ability to put himself in the perfect position to receive crosses from his teammates -- and has plenty of time to work on his finishing, considering he's, y'know, a teenager.
    His pedigree? Sigma FC, a private academy.
    The point? To clumsily paraphrase my originally clumsy sentiment from a week and a half ago: Holy shit, we may actually be turning into a soccer nation! Our ability to draw high-quality players from the academies of our three pro teams (and, hopefully, that of FC Edmonton sometime soon), as well as private academies is a terrific sign. It means young kids with aspirations of playing soccer professionally now have serious domestic outlets for their talents.
    And it means our domestic clubs can utilize the base of hundreds of thousands of youngsters playing the game in this country, funneling them up through to the first team and -- ideally, in the case of a select few of them -- onto the roster of our senior men's national team.
    The biggest benefit there may be the pre-emptive prevention of defections to other nations. When youngsters ply their trade for a country through their formative years, you can only hope their sense of fealty to that nation is greater than if they'd developed their soccer talents elsewhere. (Though obviously this isn't always the case.)
    During the live chat hosted here on Canadian Soccer News, a few people voiced a typically Canadian sense of worry about Aleman: Specifically, about the fact that he was born in Costa Rica, with the tragically self-defeating attitude that, if he really does turn out to be great, of course he'll choose to play for the nation of his birth.
    But after the game, after the boys in red had qualified for the U17 World Cup, who was the one waving the Canadian flag with the most vigour and pride? You've got it: Aleman.
    Canadian fans, we've got a lot to look forward to on both the domestic and national fronts, if this game is any indication. That may not mean much for the immediate future (Brazil 2014, or the next few years in MLS). But this could be the start of something very big, and very good, in this country.
    The U17 squad will play in the CONCACAF semifinal against a very beatable Panama on Friday, with a potential matchup in the continental final against the winner of USA v. Jamaica.
    Guest
    Whitecaps fans are excited about the guerilla marketing efforts of the club to get the brand out into the community. They should be. Anything that gets people talking about MLS is a good thing.
    However, the 'Caps aren't the only front office that deserves credit for getting creative. San Jose, who has a bit of a history with creative marketing, has been running a serious of clever commercials under the theme of "Earthquakes versus ___"
    Have a look at one:
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]


    You can see some others here.
    It's enough to make a TFC fan nostalgic.


    Guest

    It's not named after a bank for no reason

    By Guest, in 24th Minute,

    BMO Field realized an operating profit of $641,000 in 2010. The profit was $241,000 more than projected.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    Not surprising, really. MLSE does know how to make a profit after all. However, it is worthwhile to point out that we are talking about a soccer stadium in Canada here. If you had suggested four years ago that a soccer only facility would be profitable in this country you would have been called a fool.
    The great news is that this is now old news. We aren't surprised by the sport making money. If BMO had not generated some coin this would have been news.
    It's still important, however. Recent political changes in Toronto mean that any unprofitable city property could find itself in trouble. New mayor Rob "gravy train" Ford would be hard pressed to screw with something that makes the city money though.
    Guest
    It's the most important U17 game you'll watch all year!*
    The Canadian side -- featuring academy players from Toronto FC, the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps -- needs a win to qualify for the FIFA Men's U17 World Cup for the first time since 1995.
    Kickoff is at 12 p.m. Eastern. Join Squizz and Rudi right here for the live blog/chat LIVE RIGHT NOW.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    <iframe src="http://www.coveritlive.com/index2.php/option=com_altcaster/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=aca94da7ba/height=550/width=470" scrolling="no" height="550px" width="470px" frameBorder ="0" allowTransparency="true" ><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=aca94da7ba" >CONCACAF U17 1/4 Final - CANADA v. T&T</a></iframe>
    *Unless Canada wins, in which case there'll be multiple games of greater importance yet to come.
    Guest

    Ohhhhh Danny Dichio

    By Guest, in 24th Minute,

    The man himself made the announcement:
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    That's from his Twitter feed.Do not mistake the promotion of Dichio as a promotional effort. Although it is good PR to keep the cult hero on in some capacity, the u19 program is vital to the future of the club. TFC isn't going to put a figurehead in charge.
    Dichio, by all accounts, is a very good coach and a coach that commands respect from his players -- players, it should be noted, that were at an impressionable age when the big man scored in the 24th minute against Chicago.
    In a competitive recruiting environment it doesn't hurt to have Dichio shaking mom and dad's hand -- he has a song, after all. How many of us have a song?
    Photo credit - Chris Hazard Photography. The image is of Danny Dichio celebrating his last career goal
    Guest
    Today, we're joined by Mike McColl, long time Southsider and writer of Away from the Numbers and Metro's ALL Caps, to speak about how the Vancouver ticketing problems have run deeper than a few frustrated TFC supporters. We'll talk to him about how the Southsiders actually want away fans there, the clash of supporters culture vs sports culture and how a solution to the First Kick ticket problems may have been found.
    We'll also be talking about Montreal's upcoming game against New York and how it relates to FC Edmonton, if the CWNT should be asked to re-coup the cash if they boycott in Cyprus and we preview the Toronto FC Disney games and discuss their latest coaching changes.
    We're back to our regular schedule when Toronto FC's Earl Cochrane joins us Wednesday evening to talk about the MLS/CSA development taskforce.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    <embed src="http://itscalledfootball.podhoster.com/FlowPlayerLight.swf?config={embedded:true,videoFile:%27http://itscalledfootball.podhoster.com/download/2540/22036/feb22.2011final.mp3%27,initialScale:%27scale%27,controlBarBackgroundColor:%270x778899%27,autoBuffering:false,loop:false,autoPlay:false}" width="400" height="25" scale="fit" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>
    Guest

    The blurred line of fan journalism

    By Guest, in Media Takedown,

    Anyone who has ever tried searching for news about Canadian soccer on the Internet knows that MLS receives by far the most regular coverage in print media. Just this week there were stories filed on the Whitecaps preseason , the Redbulls visit to Montreal , and Dwayne de Rosario welcoming his new Dutch overlords with open arms (meanwhile the only national news came by way of the National Post’s Financial section, with a story on how the CSA got some money back from would-be sponsor Hyundai).
    It makes sense; local papers, save for a few notable exceptions (I’m looking at you Edmonton Journal, at least sometimes), have no incentive to cover the national team set-up. Meanwhile the two Canadian “national” newspapers—the Post and the Globe and Mail—are more known for their right and middle-right (respectively) op-eds on the importance of fiscal conservatism than their wide-ranging sports coverage, so covering the men's and women's teams isn't high on the priority list.
    That leaves independent, fan-driven online sites to regularly cover the Canadian men and women’s soccer teams and fill in the news gap. Chances are if you’re reading this column, you already bookmarked those sites ages ago. Unlike newspaper journalists, the incentive for an independent site to cover the CMNT and CWNT isn’t money, it’s personal interest, i.e. fandom. One might assume there would be a “conflict of interest” when fans are entrusted to write objectively about their sport. Yet as you know, Canadian soccer supporters tend to ask the hard questions, maintain a critical eye to their national team, include a daunting amount of details in articles, and dig a lot deeper into things like governance and funding disputes at the administrative level, areas of news that put a lot of sports desk editors to sleep.
    These are all good things, but Canadian soccer bloggers are also Canadian soccer fans. As such they tend to share or at least empathize with the sentiments typical among football supporters. One of them involves player loyalty, as we saw this week with the injury to USMNT-capped, once would-be Canadian national team player Teal Bunbury.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    Back in November, Benjamin Massey penned a well-researched, expertly-reasoned and all-around objective article on Bunbury’s decision to play for the US over Canada which casually included this caveat:
    Massey was merely being honest, as were a lot of other Canadian soccer writers and supporters were this week when they reacted to news of Bunbury’s elbow knack: they didn’t feel particularly bad about it, and some even abused the Buddhist concept “karma” in saying so. The reaction of fans sparked a bit of a backlash last week from a prominent national soccer writer which took a holier-than-thou attitude about fans wishing harm to a player, which Duane Rollins last week criticized as disingenuous “moral outrage.” But there is another issue here, over whether Canadian soccer bloggers' sympathy with CMNT fans' reaction to Bunbury's injury constitutes some sort of breach of journalistic integrity. The answer I think is no, as Massey’s article demonstrates. First of all, sports is by its very nature partisan, like politics. But unlike politics, serious sports bloggers (i.e. the ones worth reading) tend to much more objective than their ideological counterparts. They don’t to go easy on their team, and try to avoid becoming flag-waving sycophants. They want to know as much as humanly possible about players, wages, stadium deals, whatever, and unless they are delusional, they also can sympathize (on paper) with players who grew up in Minnesota their whole lives and chose to play for the U.S. But they can also reserve the right to empathize in print with the sentiment of fellow supporters who express not-a-little schadenfreude at Bunbury’s poor luck, while not sharing it explicitly in print.
    For a prominent Canadian sports journalist, at an established media giant, to criticize Canadian soccer fans for essentially being fans, in a media environment that ignores Canadian soccer to an unbelievable degree in comparison to other countries with our level of participation in the sport, is particularly galling. It is also an indirect attack on the many hardworking, un-or-low-paid writers for whom Canadian soccer is both their passion and their subject as sports journalists.
    When the Canadian sports media takes ownership of their appalling ignorance about Canadian soccer, then they can lecture to fans and bloggers on what is acceptable in football fandom and what isn't.
    Richard Whittall writes on football from his hovel in Toronto, Canada. In addition to A More Splendid Life, he also writes the Canadian Soccer history blog, The Spirit of Forsyth. He is the associate editor of Tom Dunmore's award-winning Pitch Invasion. And his writing has appeared in Toronto Life, the Globe and Mail, and he was a contributor for Brooks Peck's Yahoo! blog Dirty Tackle for the 2010 World Cup. His columns on media and football will appear weekly on Canadian Soccer News. Follow him on Twitter @RWhittall
    Guest
    TFC announced that academy head coach and former Canadian international Jason Bent has been promoted to a senior team assistant role.
    In my role for MLSsoccer.com I will be speaking to Bent later today. I will update with his insight following that.
    The club confirmed to me that they will be making an announcement next week indicating who will be replacing Bent with the academy.
    Guest

    The Maestracci conundrum

    By Guest, in Onward Soccer,

    A few days have passed, and there are still no tentative answers to any of the many unresolved Canadian soccer questions I posed last week.
    So let’s ask ourselves some questions. Looking ahead – what do we want?
    The vast majority of the Canadian Soccer Association reform package takes effect in – at most – fifteen months. That coincides nicely with the end of Dominic Maestracci’s current term as president.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    A lot has happened under Maestracci, who was elected into the void after former president Colin Lindford decamped in 2007. Linford had pushed hard for reform, but the CSA board dug in hard against him, and it became clear very quickly the situation was unworkable.
    Since then, the CSA made the very wise move of appointing Peter Montopoli as general secretary, the day-to-day go-to guy who gives this awkward, antiquated organization the actual ability to move forward.
    Yes, the 2008 World Cup qualifying campaign had to self-destruct before the CSA could be convinced that Stephen Hart should, in fact, be allowed to coach the senior men’s national team. The Dale Mitchell disaster was the last straw for many. Sweeping CSA reforms were – at last – introduced, and even – eventually – passed.
    What’s not clear – what is never clear – is what Maestracci actually does.
    We almost never hear from the man. When we do, he is off-point, and difficult to understand.
    NOTE WELL >>> This is not an attack on the man’s somewhat limited abilities with the English language. Maestracci’s English is vastly better than my French. You will not hear any attacks on accents from this reporter.
    I’m more concerned about his ideas – or apparent lack thereof.
    You always knew where Linford stood. Even when the man’s presidency was going down in hundred-foot-long green flames, he told us all in great detail how long those flames were – and what colour.
    Andy Sharpe, before him, opened his presidency by shutting down both the fictional Canadian United Soccer League and a laughably premature bid for Canada to try to host the FIFA World Cup.
    (McMahon Stadium IS Anfield! Honest!)
    Maestracci’s words can easily be translated. But that doesn’t really make them any clearer.
    Most recently – and famously – Maestracci sent a deeply puzzling (and astonishingly incorrect) letter to about-to-be-ousted Alberta Soccer Association first VP Mario Charpentier.
    Maestracci assured Charpentier – who was rudely and roundly routed from office just days later – that his position was not in danger. The letter was absurdly off-topic, and roundly contradicted several judicial rulings on the matter. It was duly – and completely – ignored by the Alberta membership at the ensuing SGM.
    And now, we have reform. But we have delayed reform, thanks to two Alberta representatives who ignored the wishes of their membership. These gentlemen subsequently explained their “no” vote was “for the good of the country.”
    We don’t know who told them that, but it clearly wasn’t any of the provincial and territorial soccer association presidents who would – otherwise – have passed full and immediate reform.
    And once again – as always – Maestracci’s role is unclear.
    The trickier question – who should succeed him? Vice president Victor Montagliani is the early front-runner, but he’s not your average reformer’s cup of tea. OSA president Ron Smale pushed harder for reform than anyone, but the sheer bluntness needed to achieve that may have alienated too many people in too many places.
    So, let us all ask ourselves:
    - Who, in all this nation of muted, flickering soccer dreams, should be named Canadian Soccer Association president in the spring of 2012?
    - What kind of leadership do we all really want?
    - Have you got any good Dominic Maestracci stories you want to share?
    See you in the comments section.
    Onward!
    Guest
    Several members of the Canadian women's team have been Tweeting this morning about their travel situation. Here is an example from Melanie Booth:
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    This is not to pick on Booth in particular. As stated, it's just one example of several excited Tweets. And who could blame them? As Canada wakes up to sub-zero temperatures this morning there would be many people excited by the prospect of seeing the Cyprus beach today. Normally such a proclamation wouldn't register to the average Canadian, or even the average Canadian soccer fan. However, this year the women made it register. As most here know the women have announced that they will be boycotting games in Cyprus if their demands of the CSA are not settled prior to the start of the tournament in six days.
    It should be noted that the CSA is paying for the women to travel to the ocean today. It should also be noted that they are flying to Cyprus from Italy where they have been since just after they announced the boycott.
    Since neither side is talking, it's impossible to truly evaluate the legitimacy of the women's demands, especially as they relate to Carolina Morace's call for more control. However, what we can do is look at the optics of this.
    A quick look on Travelocity.ca reveals that it would cost $3,745 return to fly to Cyprus from Toronto for a one week getaway. As a random and reflective example, The Coral Beach Hotel comes in at about $100 a day and you're likely looking at $50 a day for food. So, about $4,795 for the week.
    There are 38 people on the trip (25 players, 13 staff). Since two of the 13 staff could be classified as being there on the CSA behalf let's call it 36. That's $172,620 for one week in Cyprus (the CSA likely gets a better rate than what the average Canadian would get, but they were also in Rome for more than a week. Also, the point of this exercise is to demonstrate value).
    Even if you cut that estimate in half, you are still looking at more than $80,000 in expenses the CSA is absorbing for the women to "boycott."
    You could rent Toronto's Lamport Stadium for eight hours a day for a week for half that. If you think that's a silly example, then compare the cost of training in Florida to Rome.
    The point is it isn't much of a boycott if you are willing to take CSA money to spend several weeks in Europe. It would be petty and counterproductive for the CSA to force the women to pay back the money if they do pull out of the Cyprus event, but there would be a lot more Canadians supportive of such a move than the women should be comfortable with.
    Bluntly, the women should have refused to travel to the camp until the CSA dealt with their demands. That would have demonstrated that they were serious and willing to make a true sacrifice to the lifestyle they have become accustom to.
    They would have also had a better opportunity to keep this story in the news. As it is, the story disappeared off the sports pages about the same time the women disappeared off the shores of North America.
    Guest

    CONCACAF Champions League preview

    By Guest, in 24th Minute,

    Ray Burse Jr. is starting in goal for Columbus.
    You can try and break down tonight's CONCACAF Champions League game all sorts of ways, but the appearance of the Crew's third string keeper, a guy that moved back to Columbus in 2010 to go to school, could be the bottom line.
    That's not a slight on Burse, he did play a few games for FC Dallas a couple years back, but it's not ideal. The Crew are beat up and are squarely in re-build mode already. In addition to the issue at keeper Columbus is also missing projected starters Kevin Burns and Danny O'Rourke for the game.
    Salt Lake is pretty much healthy and is only missing Robbie Findley from the side that qualified for the quarterfinals of the CCL.

    SLC is geared up for this thing too (interestingly, it's the lead story in the Salt Lake Tribune). They are healthy and, well, better than the 2011 Crew. They should be considered heavy favourites.
    The weather might end up grabbing the most headlines. Currently they are calling for -2C at kick-off, with 10km winds from the North-west. Of all the winds, the north-west winds are the worst. It's unclear whether the weather will provide an advantage to either team. It's unlikely anyone other than the hardest of the hardcore will be in the stands. Based on last year's cold weather nights, BMO Field wouldn't be much fuller than Crew Stadium will be. So this isn't meant as a dig at the Crew fans. Rather, it's a reflection of reality -- a near empty stadium will neutralize home advantage.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    What's great about this year's draw is that the two MLS sides are playing off against each other to play the winner of another non-Mexican quarterfinal. Thus, there will be a non-Mexican team in the final. CONCACAF claims that wasn't done on purpose. Most of us would be more impressed if it was (and would suggest that it would be better for the tournament if moving forward there were Mexican and non-Mexican sides of the draw). One of the biggest problems MLS sides have had in this event is trying to compete with in-form Mexican teams (that are more talented to begin with) while in pre-season form. This evens that out. It will be April before MLS lines up against a FMF side.
    The other quarters see Saprissa, likely the most successful CONCACAF team outside of Mexico, take on Olimpia of Honduras. The winner plays the MLS team still standing.
    Two Mexican team Canadian fans will be familiar with -- Cruz Azul and Santos -- face off in one semi, while Toluca and Monterrey play off in the other.
    Americans can watch the games on Fox Soccer Channel. Canadians can watch at CONCACAF.org.
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