Long Balls is in the midst of some minor editorial tweaks. We're now including footballers from Canada's main Concacaf rivals like Honduras and Costa Rica and then judging which country can boast the best performances in the best leagues.
If it helps you to visualize these things, perhaps you could imagine Long Balls as something resembling a World Cup Nike commercial. A group of footballers - say Atiba Hutchinson, Bryan Ruiz, Wilson Palacios and a few others - is walking across a garbage-strewn vacant lot set against a generic third-world backdrop. Suddenly happy, clapping people from the neighbourhood surround the players and start whistling for a match. The footballers stare at each other with bemused expressions until Didier Drogba inexplicably pops up from nowhere sporting a toothy grin and a soccer ball and asks, "Where's the pitch?"
Or you could just use the series as a handy reference to how Canadian footballers abroad are faring. This weekend, for example, they didn't fare well.
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It's a sobering testament to the footballing prowess of Concacaf beyond the U.S. and Mexico that the most notable occurrence affecting a European-based player from any of those countries was a hamstring injury suffered by Tottenham's Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart.
Yes, that's right. The unlucky Dutchman's injury has the Honduran press bleating about how Wilson Palacios will finally get a chance for minutes in the Tottenham midfield. That is surprising, considering his form has stunk this year.
It was difficult to declare a "winner" from the performances this weekend, so I'm not going to. No Canadian stood out, except for Atiba Hutchinson, and that was for the wrong reasons. The Honduran duo of Maynor Figueroa and Hendry Thomas played most of two losses for Wigan, and Costa Rican striker Bryan Ruiz buggered his knee. Here is the rundown:
Canada
No scorers this week. PSV's Atiba Hutchinson turned in a forgettable performance at rightback. That's the position at which he seems to be getting minutes now, despite playing most of his career as a central midfielder.
Josh Simpson played 81 minutes for Manisaspor in the Turkish top flight... and had a baby girl! That would be out and away the performance of the weekend if it weren't for the fact it doesn't have anything to do with soccer.
Simeon Jackson seems to have drifted back into a sub's roll at Norwich City in the English second division. He came on in the 85th minute in a 4-1 victory over Ipswich Town.*
Canada maybes
Jonathan de Guzman moved into a more defensive midfield position as one of two holders in a 4-2-3-1 as Mallorca beat Málaga 2-0. That's surprising, as from everything I've read he's been performing well this year in the attacking role.
Honduras
The aforementioned Wilson Palacios didn't have a particularly good match against Liverpool, although there are rumours that Juventus wants him. Maynor Figueroa and Hendry Thomas started and played significant minutes for Wigan in both the weekend loss to West Ham and the Carling Cup loss to Arsenal on Tuesday.
Costa Rica
Twente's striker Bryan Ruiz suffered a knee injury and won't play again until next year.
Jamaica
Stoke City striker Ricardo Fuller played 75 minutes in a 1-1 draw with Manchester City.
*This article originally referred to Norwich City's victory as a loss.