Since our footballing travels take us to a range or weird and wonderful places following the Whitecaps at all the various levels and watching the local soccer scene, we started a "Groundhopping" feature last year to take a look at some of the more characteristic football stadia that we end up watching from in the US and Canada.

We kicked the feature off with a trip to Cheney Stadium in Tacoma when the Caps U23s played there against Seattle in PDL action.

Despite our best intentions, we never continued the series, but we're going to make amends for that with the first of three new stadiums we took in on a recent vacation. Again it was to watch the Caps play the Sounders in PDL action but this time we were east of Tacoma, in Sumner's Sunset Stadium.
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Episode eleven of "There's Still Time", the AFTN podcast. Our last podcast was just before the Voyageurs Cup final and there's been a lot happening in Whitecapsland since then.

There are no cups running over in Vancouver, just a lot of heartache and a long season still ahead.

Recorded on location at UBC at the Caps' U23 friendly with North Sound Sea Wolves, we briefly look back at the highs of the New York and the lows of Montreal, before moving on to look at the Alain Rochat trade, the heartbreaking loss in Seattle and the back to back home games coming up for the Whitecaps. We also hear briefly from Nigel Reo-Coker.

And there's still time to look at the hot news topic in Canadian soccer this week, the CSA taking action against the Quebec Soccer Federation for their banning of wearing turbans whilst playing. With co-host Steve being a Sikh himself, we get an interesting insight into the whole debacle.
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You may have heard that Canadian coach Frank Yallop is out of a job. It came as a bit of a surprise. Yes, the Earthquakes were struggling a bit, but he is less than a year off winning MLS' Manager of the year award, along with the Supporter's Shield. Yallop was a ...

So, lost somewhat in the hubbub of the women's national team playing the much-hyped (and ultimately disappointing) "rematch" against the #1 team in the world is the fact that they've also got a showdown with the #2 team in the world later this month.

As has been his habit so far in 2013, head coach John Herdman continues tinkering with his lineup. Once again he'll be taking a look at a few new faces, while keeping the core of the team largely intact. While he's spoken of a development gap that will need addressing in the years ahead -- and the only way to close that gap is to see what young players have got -- he's also cognizant of the reality that running out a team full of newbies to be slaughtered by top competition isn't especially productive either.

With that in mind, here's the 18-woman roster who'll head into Germany for the friendly on Wednesday, June 19 (9 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. ET kickoff on Sportsnet One):
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An extension to Canadian Soccer News’ MLS Week in Review, this article provides a closer look at the performances of the Canadian players who saw the pitch this week.

Russell Teibert, Kyle Porter, and Will Johnson claim the top three spots – only four players actually saw the pitch in a truncated weekend schedule with Dwayne De Rosario starting on the bench and only entering in the 75th minute.

Find out what they did to deserve recognition and who else earned their keep this week. ...

The fifteenth round of MLS wrapped up on night Saturday with a pair of high-profile Western Conference matches. Though a truncated fixture list with World Cup Qualifiers strewn about - a lone midweek fixture and four on Saturday – the league provided more than enough entertainment for the average fan.

Sixteen goals, including a stunning free-kick and one from the spot, were scored through the five matches leading to no away wins and a pair of draws. Fourteen yellow cards were shown with zero reds – despite a debutant referee in New England (who did quite well).

Off the field the shock parting of ways between San Jose and long-time coach Frank Yallop, by mutual agreement, as though there was any other way to frame it, mere months removed from winning the Supporter’s Shield, shocked both onlookers and players alike, prompting many to wonder if there was something deeper in play.

Though still very early in the season, table watching provides some interesting viewing. Dallas’ once seemingly insurmountable lead in the West has slow evaporated with Salt Lake drawing within a single point – with two more games played. Seattle, once banished to the foot of the conference, has battled their way into fourth place.

New England missed a chance to nip Philadelphia for the fifth spot in the East, while DC drew within two of Toronto at the bottom, to set up a basement battle this upcoming weekend.

Before the results, the goal of the round. ...

"One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy."

Wise words from the Greek philosopher and if we were to put them into a modern day football setting, then it’s a pretty good reflection of the recent happenings in Whitecapsland.

One win does not a season make. Similarly, one game does not make everything suddenly right with the tactics, squad and management. After Seattle, one game doesn't make everything wrong either, but when you have more of those to draw on in the season so far, it certainly adds more fuel to a rising fire amongst the supporters.
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The statement almost begs for a laugh track.

Don Garber bursts through the door and into the upscale Brooklyn loft where an English man, Spanish woman and German couple are being entertained by an old Italian man.

Puzzled, they look at the over eager Garber – his sawker jersey neatly pressed and tucked into his skinny fit American Eagle jeans.

What do you want, the old man says to Garber.

Garber pauses, looks around and thrusts his chest out.

“One day,” he says excitedly, “One day I’m going to make it! I’m going be sitting with you right here in this loft! Just you wait and see!”

With that Garber skips out, tripping through the door, before going downstairs to set up a lemonade stand on the corner.

(Canned laughter)

Or, Garber walks up to a microphone and says “MLS’ stated goal of being one of the best leagues in the world by 2022.”

(Real laughter)
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Stories like this are what make me miss Ben Knight’s reporting.

For whatever you thought of Ben, his work on the CSA reform and shining a light under the boulder of its bureaucracy really was unparalleled. He had a way of framing the debate, or seeing through the fog of opinion, and putting a finer point on issues that were often too complicated for even the keenest observers.

I also think he really took pleasure – even if it was just a little - in taking down those CSA bureaucrats who either stood in the way of moving our game forward or embodied the buffoon behaviour that we have come abhor.

And no behaviour has been more buffoonish than what has come out of the Quebec Soccer Association this week.

In case you missed it, here is the latest. The Quebec Soccer Association (QSF) has decided that it is, in their words, going to abide by FIFA law and continue to uphold a ban on turbans.

On their teleconference call the QSF claimed that the Sikh headwear were a safety issue but when questioned on how many injuries said headwear had caused in the past, they couldn’t name a single one. The incident has drawn international headlines and today, the Canadian Soccer Association finally responded with some pretty direct threats aimed at the provincial body.

“As an unequivocal majority of our membership agrees with our approach and has safe instituted it within their respective soccer communities, we expect the Quebec Soccer Federation to do the same,” said Victor Montagliani, President of the Canadian Soccer Association.

That’s the first step and it re-asserts the CSA’s position on the matter during this firestorm but it doesn’t go far enough.

The QSF president Martial Prudhomme, who is also a member of the CSA board of directors, must immediately step down from his board position. And if he has any desire to spare the QSF any further embarrassment, he should step down from the president’s post as well.

Here is why:
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And so we bid adieu to Tommy Soehn’s Swiss Trinity. Oh, we knew this day was coming, ever since Davide Chiumiento was sold back to Zurich, and Eric Hassli unceremoniously exiled to Toronto. But it still came as something of a shock.

DC United has agreed to take on the 30-year old Alain Rochat and his $190,000 salary in exchange for their second round selection in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft, as well as a conditional pick in 2016.
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That's a pretty nice picture above. Chris Hazard does good work.

In it, hundreds of crisp, Voyageur flags flying in the south end of BMO field. There too, a sprinkling of Support Local Soccer flags - brought from those who were there when this new wave of national team interest began a few summers ago. If you look up at the top, you can see the man in the red suit looking over it all - aka Jamie McLeod, the person largely behind the national team's growing supporters culture.

That being, specifically on this day, a sea of red in a sold out Toronto stadium, tuned into every play like it was the Olympic semi-finals.

All of it is framed in that photo by an advertisement for the World Cup 2015.

That's where the bottom drops out.
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It's been quite the week in Toronto for Canadian-born-but-not-currently-representing-Canada professional soccer players, huh?

First we had the Sydney Leroux hullabaloo, about which far too many thoughts have already been shared. Then we had QPR's David "Junior" Hoilett, born in a Toronto suburb exactly 23 years ago* but still mum on whether he'll ever represent his home and native land in international play, training with TFC -- facilitated by his ex-QPR teammate and current Reds head coach Ryan Nelsen.

For Canadian soccer fans, the past few days have just reinforced the nagging feeling that the sport exists merely as an elaborate effort by malicious soccer gods to troll us in every heartbreaking way possible. I mean, come on, to go through this and this and this over the course of just a few years... how do you deal with that?

Or, more specific to this case, how do you deal with Junior Hoilett?
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