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I can not claim to be an expert on the Scottish MNT player pool; but from what I have seen of Scott, and the Scottish National Team, it does make me puzzled why they never invested a few matches in him over the last 4 years. Well, good for him I guess. I mean, if they cap tied him up for a game or two and then never called him again, this opportunity would not have happened. He seems to have made peace with not playing for Scotland and I look forward to a good 5 or 6 years with him playing for Canada. He has an exciting chance to be part of a growing program in a country that is growing at the professional level.

A Spanish Second Divison club has signed Iain Hume:

Floro continues to open doors for our players in Spain.

Not sure if this is posted anywhere else but apparently Hume landed in Spains 2nd division http://www.marca.com/futbol/ponferradina/2016/02/08/56b8c287268e3e2f108b45dd.html

If it is in Vienna (or close to it), I might be able to make a day trip from the Czech Republic.

Albania plays differently than CONCACAF teams. I dont even bother with rankings lately as tooo many teams ahead of us It will be a Really good challenge for the guys glad CSA made it happen.

Cornelius still getting playing time with Terek in training camp friendlies even as the quality of opposition is increasing so one would think he has good prospects of a transfer. He played the last 20 minutes in a 3-0 victory over Czech team Victoria Pilsen. http://fc-terek.ru/en/newslist/#6744

The Sun papers in the UK make our Sun papers in Canada look like the New York Times.

Canada vs Albania on Sunday June 5th http://fax.al/read/news/2618974/11041563/shqiperia-miqesore-me-kanadane-me-5-qershor Albania's EURO Qualification record: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2016_qualifying_Group_I Somebody already included it in their 2016 wikipedia game calendar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albania_national_football_team (as taking place in Munich, Germany) http://fax.al/read/news/2623050/11043431/kombetarja-e-shqiperise-do-te-luaje-kunder-kanadase (this link says it will take place in Austria) I will edit this post as more info becomes available. Really good match IMO. Well done CSA/Floro. The FIFA dates are from Monday May 30th to Tuesday June 7th.

Well that is a surprise, did not expecct that. And could not tell you how he came to make that deal, only that their best striker, a Brazilian, Yuri, was just sold to China and they must have had a free roster spot, combined with Humey being out of contract. A couple points above relegation. This is the team that Nsaliwa was signed to help for a few games before they went down to 2B, then came back up almost immediately to 2A. I guess Tam thought 2B was below him. They have a new coach, Nistal, who may be provisional or may stay, depending upon results. Before they had Barragán who played with De Guzman at Deportivo, I think. I've never been to the stadium, Toralín, but walked past it and looked in on the Camino de Santiago, as well as having been through the whole area. A pretty little town, isolated in a lush valley called El Bierzo which is geographically more part of Galicia that Castille, with wine growing, good food, a modest place though. Has an immense power plant a couple of miles out of town, used to be a mining area. Like a lot of teams in 2nd in Spain playing well over their heads in 2nd Div, but have been very competitive and as their defense is good, I think they just need a few goals and they'll stay up. Iain has never played in this style before, it may surprise him, but he is fairly technical and has good pace so I think he'll adapt. The fans are kiling the front office for signing him, they have no idea who he is and do not think he can help at all. One joked that Hume's only condition for signing was that he would not have share a locker with Descartes.

That's a great landing spot for Hume, especially given how he was tumbling down the English pyramid.

The best producing academy is Sigma IMO. Bekker, Larin, Laryea, Welshman. I'm starting to believe that sending players to the NCAA maybe a better idea than sending them to USL Pro for MLS purposes. Even though the Super Draft is losing relevance, it still hypes up players and showcases them to american teams. If you're an academy kid, it seems that if you don't make the first team you have to find your way in europe because no other MLS team gives you a chance. I'm really worried that Jordan Hamilton will never make it to the first team. He should move to Europe before he's too old for them to consider a prospect.

So if this game does happen there's a very good chance I'll be there. Any other European based Vee's or people who want a nice summer vacation in Austria or Munich?

I saw a bit of the game where they beat Portugal in Portugal. Like a lot of the lower level European teams, they're solid and well-organized and challenged offensively. I would expect the game vs. Canada to be a snoozefest unfortunately and a tie to be a good result. One thing I've noticed about watching the Euro qualifiers this time around is how hard-working the smaller teams are nowadays. I always feel Canada's work ethic is relatively inadequate.

That was a tough one and I gave it some thought and decided the minimum would be 2+ years with the youth academy (U12-U20) for various reasons. Most players move between youth systems a lot in their U12 to U20 development. Until a player actually gets on the field for the MNT I don't think too much about it. First even if a player goes to Europe after 2+ years the case can be made that they developed at the academy enough to get that shot. Yes Cottbus could get some credit for Straith but would he have had the chance to go there if he hadn't developed in the Caps system? Second I am trying to gauge the effectiveness of the various youth development systems not the 20+ development. The 20+ development is very crucial but maybe someone else can take on that one. It is beyond the scope of this simple list. Some like Teibert were in TFC for a year but then moved to Vancouver. That makes it difficult. I decided to go with the one they spent the majority of the time at. Others like Larin spent 7 years in the SigmaFC system which makes it very easy. I wish all our youth had that level of development and stability. Some have joked (half joked?) that I should include Nacional in Uruguay as they have developed talent for us. I decided to focus on Canadian academies. Then you have the special case of Henry who was signed by TFC in 2008 before they had their academy. In those days their reserve team played in the CSL and was their defacto development system at TFC so I decided to include him. I use Wikipedia (with all its flaws) as the source for most info and they list him as "TFC Academy 2008-2010". It is all kind of murky and convoluted but I try to be fair as best I can with the info available. I hope that explains it. PS. In the case of Adonijah Reid it is hard to find info on how long he was with each academy.

You're cherry picking your facts here. Yes, in 2015 Teibert received less starts and played less minutes under Robinson than he received under Rennie in 2013. However, you casually ignore the year in which Teibert played all of 116 minutes under Rennie, and simply dismiss the year where he received more starts (22) and more minutes (1969) than the entirety of his time under Rennie. Now, I don't necessarily disagree with you in that Teibert will be in tough to receive playing time in 2016 with Koffie and Laba still in the mix, and the Caps being high on Flores, but to say that Teibert has played more under Rennie than he did under Robinson is flat out wrong. So, you want numbers? Here's some simple math for you: 37 (the number of starts made by Teibert in 2014 and 2015 in the MLS regular season under Teibert) > 20 (the number of starts made by Teibert in 2012 and 2013 in the MLS regular season under Rennie) 3314 > 1893 (the number of minutes made by Teibert in 2012 and 2013 in the MLS regular season under Rennie) To take this back to your original argument about the "Whitecaps hate Canada" sentiment. Let's be honest here, the "Whitecaps hate Canada" sentiment was rightfully earned when they entered MLS, has now turned into somewhat of a meme, but really it is really a part of a larger problem with our club academies. NONE of the MLS clubs are developing Canadian talent at a rate that will help this national team in the long run, and the same goes for NASL clubs. In the 27 combined years these academies have been around, they've produced all of ONE consistent starter on the senior squad - Adam Straith. (I'm using the start dates of the current set ups - TFC in 2008, VWFC in 2009, IMFC in 2010, FCE in 2012, OFFC in 2014). Sure, there have been some close to breaking through as every game starters (Henry, Teibert, Osorio, Ouimette), but other than Straith, none of them have. The rise in talent on the senior team has not come through anything these academies have done. (unless you want to consider the Lefevre addition, but to me he is just a depth piece) We keep hearing better talent will by produced by these academies, but, how much longer do we have to wait? That's not just a Whitecaps problem. It's a TFC problem. It's an Impact problem. It's an FC Edmonton problem. And it's a Fury problem. Only when we start seeing these 5 clubs produce talent that can actually make a difference in the games that matter, will the sentiment that "XYZ hates Canada" will go away.

At least as a Scot, he should be able to say "roll up the rim to win" with the best of us! Welcome Scott!

Lefevre is 27 years old, can't see him developing much more

When this cycle is over? Or, from now on the trio is Milan, Max and Simon? Because right now I wouldn't feel really comfortable seeing Crepeau or Thomas getting in a WCQ game against any of our 3 opponents if Milan was going down injured or got a RC. I would feel Stama is a lot safer option. It's clearly a positive to see Crepeau can hold his own in a tough situation but IMHO he needs more seasoning before we can really rely on him on pressure situation. The same apply to Thomas who hasn't played a game for Canada in a while.

slow and steady wins the race, first goal is not die, after that you can focus on expanding and drawing more people in

If we can get and away draw vs Hondouras and a home draw against Mexico then a home tie or win vs El Salvador puts us through. Im more confident of our chances after watching this than ever before. Under Floro we will grind out some points and get just enough.

Couple of things: I'm pretty sure Floro defends so deep on set pieces because he'd rather use our height and strength straight on the ball rather than try and track runners through the box, it's not a bad strategy against so many significantly smaller teams. Panama only has 2 defenders over 6' for example and I'd guess that El Salvador has none. I have no idea why Bekker is receiving so much ****, he looked better than De Guzman did in the second half. He'll probably get a few solid looks with the Impact this year, hopefully he continues to get better, he also looked a lot faster than he used to. Crepeau is insanely good and hopefully he finds somewhere to play after this season because while I'd love to have a Canadian starting keeper in MLS, I don't think he'll be able to displace Bush anytime soon.

Maybe I'm in the minority here but that game really didn't bother me that much. The late goal obviously stung but we were playing a pretty wacky lineup at the back by the time that goal was scored. Wasn't expecting high flying attacking soccer. This is a dress rehearsal for parking the bus against mexico.

If you can't score from open play how can you win games? Canada can't... not under Floro, Miller, Hart, Mitchell, Yallop, Osieck or Guardiola. We simply can't and an international manager must adapt to the style of his players.. the players can't adapt to the style of their manager. Look at Claudio Ranieri... was fired from Greece during one of the worst qualifying campaigns ever and is now leading the EPL with Leicester. That doesn't mean we should ever try to stop scoring from open play but if our chances are low it's much more sensible to play conservative and prevent being opened up on counters so that we are in with a chance. If we had to get results every match based on open play goals we would be finished. Maybe in the future our young players can change our footballing identity but for now if we want to go to 2018 we need to play the style that works. Floro's style has us sitting undefeated in WCQ thus far.

By the end of the match it was a bit of a mis-match on the field, so perhaps not surprising that we conceded late. They are putting on MLS all-stars at the end while we countered with, well, with what we had at the end. If this wasn't a friendly and only 3 subs were used, even with the under-strength squad this ends in a draw. That is largely down to defensive shape(given that our starting keeper & central defenders had all of one cap between them before this game, it says a lot as to how organized they were), and that, plus the play of Crepeau, were positives for me. Actually so was the play of Vitoria which does give us another option at the back. Negatives - right back. Henry hadn't played a game at right back in probably two years and it showed, and yet he was still a better attacking option going forward than Ledgerwood who killed the attack on the right side in the first half at every opportunity he was given. And overall sometimes I think we are a little too happy to settle for a 0-0 draw, although I won't be complaining if we do that and succeed in Mexico.

We created chances to create chances.... That's not on Floro. When we win the ball at the half and have repeated odd man breaks and we can't create that's on the professionals on the pitch. When we cross directly to Bingham that's on the players. When De Guzman takes a horrible first touch in the box... etc. etc. Floro was spot on with tactics tonight IMO. Our performance dropped because he gave players chances and that's what this match was all about, so I can't see how he gets any blame for the performance.

Sweet Ethan Finlay finally makes his debut for Canada! About time!

You're not questioning tactics. You're saying that it's a foregone conclusion that it'll eventually be our downfall without acknowledging the fact that it has worked so far. I just can't wait for the armchair experts to point to this when we do eventually get scored on by a free kick (which, regardless of tactics, is pretty likely playing a team of Mexico's caliber).

Can we do another line of shirts that say "I Got Crack at the 1987 Merlion Cup"?

Right---in Miller stadium. Looking at NASL map teams like OKC and Edmonton have terrible travelling problems, they really need some more West teams, Las Vegas would've great.

Maybe that's why a soccer ball is really integral to the logo. And Cal, I'll respectfully disagree with you on the francophone market because I think there is potential there. But that might be because I live in Ottawa and hear a lot of French which probably biases things.

Here's how I'd do it (assuming 3MLS + 6CPL + 1NASL, seeded in that order): Round 1 (Play in / qualification); Preferably home & away, top team hosts if not: Match 1: 1NASL vs 4CPL Match 2: 5CPL vs 6CPL Round 2: Single elimination bracket, home & away, starting with: MLS1 vs Winner Match 1 MLS2 vs Winner Match 2 MLS3 vs CPL3 CPL1 vs CPL2 This means each team has to play a maximum of eight games (seven if the first round isn't home & away). And honestly, if the MLS teams don't want to play an extra few games, then I guess they don't get to qualify for the CCL.

All but confirmed in an article from the Hamilton Spectator. Bob Young, as initially reported a few years ago, will be a main player and the league's FO will be located in Hamilton. 6-8 teams will be founding clubs in the league, so the minimum 8 number has clearly been loosened. Not much else new was revealed outside of an expected announcement in 4-6 months as reported in this article. CSA cited as being "main partner" in the league so it appears it will be operated similarly as to the Premier League's relationship to the English FA is. Here's a link to the article: http://m.thespec.com/news-story/6261090-pro-soccer-team-for-city-would-see-winter-dome-at-ticat-field

Choosing to play for Canada is literally the exact opposite of glory hunting. Unless you think reaching the semi-final round of World Cup qualifying is the pinnacle. In which case you probably don't have the required mentality to play professional sports in the first place.

I think the difference here is that all those teams have some sort of public recognition of who they are. Unfortunately, we don't have that recognition and so having "Canadian Soccer Supporters" en français is important. But if anyone has an idea on how to make that simple and visually appealing, then I'd be all for it.

I'm OK with keeping it simple. However, I disagree that making something in both official languages that is supposed to represent people in all parts of Canada would be bending over backwards to be accommodating. Why would we want to put off potential francophone supporters? Also, being bilingual is part of what makes us different from certain other places that we are too often compared to.

ya i looked it up on wikipdedia right after I posted that. just tried to make conversation. next time I won't bother! thanks guys!