With TSN becoming the official national broadcaster of MLS in 2011, Rogers Sportsnet has ensured it won’t be left out in the cold.Sportsnet announced Thursday that it will be the official regional broadcaster of the Whitecaps. Rogers announced that it will produce 21 Whitecaps games in 2011. Eleven of those will air on Sportsnet Pacific, nine more on premium specialty channel Sportsnet One — and one additional game, June 4 at Real Salt Lake, will air on Citytv, which is owned by Rogers.

FC Edmonton announced that it has inked a former member of the Montreal Impact to deal to spend the 2011 NASL season in the Alberta Capital.Alex Suprenant, who struggled to find time in the Impact lineup — and played for the club’s Canadian Soccer League affiliate, the Trois-Rivieres Attak. The defender played a part in the Impact’s run to the CONCACAF Champions League quarter-finals in 2008-09, when then-coach John Limniatis had to juggle his roster because of a busy USL schedule mixed with the CCL.

Lost in Thursday’s announcement of the awarding of the 2015 Women’s World Cup to Canada and the decision not to change the geographical arrangements of slots for Brazil 2014 was quick mention by FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke of some coming changes to regulations to help police match-fixing.

Now, the next part of the debate: Which cities will get the plum games — Canada’s home games, semifinals and final? FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association released the names of the seven “candidate” cities to host games. Toronto wasn’t on that list, as expected, because of the conflict between the WWC and the Pan Am Games.The seven cities: Halifax, Moncton, Montreal Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver.

The status quo will remain for the 2014 World Cup.The allocation of slots by regions will remain exactly the same as they were for the 2010 World Cup, despite hopes coming out of CONCACAF that this confederation would be bumped from three spots and a playoff berth to four clear slots.

Luke Kreamalmeyer led the way as the Montreal Impact finally beat an MLS team in preseason play.After loss to Portland and Sporting Kansas City, Montreal defeated FC Dallas 3-0 Wednesday in Arizona. But it has to be noted that FCD left most of its starting lineup well away from the pitch for this game. No sign of league MVP David Ferreira, striker Brek Shea, midfielder Daniel Hernandez or Winnipeg-raised defender Ugo Ihemelu. Regular starting keeper Kevin Hartman didn’t play, either.