Midfielder Atiba Hutchinson has won the Canadian Soccer Association’s male player of the year award for the first time.It might not be the last for Hutchinson, who went to high school in Brampton, Ont.’s Heart Lake neighbourhood. This season, Hutchinson left Copenhagen of the Danish League — but not before leading the club to a 2010 title and being named the league’s player of the year — for PSV Eindhoven of the Dutch Eredivisie.Hutchinson said walking onto the pitch at the Amsterdam ArenA, when PSV traveled to face Ajax, the hated rival, was a “dream come true.”

Sporting Kansas City’s position, that Canadian-born U.S. national team striker Teal Bunbury is not on trial with Stoke City, continues to be refuted by the English Premier League club.On Thursday, Stoke City posted a list of eight players it is linked to in possible transfer-window deals and, voila, Bunbury is on the list.Bunbury, who won the M.A.C. Hermann Trophy in 2010 as the most valuable player in the NCAA, scored five goals in his first MLS season with the then-named Kansas City Wizards.

There’s no doubt about it. Canada’s soccer capital is...Brampton, Ont.Flowertown —the place that gave Canada Rick Nash, Scott Thompson from the Kids in the Hall, Michael Cera, Alan Thicke, Russell Peters, Rohinton Mistry and, ahem, this writer, is unquestionably the place to be if you want to raise a child who is going to be a soccer prodigy.

It’s sorta like Wayne Gretzky winning Hart Trophies in the 1980s. That is, Christine Sinclair being named Canada’s women’s soccer player of the year.On Thursday, she won the honour for the sixth consecutive time. Actually, she’s the only person to ever win the award. The Canadian Soccer Association launched the award just in time for Sinclair to begin her own personal dynasty.Playing alongside Brazilian star Marta, Sinclair led WPS in assists. Her FC Gold Pride won the WPS regular-season and playoff titles. Sinclair was Canada’s top scorer at the Gold Cup, which it won, securing a spot at next year’s World Cup in Germany.“Without a doubt, the highlight was winning CONCACAF with Canada,” said Sinclair. “It’s something we’ve never done before, with all the teams in it.”

Is Teal Bunbury switching sides again?The Hamilton, Ont.-born son of Canadian national-teamer Alex Bunbury, recently alienated most soccer fans on this side of the border when he decided to play for the United States rather than the country of his birth.Now, is he also hoping to leave Sporting Kansas City?Stoke City has officially stated that this might be the case. Bunbury appeared with Stoke’s reserve side Tuesday and, paired with former Chelsea and Barcelona forward Eidur Gudjohnsen, was reportedly very impressive. Bunbury scored against Wigan’s reserve side.

Eleven of the 32 players available, just more than a third, were selected in phase two of the MLS Re-Entry Draft Wednesday afternoon.If all of the 11 players chosen today come to terms, that means a grand total of 13 out-of-contract players were able to find work. Only two — and both were minor deals — were taken in the first round, where players are guaranteed to make in 2011 at least what they did in 2010. The other 11 will likely all go for less money than they did in 2010.

Alberta has made soccer news for the wrong reasons in 2010 as an ugly power struggle has crippled the Alberta Soccer Association.The province continues to be badly under-represented on most national teams, which are dominated by players from British Columbia and Ontario.The rise of BMO Field and Stade Saputo has made Commonwealth Stadium, once the official home of Canada’s national soccer team, a place reserved to host Canadian games only if they are World Cup qualifiers in winter months against Mexico, in hopes of freezing out the regional power. Gains made in boosting the game in Ontario and Quebec have taken a toll on Alberta.So, that’s why the selection of Ethan Gage as the country’s male U-20 player of the year is a big deal.

But, what will Allardyce's departure mean for Junior Hoilett, the Brampton, Ont. native who wears Rovers colours? Remember that Hoilett decided to re-sign with Rovers last season after Allardyce made appeals to his family. For Allardyce, the signing was personal.

As first reported in The 11 back on Nov. 27, the Canadian Soccer Association is set to change the format of the Nutrilite Canadian Championship.FC Edmonton will face Toronto FC in one semifinal, while the Vancouver Whitecaps and Montreal Impact will tussle in the other.The editorial stance from Nov. 27 about Canada needing a single-game Cup final, about a knock-out tournament being better than a round-robin format, still stands. Canada needs a proper Cup, not a round-robin setup filled with controversy and lame-duck games. And, TFC fans who think that somehow a great rivalry exists between Toronto and Montreal — that the tournament will lose something if the Reds and Impact don't meet this year — give your heads a shake. Vancouver and Montreal have a far more heated rivalry, built through years of USL play, than the one that exists between the Impact and TFC. That will change when the Impact joins MLS in 2012, but not yet.

The Vancouver Whitecaps might only be joining MLS in 2011, but the club’s youth development programs is still miles ahead of TFC Academy.The Whitecaps Residency got another feather in its cap Monday when the Canadian Soccer Association named Bryce Alderson the country’s male U-17 player of the year.