Canadian coach Stephen Hart is still waiting on an answer from Junior Hoilett.The Blackburn Rover from Brampton, Ont. has once again asked the Canadian Soccer Association to be patient, and declined to join the national team for its Feb. 9 friendly against Greece.

On a day designed for new Toronto FC head coach and technical director Aron Winter to look at fresh faces, a couple of veterans were the talking point of Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Serbian powerhouse Partizan Belgrade in Turkey.TFC defender Nana Attakora scored just six minutes in and Dwayne De Rosario, TFC’s all-time leading scorer, missed a penalty in the Reds’ first preseason friendly of 2011. Partizan fans, eager to see the team’s new striker pairing of Prince Tagoe and Dominic Aidiyah — both nabbed in the transfer window, and both played for the first 45 minutes —had to settle for a penalty goal from Nemanja Tomic.

It's making its rounds throughout the soccer media. But seven of the eight NASL teams are represented (by supporters groups) in this open letter to U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati, urging him to grant the league official Div. 2 status. The USSF meets next week.Two weeks ago, the USSF stripped the NASL of its provisional acceptance as the official Div. 2 of soccer in America, but the NASL has carried on with business as usual, and is confident it can win back the status. The league has stated that going down to Div. 3 is not an option.

Niagara Falls, Ont. teenager Russell Teibert scored and then delivered the corner that led to Terry Dunfield’s winner as the Vancouver Whitecaps defeated Real Salt Lake 2-1 in their first preseason game.The match, held in Arizona, was broken into three 45-minute segments to allow both clubs the chance to get as many prospects on the field as possible.

Major League Soccer continually talks about the importance of having its teams succeed in international competition but, once again, the league has placed its All-Star game in direct conflict with the CONCACAF Champions League.MLS announced that it will host its annual All-Star Game July 27 at Red Bull Arena. But, as has been the case with the last two All-Star events, it clashes with the preliminary round of the CONCACAF Champions League. CONCACAF has already slated July 26-28 as the window for the first legs of the opening round.

Reading, currently sitting ninth in the English League Championship, announced Monday that it had agreed to terms with reigning Canadian U-20 player of the year Ethan Gage, who was out of contract with the Vancouver Whitecaps.

With the Red Bull Arena being awarded the MLS All-Star Game, not MLS Cup, there is plenty of food for thought about who is going to host the final game of the season.If MLS is to retain its system of awarding the game to a neutral site — something the league reviewed in 2009 but decided to continue on with after Seattle fans packed the house on a rainy Sunday November night to see Real Salt Lake take the title in penalty kicks over the Los Angeles Galaxy — New York is out for 2011.Commissioner Don Garber said the MLS Cup “could be at some point” awarded to the New York area, but he and the league are concerned about the cold November weather. That means the league may have learned something from holding a night game in Toronto last season, where there were thousands of empty seats. Temperatures near the freezing mark and bitter breezes off Lake Ontario made the game a chilly one. MLS Cup was held in cold-weather venues before, such as Foxboro, Mass. and Columbus, but those were day games. And that’s a massive difference.