At the start of the 2011 NASL season, the Montreal Impact had six French players on its roster, Now, that number is down to three. The Impact announced Wednesday what has been speculated about for the last week; that French attacker Idriss Ech Chergui and defender Richard Pelletier wouldn’t be back with the team.

Now that Toronto FC has the Canadian title, it will host Nicaraguan reps Real Esteli in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League preliminary stage on July 27, the exact same time that the MLS All-Stars will take on Manchester United at Red Bull Arena. Hmm. A game that means something in an international competition or an exhibition match? Well, that’s a no-brainer, right?

Jurgen Klinsmann’s biggest contribution to Toronto FC came to light today. German national team star Torsten Frings, long regarded as one of the top midfielders in the Bundesliga, the anchor of the Werder Bremen side, was announced as one of TFC’s two new designated players. He and Dutch striker Danny Koevermans will be eligible to play for the Reds as of July 15.

When Eduardo Sebrango announced his retirement from soccer earlier in April, he was stuck on 98 career Div. 2 goals. He wasn’t going to make 100. Stop the presses. Sebrango will be going for goals 99 and 100 — and, for the offensively challenged Montreal Impact, they can’t come soon enough. The 38-year-old’s retirement lasted just a little bit more than two months.

So, more and more, NASL clubs are partying like it’s 1979. FC Edmonton is the latest of the NASL teams to announce that it will wear a retro third jersey. The club will wear the old orange-and-blue strip from the Edmonton Drillers’ NASL days.

Dutch club PSV Eindhoven confirmed Tuesday that Canadian player of the year Atiba Hutchinson will need six weeks to recover from knee surgery. Hutchinson went under the knife Monday to repair a meniscus injury, after returning to the Netherlands from Canada's disappointing campaign at the Gold Cup. Hutchinson missed two of Canada's three matches due to injury.

Love him or hate him, Dwayne De Rosario is big news again. Less than three months after Toronto FC traded the attacking midfielder and former face of the franchise to the New York Red Bulls, he has been sent to D.C. United.

A midfielder and a goalkeeper split the MLS Player of the Week Award. Except that they’re the same guy. Confused? Don’t be. Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Mike Magee won the award after the votes from the North American Soccer Reporters were counted.

In Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City, the Whitecaps got out to a 1-0 lead, then fell completely apart, giving up two goals in eight minutes. The Caps recovered at halftime, but couldn’t find an equalizer in the second 45 minutes.

In a game that Canada needed to win in order to advance to the round of 16 at the U-17 World Cup, it could only really trouble Rwandan keeper Marcel Nzaroza once in a dour 0-0 draw Saturday in Pachuca, Mexico.