In a game filled with trialists, some old problems haunted Toronto FC. Despite twice taking the lead, TFC lost 3-2 to the Houston Dynamo Thursday in their opening match of the preseason Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic in Orlando, Fla.

What was really interesting about the statement is that it hit the wire on Thursday evening — the middle of the night in Europe. That means that all of the players and coaching staff were well past curfew — and in bed. When the news hit, there were no players on Twitter. After all, every Canadian soccer journalist has them all on his or her Twitter feed. Was it by accident or orchestrated by the women’s PR team at Fleishman-Hillard Canada?

Thursday was a good day for ex-Toronto FC players. Maurice Edu, the No. 1 pick in the 2007 SuperDraft and rookie of the year that same season, scored the goal that sent Rangers through to the final 16 of the Europa Cup a minute and a half into stoppage time against Sporting Lisbon.

Eddie Johnson scored against the Montreal Impact for the second game in a row. The Portland Timbers prospect, a veteran of the English lower leagues, scored for his new club in a 1-0 exhibition win over the Impact Wednesday in Arizona.

Felix Napuri’s five-goal effort Saturday kept Calgary United’s quest to defend its Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League title alive. Arthur Paszkowski added three more goals as United went into the Edmonton South Side Soccer Centre and beat the Drillers 10-7 in a card-filled, nasty affair. Immediately after the game, league president Mel Kowalchuk went into a closed-door meeting with the match officials.

It was a fascinating exercise to go through a couple of hours worth of tweets after Arsenal’s stunning 2-1 win over Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie. The pundits are one thing, but when the tweets come from players or, in the case of Eskandarian, recently retired players, it’s amazing to see people who are (or recently were) paid to play the game become fans.

FC Edmonton will sport a new look for the 2011 season. The team confirmed that the kits it will wear for its inaugural NASL season will be different than the ones the club wore in a series of 2010 friendlies. Umbro will remain the team’s kit supplier.

TSN was officially confirmed Monday as the new official broadcaster of MLS in Canada. But, for fans of Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps, there won’t be an overwhelming number of games on Canada’s most popular sports network.

A diving goal-line clearance from the Edmonton Drillers’ elder statesman has given the club a massive lead in the Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League standings. Calgary United held a 4-2 lead in the third quarter of Saturday’s tilt at Edmonton’s Soccer Centre South and was simply dominating the game — outchancing, outpassing the Drillers. Calgary’s Arthur Paszkowski looked sure to make it a 5-2 game; on a break, he rounded Drillers’ keeper Jay Vetsch and rolled the ball towards the open goal. But Chris Devlin, who spent the 2004 season in the USL with the Edmonton Aviators/Edmonton FC franchise, hustled back, threw himself at the goal line, and got enough of the ball to deflect it just wide. That play energized the Drillers; the team scored three unanswered goals in the third to take a 5-4 lead, and went on to a 7-5 win.

Within the space of the year, the two Canadian players who created one of the greatest goals in national team history have called time on their careers. Today, Richard Hastings, who roofed the extra-time golden-goal winner in the 2000 2-1 Gold Cup semifinal over Mexico, announced his retirement from the game. Hastings spent most of his career with Scottish side Inverness Caledonian Thistle, playing there from 1994-2001 and again from 2004-2009.