So, to apply after three years, you can not leave the country for a single day (save for a leap year) as three x 365 days = 1,095 days. Did any of these players go home for a single day? Go on road trips or training camps to the United States? Of course they did. So they’d need to wait till they hit 1,095 days in a four-year period.

BMO Field was constructed when David Miller was Toronto's mayor. He was mayor when the city and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment came to an agreement to replace the FieldTurf surface with natural grass. He was an unabashedly pro-soccer mayor.

Part of the reason for Saiko’s reduced minutes has been a bad hip; he had surgery on it six years ago, and the constant wear-and-tear of training on the hard, hard Clarke Stadium turf takes its toll.

FCE assistant coach Jeff Paulus said the search for a league for the team’s elite youth players is ongoing, and a return to the Alberta Major Soccer League hasn’t been ruled out. What is out of the question, though, is FCE’s Reserves joining any American-based league, including the PDL. The costs are simply too prohibitive.

Yes, he scored two goals, but that probably wasn’t his biggest contribution. Before the game was five minutes old, he was brought down in the box by Revs’ keeper Matt Reis. The goalkeeper was sent off, New England was down to 10 men, Patrice Bernier converted the first of two penalties, and the Impact was off to the races.

Boy, you get the feeling that the drawn out pursuit of Argentine forward Maximiliano Urruti was a Kevin Payne pet project, don’t you?

UBC’s streak is over. The Thunderbirds are invincible no longer.

Toronto FC began the post-Kevin Payne era with a resonating 4-0 loss to the host Portland Timbers. Yes, Whitecaps supporters will be unhappy to see a Cascadia and conference rival pick up maximum points and also pad the vital goals-for column. But, if this game was any indication of how Toronto FC will play out the string, the Whitecaps have to be hopeful that they can maximize their draft position in 2014.

The Eddies then pushed forward, trying to find the winning goal. Their best chance came in the 89th, when Nurse’s effort found the post. Had the ball been a few inches over, Nurse would have had his fourth goal in four games.

He’s scored three times over the course of the last three games (even though the third game in question was played Sept. 1). And FC Edmonton midfielder Chris Nurse has been named the NASL Player of the Month for August.