The Ottawa Fury can likely make a long shopping list of Canadians, and on Wednesday the club announced the signings of fullback Maxim Tissot and centre back Nana Attakora.

The cream has risen to the top. The icing has been spread on the doughnut. 

In the wake of the news that John Herdman will be the new coach of the men's national program, and that Octavio Zambrano is out, Canada Soccer has released the roster for the U-23 camp that begins Tuesday in Orlando.

For months, I've heard the whispers. Off the record. Throughout the echelons of Canadian soccer.

Several times during our phone conversation, new Ottawa Fury Nikola Popovic coach used the word “connection.”

Of course, when it comes to the Fury, Dos Santos still casts a long shadow. He was the team's first coach, and was the one who led them to the NASL final in 2015. And, it's impossible to look at Popovic without comparing his resume to Dos Santos's.

Zambrano, who was named the head coach of the national program in March, said he will be instituting some “major changes” (his words) into the way Canadian players are scouted, and that he plans to significantly increase the size of the men’s talent pool.

Fath said his presence at the most recent round of CanPL talks was of an “exploratory” nature.

Now, there are a lot of factors to why the 2016 game did better than 2017; cord-cutters, the move to an afternoon game and the fact that 2016’s game was one of most boring things ever, maybe that scared a fraction of the audience away for 2017 (“fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, shame on you”). The fact that Toronto FC put up one of the most incredible seasons in MLS history didn't help increase the reach of the big game.  

Based on the run of play, the chances created, the scoreline should have been far more severe than 2-0. Really, 6-0 or 7-0 would have been fair.