Even though both the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps are moving to MLS, both are retaining their memberships in the second-division NASL. NASL chief executive officer Aaron Davidson confirmed that MLS is aware that both the Impact and Whitecaps are retaining their memberships in NASL, even though Vancouver makes its debut as an MLS city in 2011 and Montreal makes the move in 2012. “They can still have teams in NASL; those teams can have synergies with the MLS franchises or they can be standalone teams,” said Davidson Tuesday, over the phone from Paraguay.

As the Colorado Rapids gathered on a platform placed at the centre of BMO Field, jumping up and down, surrounded by sky-blue confetti, holding the MLS Cup aloft, FC Dallas midfielder Dax McCarty stood on the field, staring at the celebration. The rest of his FC Dallas teammates, losers of a 2-1 decision after extra time in Toronto, had left the field. But McCarty stood and stared at the Rapids’ celebration. Wondering what could have been. Wondering what would have happened if a ball off the foot of Colorado sub Macoumba Kandji hadn’t taken a strange deflection off defender FC Dallas George John in the 108th minute and looped past the goal line. What could have happened in penalty kicks had John’s last-gasp effort at redemption, from point blank range, not been stopped by the outstretched hand of Rapids’ keeper Matt Pickens.

Basically, the league will look at a new format in which teams would start play in the fall, take a winter break, resume games in late February or March and finish the season in the spring.

Colorado Rapids coach Gary Smith wants MLS MVP David Ferreira to read the following quote. That was obvious at Saturday’s post-practice press conference at Toronto’s BMO Field, ahead of Sunday’s MLS Cup. “I think he’s feeling the pressure a little bit,” the Rapids coach deadpanned after being asked how his team planned to stop FC Dallas’ elite playmaker. “Everyone is …

PHOTO: FC Dallas defender Ugo Ihemelu (3) trains with his team Saturday at Toronto’s BMO Field ahead of MLS Cup When it comes to national allegiances, Ugo Ihemelu is playing it cool. The FC Dallas defender has been to the U.S. national-team camp, played in a couple of friendlies, but he’s still hasn’t been capped in an official game that …

It is troubling that the only evidence the committee will have to work with comes from four shambolic years of TFC mismanagement. It’s like having to decide on new rules of the road based on the actions of one chronic drunk driver.

Igor Pisanjuk has two goals in mind: to wear the red strip of Canada’s national team, and to wear the famous green and white stripes of Hungary’s most decorated club, Ferencvaros.

MLS commissioner Don Garber said Tuesday that the league has been in talks with the Canadian Soccer Association, and that he foresees “for next year, no changes” to the Canadian roster quotas for Canadian MLS clubs.

FC Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman admitted that the weather is an advantage for the Colorado Rapids, who played in freezing temperatures in Saturday's Eastern Conference Final triumph over San Jose. "I don't really think you can prepare for anything like that [cold temperatures] unless you go two or three weeks early... with the weather, Colorado has a little bit of an advantage."

It was clear from talking to players and manager Owen Coyle that the club believed that the coming Premiership season was going to be wide open, that the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal were going to turn the world’s most popular sports league into their own three-team tournament.