Last season, Calgary United FC was eliminated after the first game of the Professional Arena Soccer League’s North American Championships by giving up four goals to the California Cougars in the dying minutes. This season, the defending Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League champs didn’t leave anyone in suspense. Oswaldo Medina scored just nine seconds after the match kicked off, and the PPM Sidekicks del Estado de Mexico rolled to a 10-2 win, eliminating Calgary from the Cincinnati tournament with ease.

What will Canada do? FIFA has now formally launched disciplinary proceedings against six match officials accused of helping to fix the last two international friendlies held in the Turkish resort of Antalya. According to FIFA’s international calendar, Canada’s men’s team is to play Belarus March 29 in Antalya, which has become a hotspot for training camps and friendlies. Toronto FC opened its 2011 training camp there with three matches against European club-team opposition.

Canada couldn’t have asked for a tougher opponent to face in its 2011 Gold Cup opener. But playing the United States in Detroit is a public- and fan-relations bonanza. Canada will face the Americans June 7 at Ford Field, just a skip across the border. This means that fans in Southern Ontario have the chance to see Canada against the best CONCACAF has to offer, just by crossing the Ambassador Bridge from Windsor into the Motor City.

Calgary United FC captured its second consecutive Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League Championship Saturday, and punched its ticket to the North American Arena Soccer Championships in Cincinnati, with a 9-3 trouncing over the rival Edmonton Drillers.

The players in the Canadian U-23 camp had to settle for a split against the Los Angeles-based MLS teams. A Los Angeles Galaxy team without any of its three Designated Players — Juan Pablo Angel, David Beckham and Landon Donovan — had an easy time with our national Olympic hopefuls, winning 4-0 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

The Canadian women’s team got its second consecutive 1-0 win at the Cyprus Cup. This time, the victim was Italy. Reigning Canadian women’s U-20 player of the year Jonelle Filigno got the goal that puts Canada on top of its group, three points up on England and Scotland, and six up on the Italians. Filigno took a pass from Christine …

With TSN becoming the official national broadcaster of MLS in 2011, Rogers Sportsnet has ensured it won’t be left out in the cold. Sportsnet announced Thursday that it will be the official regional broadcaster of the Whitecaps. Rogers announced that it will produce 21 Whitecaps games in 2011. Eleven of those will air on Sportsnet Pacific, nine more on premium specialty channel Sportsnet One — and one additional game, June 4 at Real Salt Lake, will air on Citytv, which is owned by Rogers.

Lost in Thursday’s announcement of the awarding of the 2015 Women’s World Cup to Canada and the decision not to change the geographical arrangements of slots for Brazil 2014 was quick mention by FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke of some coming changes to regulations to help police match-fixing.

Now, the next part of the debate: Which cities will get the plum games — Canada’s home games, semifinals and final? FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association released the names of the seven “candidate” cities to host games. Toronto wasn’t on that list, as expected, because of the conflict between the WWC and the Pan Am Games. The seven cities: Halifax, Moncton, Montreal Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver.

When Christine Sinclair was asked in December about which players she thought had benefited the most from the possession-and-passing style of Canadian national women’s team coach Carolina Morace, she didn’t have to think long about the answer. Midfielder Diana Matheson. While Sinclair is no doubt the face of Canadian women’s soccer, Matheson has flourished as the distributor under Morace. She displayed her worth Wednesday in Canada’s 1-0 win over Scotland in the opener of the Cyprus Cup.