Then, the replay; it showed Haber was a step ahead of those three defenders when the ball was struck. The linesman had got the offside call correct. We couldn’t even have the cold solace of a conspiracy theory.

But, that doesn’t mean the Canadian scene was dead when it comes to the North American first and second divisions. This weekend, Bruno Zebie made his NASL debut, coming on as a sub for FC Edmonton in its 1-1 draw with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. But, what makes it all the more interesting is that his brother, Allan Zebie, started the game.

Now, two years later, it’s looking like the cabal of Miller critics owe the man an apology — at least for the criticisms of how he handled the national side. While Canada flounders through another goalless Gold Cup (as Morrissey once sang: Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before), Miller’s FC Edmonton leads the NASL in goals scored.

But at no time in that scoreless 2013 run did Canada have a chance as clear-cut, as golden, as the one that Cyle Larin spurned in the first half of the match in Carson, Calif. against El Salvador.

“We have three teams who are playing in MLS,” said Floro. “But only two or three players are starting. That’s a bad position for us, no?”

Mason Trafford scores. Hanson Boakai scores. Sadi Jalali scores. Jay Chapman gets his first start. Jordan Hamilton makes his first MLS appearance. Nana Attakora is sent off. FC Edmonton gave a whopping 512 minutes of playing time to Canadians in a 4-0 win over San Antonio.

With the Canadian women’s national team losing a heartbreaking quarterfinal Saturday at BC Place to the English, this might be the week of weeks where our readers say “oh yeah, I guess MLS had games this weekend. Let me check the phone to see what the scores were.”

The revealing good news/bad news scenario in this week’s Quintessentially Canadian Power Rankings is found in this past weekend’s Vancouver Whitecaps match.

“I don’t want to be the player who was only called into one game,” he said. “The experience, it was huge. I gained a lot of experience from it. There are so many players there who have careers in Europe, from around MLS and other teams in North America. I can see that’s where I want my career to go.”

The Canadian team is introduced, with Cyle Larin and Tesho Akindele at the top of the formation. The Voyageurs sitting in the nosebleeds reminisce about the long qualifying campaign that led to this point. They wax poetic about the goal Akindele scored against the United States in the Hex; they also recall Larin powering through a group of Honduran defenders and then quieting the crowd in San Pedro Sula.