Felix Napuri’s five-goal effort Saturday kept Calgary United’s quest to defend its Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League title alive. Arthur Paszkowski added three more goals as United went into the Edmonton South Side Soccer Centre and beat the Drillers 10-7 in a card-filled, nasty affair. Immediately after the game, league president Mel Kowalchuk went into a closed-door meeting with the match officials.

It was a fascinating exercise to go through a couple of hours worth of tweets after Arsenal’s stunning 2-1 win over Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie. The pundits are one thing, but when the tweets come from players or, in the case of Eskandarian, recently retired players, it’s amazing to see people who are (or recently were) paid to play the game become fans.

FC Edmonton will sport a new look for the 2011 season. The team confirmed that the kits it will wear for its inaugural NASL season will be different than the ones the club wore in a series of 2010 friendlies. Umbro will remain the team’s kit supplier.

TSN was officially confirmed Monday as the new official broadcaster of MLS in Canada. But, for fans of Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps, there won’t be an overwhelming number of games on Canada’s most popular sports network.

A diving goal-line clearance from the Edmonton Drillers’ elder statesman has given the club a massive lead in the Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League standings. Calgary United held a 4-2 lead in the third quarter of Saturday’s tilt at Edmonton’s Soccer Centre South and was simply dominating the game — outchancing, outpassing the Drillers. Calgary’s Arthur Paszkowski looked sure to make it a 5-2 game; on a break, he rounded Drillers’ keeper Jay Vetsch and rolled the ball towards the open goal. But Chris Devlin, who spent the 2004 season in the USL with the Edmonton Aviators/Edmonton FC franchise, hustled back, threw himself at the goal line, and got enough of the ball to deflect it just wide. That play energized the Drillers; the team scored three unanswered goals in the third to take a 5-4 lead, and went on to a 7-5 win.

Within the space of the year, the two Canadian players who created one of the greatest goals in national team history have called time on their careers. Today, Richard Hastings, who roofed the extra-time golden-goal winner in the 2000 2-1 Gold Cup semifinal over Mexico, announced his retirement from the game. Hastings spent most of his career with Scottish side Inverness Caledonian Thistle, playing there from 1994-2001 and again from 2004-2009.

Major League Soccer released its full schedule today http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/new-rivalries-highlight-2011-mls-regular-season-schedule, but fans don’t yet know how many teams will make the playoffs this season, or if there will be wild-card slots again in 2011. League spokesperson Will Kuhns stated Thursday that “MLS is reviewing the playoff format and playoff schedule for 2011 and will announce details soon.”

When news broke last week that women’s national-team coach Carolina Morace was going to resign after the 2011 World Cup over alleged CSA interference in her program, sympathy for the women’s program was widespread. After all, we were just a day from a massive CSA reform vote — and recently retired Kara Lang was off to Ottawa to carry the torch for the development of the women’s game in Canada. It was a noble cry for equality in a sports world dominated by men. But, after the vote, as the women announced their intention to boycott games through the media, there is no shaking that, with every passing day, their support is eroding.

Trialist Gianluca Zavarise scored and was sent off as Toronto FC lost 3-1 to Dinamo Zagreb Thursday in their final training match in Turkey. Despite being without veteran Igor Biscan — the former Liverpool man was out with injury — and Brazilian-born midfielder Sammir, who has been linked to a move to Fiorentina, the Croats triumphed in a game that …

For the second time in three preseason Arizona games, the Vancouver Whitecaps faced CONCACAF Champions League opposition. And, just as the Whitecaps beat Real Salt Lake 2-1, they triumphed over the Columbus Crew by the same score on Tuesday.