But the feel-good last-gasp goal shouldn’t completely mask what was a frustrating performance by the Canadian team in front of the home fans in Moncton.

Right after the Canadian national women’s team was drawn into an Olympic group with World Cup champs Japan and World Cup third-place finisher Sweden, Herdman told reporters via a conference call that he didn’t think Big Red was in the Group of Death

For the Canadian women’s team, the match will be one of their final preparations ahead of the 2012 Olympics. But, for Moncton, the game could mean so much, much more. When FIFA and CSA officials toured the seven cities vying to host games in both the 2014 Women’s U-20 World Cup and the 2015 Women’s World Cup, they made a promise: The national team would play friendlies in those venues leading up to the games.

After scoring two goals last weekend to help the Brisbane Roar set an Australian team-sport record with its 36th consecutive game without a loss, Calgary’s Issey Nakajima-Farran and his teammates fell 2-0 to Sydney FC, Sunday.

FC Edmonton coach Hans Schrijver sat down and chatted with The 11 about his decision to come back to the club, his dismissal at Japanese side JEF United, and about how much the team has progressed in the year that he was gone.

Oliver Spring is a name that Canadian soccer fans need to have on their radars. The 15-year-old Toronto native has been invited back to the Netherlands for a third spell with Feyenoord’s academy.

But the Japanese upset will send shockwaves through the Canadian Soccer Association as well. Japan has smashed the idea that the European professionalism can’t be matched.

“We are not in a crisis,” said Blatter in a press conference Monday from FIFA headquarters. “We are having some difficulties.” Blatter spent the better part of 45 minutes ducking and dodging questions from journalists. When two-part questions were asked, he insisted on answering only one. When questions were asked about FIFA’s reputation, he spoke of gambling in the game. When asked about reforming FIFA, he spoke of zero tolerance for abuse of officials on the field.

Matt Lam had just returned home from a training session when the earthquake struck. Even though Chiba, a suburb of Tokyo, was nearly 400 kilometres from the epicentre of the 9.0 temblor that triggered the tsunami that has claimed thousands of lives, the Canadian midfielder — and his mother, who was visiting at the time — they understood the gravity of the situation. “The whole building rocked back and forth,” said Lam, who is back in Edmonton, training on his own, after his club, JEF United, decided to send players home after the quake. “Even though we were 350, 400 kilometres from the epicentre, we could really feel the shake.”

Matt Lam is safe and sound, but he won’t be playing anytime soon.