“The Canadian Soccer Association supports the work of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee and will continue to cooperate fully,” said Victor Montagliani, President of the Canadian Soccer Association, in a release issued Wednesday.

This is simply a statistical look at how the teams have performed. But it is compelling. Outside of the Habs, the North American sports teams have a history of slumping badly once their owners go and invest in the world’s most popular league, the EPL. And, for Red Sox fans, Avalanche fans and the like, it’s absolutely justified to have a case of little man syndrome — based on the stats.

Arsenal midfielder Steph Houghton scored the goal that gave GB a 1-0 win over Brazil on Tuesday. Kim Little, the Scottish star on Team GB, is also Arsenal’s leading scorer. She scored 17 goals in 17 games for the Gunners in 2011-12.

But that was still a low-key pursuit, nothing like the free agency of Junior Hoilett which we saw this summer, where he was linked to several Premiership clubs and Bundesliga sides. There was interest in a Canadian player like we haven’t seen before.

Di Vaio’s charge is found on Page 12, section 37 of the FIGC report and, for the fairest possible reporting, we will reprint it in the original Italian and then offer a translation.

Marsch also threw laurels at his young goalkeeper, saying, "We like Evan Bush a lot. We think he’s a good goalie and he has a great future. He’s moved himself along this whole season. I watched him play last season and I knew he was a very good goalie last year so the performance he gave tonight was not surprising."

Over the coming days, we will see how well Canada responds to Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to Japan in the group-stage opener of the Olympic tournament in Coventry. You can’t escape some of the parallels to the 2011 World Cup opener, another 2-1 loss to a world-power team.

"It lets all the players, especially the Academy players, realize they're not that far away from competing with some very very good players," Mariner said.

Canada’s women’s U-20 side and the Swiss U-20 side drew 1-1 on Friday night in front of 400 spectators.

“Unfortunately due to FIFA regulations surrounding mandatory vacation dates post-international tournaments, Liverpool’s squad in Toronto will not feature internationals Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Martin Kelly, Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing, Andy Carroll, Pepe Reina and Fabio Borini, who all took part in last month’s UEFA European Championship,” read a statement today from TFC.