John Herdman said that the team’s medical staff and the Canadian Olympic Committee have been closely monitoring the Zika situation. He said that his medical staff attended a conference last week where Zika was the top item on the agenda, and they returned with “good, clear information about the risks.”

But, because the Eddies have a bye next weekend, the call-ups won't affect the team greatly. Corea will miss one match. Ledgerwood won't miss any. Both players will be back in the lineup for the final game of the spring season, when the Eddies face Fort Lauderdale on June 12.

But, just minutes after he was elected, it feels surreal. A Canadian now has the levers of power in his hands. Of course, he has a massive job; in a FIFA community that’s dogged by scandals, CONCACAF may be the most corrupt member of the family. Three previous presidents have all been caught with their hands in a very, very, large cookie jar.

So, as far as anyone can guess, Canada’s winning percentage in games where a mango lady is nearly struck by a ball stands at .000.

Canadian goalkeeper David Monsalve won’t be sporting official training gear when he practices with with his CD Suchitepequez teammates. He won’t look out of place. None of his teammates will be wearing team-issued track tops or pants or shorts, either.

hursday, a Canadian national futsal team made up mostly of amateurs from Ontario and Quebec felled an American side filled with professionals. Thanks to a Robert Renaud hat trick, Canada beat the American 5-3 in Costa Rica Thursday, which gave our national side a 9-7 edge in the two-game aggregate series.

All but three of the American players are under contract to teams in the Major Arena Soccer League, including Danny Waltman, who was named the MASL’s goalkeeper of the year in 2016. Canada has three MASL vets: Ian Bennett of the Milwaukee Wave, Frederico Moojen of the St. Louis Ambush and Vahid Assadpour of the Missouri Comets.

But this is all that matters: With games left against El Salvador (home) and Honduras (away), Canada still controls its own destiny. At the start of this group stage, we would have taken this scenario. Gladly. Two games left, and all to play for — with no games left against Mexico.

Life isn’t like a John Hughes film. In real life, the socially awkward guy who listens to Echo and the Bunnymen doesn’t end up with the most popular girl in high school. In real life, if the scrawny kid challenges the neighbourhood bully to a fight, he comes home with his own blood on his shirt and there’s fewer teeth in his mouth than he began the day with.

“This one game at home could change the future of Canadian soccer, it could change careers,” de Guzman said Friday in a media conference call.