Like CONCACAF, Asia has a couple of big dogs on the block — South Korea and Japan — who are considered to be automatics to qualify for World Cups. And, Australia, like Canada, has still show itself to be wildly inconsistent in qualifying. But Australia isn’t waiting. It doesn’t see reform as a long-term, long-tail process. There’s a recognition that if you have a talented generation of footballers, you need to develop them, post-haste. It’s an exceptionally ballsy, lay-it-on-the-line goal to say that you want to be a top-10 FIFA nation... in just a little over three years.

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.

Christine Sinclair then gave Canada the win with a goal two minutes into stoppage time. After a hectic WPS and World Cup schedule, Canada’s reigning player of the year took a sabbatical and missed Canada’s last two friendlies against the United States. But, in a style to which Canadian fans have grown accustomed, Sinclair returned to score a key goal.

The question is, to where will Chencinski go next season? Will it be VPS, the Finnish club where he’s become the undisputed No. 1? Or will it be Swedish side Orebro SK, where he trialed right before he came back to Toronto?

The Vancouver Whitecaps confirmed Thursday that 2011 top draft pick Omar Salgado is already in England to train with Fulham of the English Premier League.

Stephen Hart got his wish. The Canadian national head coach watched his team put together the complete performance he was looking for as Canada routed St. Kitts and Nevis 4-0 on Tuesday night.

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.

“I think the first 10 minutes we knew St. Kitts was a fast team and they work hard,” midfielder Jonathan Beaulieu-Bourgault said. “Sometimes we had a couple of problems but those games happen. We just have to keep our head up and be prepared for the next round.”

I didn’t realize that The 11 had been in existence for over a year until I cracked open my analytics pages and realized I had a new section: The top “Older Than 1 Year” posts. So, the editor missed the site’s first birthday.