With the CONCACAF Gold Cup less than eight weeks away, Canadian head coach Stephen Hart was in Toronto on Thursday morning to discuss Canada’s preparation for the tournament as well as its June 1 friendly with Ecuador at BMO Field.

The right opponent, in this case, is Manchester City. But is it the right date? The Whitecaps announced Thursday that it will play Manchester City on Monday, July 18 at Empire Field. It’s part of the World Football Challenge series. But, how will that game stretch coach Teitur Thordarson’s ranks? A high-profile international is a great PR exercise. But, the Whitecaps are scheduled to play at home to the juggernaut that is Real Salt Lake on July 16, and then travel to San Jose on July 20.

Jamison Olave is known as one of the meanest, toughest central defenders in Major League Soccer. But the Real Salt Lake anchor guaranteed that his club would be the first MLS side to go to the CONCACAF Champions League final with a thumping volley off a scrambled corner kick to give RSL the precious road goal it needed to get by Costa Rican giants, Saprissa.

And, there were no shocks in the script. Mexico thumped Canada 3-0. By making it to the semifinals, Mexico qualifies for the U-20 World Cup.The Canadian kids get their tickets home.

Despite reports from AP this morning suggesting Canada, Costa Rica and Spain could replace Japan as one of the guest teams in this summer’s (or, in South America, winter) Copa America, the Canadian Soccer Association confirms no one from CONMEBOL has reached out to it.

Asmir Begovic is back on the radar of Canadian soccer fans. The former Canadian U-20 keeper, who in 2009 elected to play for Bosnia and Herzegovina, is now sponsoring a program to send disadvantaged kids to pro soccer games in his adopted hometown of Edmonton.

Sweden got an early goal, and some outstanding goalkeeping, and hung on to a 1-0 win over the Canadian women’s team Saturday in a Rome friendly. Swedish coach Thomas Dennerby started his “A” lineup, save for one position. He wanted to have a look at Sofia Lundgren, usually the No. 2 keeper in the set-up. She ended up being huge in the match, making a series of saves.

It was played in an empty stadium in Antalya, Turkey. There was no television coverage. Fans had to follow the game through Sportsnet’s live chat or on Twitter. But this is what we know: despite coach Stephen Hart putting together a lineup that was heavy on European-based players, an MLS man got the goal that gave Canada a 1-0 win over Belarus in a friendly on Tuesday.

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.