The two new additions were already announced, but they aren’t officially considered Canadian roster players. On Monday, Queens Park Rangers confirmed that Dylan Carreiro and Michael Petrasson, who are with QPR’s developmental program, have been named to the squad. The Canadian Soccer Association confirmed that the Petrasso and Carreiro have been invited to camp, but their spots are outside the 21-man roster.

The most interesting subplot of a Canada-Australia match is the presence of Holger Osieck in the Aussies’ coaching box. Osieck led Canada to one of its most prestigious soccer titles, the capture of the Gold Cup trophy in 2000.

FIFA’s calendar has indicated that Canada will face Australia on Oct. 16 in London, England.

But, by making no secret of Canada’s intentions, we’re the first country in CONCACAF to plant our flag. And that’s important.

Former FC Edmonton and Montreal Impact players are being hinted as the key parts of a Quebec “national” team that will compete in a Marseille tournament at the end of June.

But, in FIFA’s eyes — they are both controversial figures. And if there is one thing we have learned about FIFA, black sheep rarely get recognized.

When the result of voting for FIFA’s women’s player of the year is revealed Jan. 7, it will be a referendum of sorts.

An audacious first-half chip from Diana Matheson and a cool second-half finish from Christine Sinclair gave Canada a 2-0 win over New Zealand in the opening match of the Matchworld Women’s World Cup.

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.