But if MLS wants to see more exciting games, more late match-winners, especially with its new TV deals in the United States, it could look at reducing the number of teams that make the playoffs. As it becomes more competitive to get a playoff spot, coaches and players may not be as willing to settle for draws.

So, as MLS looks to tweaking or making major changes to the international rule as it relates to Canadians, the Canadian Soccer Association and the league need to set a goal that’s more cut-and-dried than giving more roster spots or even, gasp, dropping the Canadians-as-internationals-on-American-teams designation. Someone needs to write down a number. And that number would be a ballpark average of first-team minutes for Canadians.

Frank Yallop was widely expected to take over the reins of the Vancouver Whitecaps; instead, the former Canadian national-team coach chose to steer the Chicago Fire. In this interview, he tells us why he chose the Windy City, and how he hopes MLS can help Canadian soccer in the future...

The second issue of Plastic Pitch, out today, features a 16-page section on Canada's bid for the World Cup.

As expansion ramps up, critics will claim MLS is watering itself down. But this next period of expansion offers a perfect time to answer those critics, to make the playoffs more exclusive. Even by knocking it back to eight teams, it would allow MLS to claim that, by 2017, you’d have just one-third of the clubs making the post-season. And you would have a situation like NASL, where games matter right off the bat.

Mirror, mirror on the wall — what are the biggest issues MLS faces of all? An upcoming CBA negotiation and uncertainty over the kickoff of the 2015 season. An increase in NASL spending that’s putting pressure on MLS to offer improved entry-level contracts. The fact that there are still wide gulfs between how MLS does deals and how the rest of the world does deals. We asked agents across North America for their input — and we got some very, very interesting answers. Here’s a rare peek behind the scenes...

In 2013, the chance of a Canadian player getting first-team minutes with an MLS side was only slightly better than it was in 1996. We looked at every minute played by all Canadians who have ever been in MLS employ; we found that, over the last four years, the first-team minutes granted to Canucks by MLS coaches have been in steady and serious decline...

“I spent time with San Jose Earthquakes last summer and they wanted me to come back for their preseason,” said Jones after an FC Edmonton training session at Commonwealth Fieldhouse. “But, since I talked to Colin, I felt Edmonton was the right place for me.”

Now that Yallop is back in the realm of the employed, he join San Jose coach Mark Watson (and Yallop’s former assistant) as Canadian coaches in MLS. Now add to that the fact there are three Canadian coaches currently employed in NASL: FC Edmonton’s Colin Miller, San Antonio Scorpions interim boss Alen Marcina and Ottawa Fury head man Marc Dos Santos. Yes, we include Dos Santos because, even though the Fury won’t begin NASL play till 2014, Dos Santos is already working to identify players and hire his staff.

Gabriel Torres, whose rocket of a shot was the margin of difference in Colorado’s 3-2 win over Vancouver on Saturday, got the most first-place votes from the members of the North American Soccer Reporters.