If, next week, the players wearing the red of Toronto FC hoist the Voyageurs’ Cup over their heads, the Vancouver Whitecaps will rue a second half filled with missed opportunities in the opening leg of the Nutrilite Canadian Championships. The final scoreline on Wednesday read 1-1. But, make no mistake, Vancouver will feel it deserved not just to win the game, but win it handily.

But Thordarson decided to use Saturday’s date in New England as a chance to test his squad players. Striker Long Tan, who any Whitecaps fans would be forgiven for not remembering still played for the club, got the start with attack partner Omar Salgado, the teenager chosen first overall in the 2011 Superdraft. The Revs won 1-0, as Shalrie Joseph converted a penalty kick after Whitecap Blake Wagner was adjudged to have stepped on the foot of Rev Benny Feilhaber just inside the box.

But, the Montreal Impact should be the one going through. All Gerba had to do was convert what was a pretty automatic scoring chance in the dying seconds of extra time. But, with Whitecaps keeper Jay Nolly at his mercy and no defender in sight, Gerba's header crashed off the post. The Whitecaps escaped with a 2-1 aggregate win; a 1-1 draw on the night.

The final 20 minutes of the Vancouver Whitecaps 2-1 loss Saturday in Columbus — which saw the visitors throw everything they had at Crew keeper Will Hesmer in a wild attempt to pull another game out of the fire — wasn’t enough to erase 70 minutes of indifferent play. Don’t let the Whitecaps’ frantic attempt to come back from a two-goal deficit fool you; the Caps came into this game with a very negative mentality.

Ferreira was hurt on what looked to be a rather innocuous play; as he charged to get to a ball deep in Whitecaps territory, defender Jonathan Leathers slid and got all ball with the challenge. No foul was called. Ferreira went over and was down for several minutes, clutching his ankle in pain. He was sent to hospital for tests to his ankle.

Program the PVR. Make sure your Internet connection is fast enough to allow for multiple streams. This weekend marks a landmark in Canadian soccer. Four professional clubs are in action; FC Edmonton and the Montreal Impact kick off their NASL campaigns Saturday with road games in Florida. And MLS? Toronto FC visits the San Jose Earthquakes Saturday night. And the Vancouver Whitecaps head to Texas to take on the Houston Dynamo on Sunday. Of the weekend’s action, only Montreal and FC Edmonton overlap.

And, while the Whitecaps came back in stoppage time to draw Sporting Kansas City 3-3 on Saturday, they surrendered a 93rd-minute last-gasp goal to New England’s Ilija Stolica and had to settle for a 1-1 draw with the Revolution in front of 19,396 fans. But the talking point won’t be the Stolica equalizer. It will be the bizarre sequence that followed Eric Hassli’s penalty-kick goal in the 56th.

The Vancouver Whitecaps gave it their best shot to maintain their perfect season here yesterday against the Philadelphia Union and their boisterous Sons of Ben fan club —which cheers its heroes and jeers the opposition nonstop the entire game. They really did. But in the end the Caps simply couldn’t overcome a red card to striker Eric Hassli — his second yellow-card infraction of the day — forcing them to play a man down the final 35 minutes. The Union applied consistent pressure from there, finally converting an opportunity goal from Carlos Ruiz in the 79th minute to squeeze out a 1-0 win that might’ve been a different story otherwise.

It’s become obligatory for every sports journalist to provide season previews for the league he or she covers. It’s automatic, and a great space killer! In that vein, The 11 presents its “waited until the last possible second before the regular season” season preview! Why the wait? Because it’s hard to figure out the East. The West? Wow, a lot of power and depth there. As for the East? Last season, New York and Columbus and six other mediocre to bad to awful clubs were in the conference. New York and Columbus left them all in the dust.

The Vancouver Whitecaps created plenty of chances, but had to settle for a 1-1 draw with the Portland Timbers Saturday at the preseason Cascadia Cup in Tukwila, Wash. The Timbers scored inside of the first 10 minutes, with Ryan Pore — who spent three years with the Kansas City Wizards slamming a the ball home after Whitecaps’ keeper Jay Nolly spilled it after the initial shot.