The second stage of the Canadian Championship got underway Tuesday, as the three MLS teams got into the fray. The first legs provided plenty of talking points:
The second stage of the Canadian Championship got underway Tuesday, as the three MLS teams got into the fray. The first legs provided plenty of talking points:
There were some other interesting Canadian storylines that developed over the weekend. In the loss to Vancouver, Canadian Tyler Pasher made his MLS debut, playing 45 minutes for Sporting Kansas City.
But no one matched Tosaint Ricketts, who scored three times in two matches for Toronto FC. He scored two match-winning goals, as the Reds grew their winning streak to six games.
A few of the FC Montreal diaspora have scattered through the USL; and, so far, the most successful of the bunch is Mastanabal Kacher, who got two goals for Colorado Springs this weekend, and now has four on the season.
n MLS, Orlando City has given more minutes to Canadians so far this season than any of the three Canadian sides. In NASL, the San Francisco Deltas lead the way in giving playing time to Canadians. And, in USL, Mastanabal Kacher leads all Canadians in minutes played; and the former FC Montreal player now plays his soccer in Colorado Springs.
So, Anthony Jackson-Hamel has played just 36 minutes for the Montreal Impact so far in 2017. He has three goals. That’s a return of a goal every 12 minutes. What does this mean? That Anthony Jackson-Hamel is the greatest player to ever play in MLS. Take your Landon Donovans and Dwayne De Rosarios and Jaime Morenos and Chris Wondolowskis … …
Maybe this weekly feature should be renamed “What Orlando City SC did this week.”
At this time last year (the conclusion of week 6 of the MLS season), 16 Canadians had each seen at least of minute of action for their respective MLS clubs. This year, the number is down slightly to 14.
Former Canadian U-17 and U-20 player of the year Ballou Jean-Yves Tabla scored his first MLS goal on Saturday, giving the Montreal Impact a 2-1 lead that it would later relinquish and have to settle for a tie in Chicago.
Major League Soccer’s skeleton weekend schedule didn’t feature any Canadian players, so the big stories of the weekend were the launches of the NASL and USL seasons — both leagues now sharing the Division-2 designation. And the key storyline out of the second division is that the San Francisco Deltas of the NASL outpaced the USL’s TFCII and WFC2 when …
The 11 offers insight, interviews and commentary by respected soccer journalists. It is affiliated with the Canadian soccer magazine, Plastic Pitch. Our editor, Steven Sandor, has covered Major League Soccer, United Soccer Leagues, World Cup qualifying, CONCACAF Champions League, women’s soccer and the Canadian Soccer League and has won numerous awards for his magazine work. His work has appeared in the Sun chain of newspapers, Soccer 360, World Soccer, Soccer Canada, Philadelphia Daily News and the Deseret News. His work has appeared in publications in Canada, the United States, Hungary, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom and Namibia.