Days after the interviews were done and the framework of the story was crafted, I got a press release from the Scorpions that announced they’d made a trade for Costa Rican César Elizondo. But, Elizondo would have been the eighth international on the roster, and NASL rules allow only seven. So, later in the release, came the news that Saiko had been cut loose from the team.

“We have had discussion in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and over the next 60 to 90 days we expect to have more discussions in Canada,” said Peterson.

During the first half of Sunday’s match between the Tampa Bay Rowdies and FC Edmonton at Clarke Stadium, NASL Commissioner Bill Peterson came into the broadcast booth and compared the two teams to heavyweight fighters. They were pushing each other, feeling each other out, looking for weaknesses.

In a state-of-the-NASL conference call held Thursday morning, Peterson said he would be talking with CSA officials later in the day to discuss the organization’s long-term vision for the game in Canada. And he said the NASL would support the CSA’s vision, even if it includes the eventual launch of a Canadian Division “1A” league.

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.

Peterson said the league “will explore options on how we can better align ourselves with the CSA’s professional goals.”

FC Edmonton welcomes the NASL’s decision to abort its controversial playoff format and double the number of teams that will make the post-season in 2014.

Think about it. With a month to go in the regular season, we’re already talking about a second-place team being eliminated from the race. That’s how lopsided the NASL fall-season, ahem, “race” has become.

The Eddies confirmed that they can’t comment because the league has asked both teams to not comment on the situation. So, that’s what makes Kronsteiner’s decision to go public a little baffling. It’s great for media, and great for the Ultras show, that Kronsteiner decided to talk about the incident; but with NASL officials in the room during the Strikers’ fan summit, we again saw the same hubris that he displayed last Sunday in the Clarke Stadium stands — making a public show of defiance that, somehow, league rules don’t apply to him.

The North American Soccer League has a mini-crisis on its hands at the moment. And, in the coming days, how the NASL handles the fallout from Sunday’s Fort Lauderdale Strikers/FC Edmonton match can either go a long way to building the credibility of the league or entrenching the image of North American soccer outside of MLS as rudderless.