In what was a major statement game for his club, home-state product Lamar Neagle scored a hat trick for the Seattle Sounders in a 6-2 win over Eastern Conference leaders Columbus — and earned the Player of the Week nod from the membership of the North American Soccer Reporters.

Shea Salinas got the winning goal in a 1-0 victory Saturday over the Houston Dynamo, but the Vancouver Whitecaps’ also got an assist from Lady Luck to get their fourth win of the MLS season.

After breezing past FC Edmonton on Wednesday in Nutrilite Canadian Championship play, Toronto FC has quickly shifted its focus to Saturday when the club takes on Houston Dynamo. “I think that mentally we are all focused on this Saturday’s game and going in there we have to visualize how we play with one another beside us,” said Cann. “It’s very crucial that we get the three points so that’s our main objective going forward.”

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.

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.