Canada likely won’t have reigning national player of the year Atiba Hutchinson available for the beginning of the World Cup qualifying schedule. Canadian national team coach Stephen Hart said in a conference call Thursday that Hutchinson is still recovering from meniscus surgery in June. The injury forced Hutchinson to miss two of Canada’s three games at the Gold Cup.

And, having the games in one city does make sense. While the Canadian Soccer Association won’t release ticket info until later this week, there are strong indications from the CSA there will be multi-game ticket packages available.

After informing Dan Gargan he was no longer part of the team’s plans earlier this week, Toronto FC sent the defender and a second-round pick to the Chicago Fire for veteran fullback Dasan Robinson.

The Fury earned the right to go to the W-League’s final four in Seattle by beating the No. 4 seed Toronto Lady Lynx 4-0 on Saturday and crushing the Quebec City Amiral 6-0 in Sunday’s conference final at Ottawa’s Algonquin College.

Carolina Morace resigned as the national women’s team coach late Thursday, according to various reports. The Canadian Soccer Association, as of Friday morning, still had not confirmed that Morace is gone.

Now, if you’ve ever heard Lenarduzzi speak about the team that went to World Cup finals in 1986, he’ll talk about the number of players on the squad who couldn’t find teams on which to play. It was a ragtag group of players, many of whom didn’t escape the realm of semipro North American soccer. Now, the shoe is on the other foot. Lenarduzzi is the boss. He’s on the club side. And he has obviously learned that management is a cruel business.

But the Japanese upset will send shockwaves through the Canadian Soccer Association as well. Japan has smashed the idea that the European professionalism can’t be matched.

And the CSA knows that. Guaranteed, next time Morace gives the Association an expensive shopping list, she’ll be met — understandably — with a lot of resistance. It’s like asking dad to borrow the Ferrari after you totalled the Porsche the last time out. Not gonna happen.

Carolina Morace’s skin has been made of Teflon. The Canadian national women’s coach has got what amounts to a free pass from soccer fans and the media in this country. In the wake of Canada’s humiliating 4-0 defeat to France Thursday at the Women’s World Cup, the questions that haven’t been asked of Morace need to come to the surface.

CBC’s broadcast of the Women’s World Cup opener between Canada and the No. 1 ranked Germans got ratings that the men’s program can only dream about — but didn’t come close to the kind of numbers CBC pulled in for major group-stage games of the men’s World Cup last year.