]Even though coach Jason Kreis has just four weeks and three days to get Real Salt Lake prepared for its first competitive game, he wouldn’t dream of asking Will Johnson to skip Canada’s Feb. 9 friendly in Greece. Kreis and Johnson confirmed at the opening of Real Salt Lake training camp Saturday at the University of Utah that the Canadian midfielder will be part of Stephen Hart’s squad that will go to Greece.

The fledgling North American Soccer League has confirmed that the United States Soccer Federation has yanked its pledge to sanction it as the region’s official Division 2.

After a relationship with Adidas that lasted over a decade fell apart, Canada has come back to Umbro, and will wear the new kits when the men’s team plays Greece on Feb. 9. And, of course, the women will wear the Umbro jerseys when they play at the upcoming World Cup.

The Canadian Soccer Association has called a press conference for Wednesday, in Oakville, Ont., where Kara Lang is expected to end her playing career all too early. Lang, who has suffered through a series of knee operations, is just 24. CBC soccer analyst Jason DeVos is also the technical director of the Oakville Soccer Club; so when CBC reported that the presser is for Lang’s retirement, we can take it as Gospel. When a player retires, it gives us in the media the chance to reflect on favourite moments — clutch goals, great passes. I remember then-women’s coach Even Pellerud bragging about how Lang’s rocket-like free kicks were just as powerful as any man could muster. Back in 2004, I was the editor of In-Flight, the official magazine of the USL’s Edmonton Aviators, a franchise that went bankrupt in the midst of the team’s inaugural season. The Aviators had entries in both the A- and W-Leagues. The club played doubleheaders — a men’s game and a women’s game for the price of one ticket.

When FIFA names the winner of the female World Player of the Year, Christine Sinclair doesn’t even have to bother going to the ceremony. Marta, her teammate with the 2010 WPS champion FC Gold Pride, will likely walk away with her fifth win in a row. And, FIFA has already stated that the other two contenders for the award are …

Midfielder Atiba Hutchinson has won the Canadian Soccer Association’s male player of the year award for the first time. It might not be the last for Hutchinson, who went to high school in Brampton, Ont.’s Heart Lake neighbourhood. This season, Hutchinson left Copenhagen of the Danish League — but not before leading the club to a 2010 title and being named the league’s player of the year — for PSV Eindhoven of the Dutch Eredivisie. Hutchinson said walking onto the pitch at the Amsterdam ArenA, when PSV traveled to face Ajax, the hated rival, was a “dream come true.”

There’s no doubt about it. Canada’s soccer capital is... Brampton, Ont. Flowertown —the place that gave Canada Rick Nash, Scott Thompson from the Kids in the Hall, Michael Cera, Alan Thicke, Russell Peters, Rohinton Mistry and, ahem, this writer, is unquestionably the place to be if you want to raise a child who is going to be a soccer prodigy.

Alberta has made soccer news for the wrong reasons in 2010 as an ugly power struggle has crippled the Alberta Soccer Association. The province continues to be badly under-represented on most national teams, which are dominated by players from British Columbia and Ontario. The rise of BMO Field and Stade Saputo has made Commonwealth Stadium, once the official home of Canada’s national soccer team, a place reserved to host Canadian games only if they are World Cup qualifiers in winter months against Mexico, in hopes of freezing out the regional power. Gains made in boosting the game in Ontario and Quebec have taken a toll on Alberta. So, that’s why the selection of Ethan Gage as the country’s male U-20 player of the year is a big deal.

The Vancouver Whitecaps might only be joining MLS in 2011, but the club’s youth development programs is still miles ahead of TFC Academy. The Whitecaps Residency got another feather in its cap Monday when the Canadian Soccer Association named Bryce Alderson the country’s male U-17 player of the year.

FC Edmonton owner Tom Fath said he is confident that the Canadian Soccer Association’s temporary moratorium on domestic franchises entering U.S.-based leagues won’t affect NASL’s bold expansion plans.