The Italian soccer federation wasn’t as kind. On its website, it blasted the referee for allowing the Gayle goal. The FIGC’s report stated the game was “spoiled by a foul in the penalty area that went undetected by the referee” before Gayle got the winner.

Kelly Parker scored and had a role in setting up two others as the Canadian national women’s team opened the Cyprus Cup Tuesday with a comprehensive 5-1 win over a Scotland side that’s missing its best player.

And, no doubt, the suspension of WPS will have a massive impact on our Canadian women’s team as it prepares foe the London Olympics. Instead of being solely focused on improving the national side ahead of the Games, key players like Christine Sinclair, Candace Chapman, Lauren Sesselmann and Kelly Parker will have other pressing concerns — finding work.

“We’ve got to look at ourselves first — the management team,” said Canadian coach John Herdman. “What we could have done better — whether it was the selections, the order of the substitutions — some of the tactics where we could have played things quicker or made a bigger impact with certain things. But I can’t fault the players’ effort.”

Sinclair scored twice and Melissa Tancredi added a third as the Canadians brought the 22,954 predominantly Canadian fans to their feet with a hectic 3-1 win over Mexico. Veronica Perez scored Mexico’s lone goal.

Christine Sinclair scored twice and set up another goal to lead Canada to a dominating 5-1 win over Costa Rica Monday and first place in Group A at the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

“I think generally job done, that’s two games we managed to rest a few players tonight and we only need a draw to qualify for the top of the group with the goal differential that we’re carrying,” said Canada coach John Herdman. “ It’s in a good space for Canada now and I think we can take Costa Rica in a different light and make sure that we’ve absolutely got everyone ready to go.”

Christine Sinclair scored four goals and set up another to lead Canada to a convincing 6-0 win over Haiti in both teams’ opening match of the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying tournament.

John Herdman and the Canadian national women’s team are expecting to see a lot of teams packing the back at the upcoming Olympic qualifiers in Vancouver.

As he announced his roster for the upcoming tournament in Vancouver, Herdman also spoke of the need to keep the team’s heads “light, bright and clean.” So, in January, he is bringing in Dr. Ceri Evans, listed on the roster as a “mental trainer” to work with the team, to help boost the player’s confidence after the morale-shattering World Cup — a tournament where the player’s mental toughness was brought into question.