Julian de Guzman has played in Germany and Spain; he’s been a Designated Player in Major League Soccer. Is his next stop the North American Soccer League? The veteran Canadian national-team midfielder, at the West Edmonton Mall Friday for the launch of the new red Canada kit, said he hopes to have a new team at the end of March. …

Since he has only turned down a Canadian national team invite — and has yet to turn down the Canadian program entirely, it’s OK to applaud Tesho Akindele’s major MLS award win as a victory for soccer in this country.

A Canadian men’s national team press conference just wouldn’t be a men’s national team press conference if there weren’t questions about players who aren’t with the program.

So, as MLS looks to tweaking or making major changes to the international rule as it relates to Canadians, the Canadian Soccer Association and the league need to set a goal that’s more cut-and-dried than giving more roster spots or even, gasp, dropping the Canadians-as-internationals-on-American-teams designation. Someone needs to write down a number. And that number would be a ballpark average of first-team minutes for Canadians.

enough to get picked in the second round of the 2013 SuperDraft. A year later, the Canadian reflects on a season of frustration and a new beginning in the nation’s capital...

The question is, did Osorio have time to pull out of his challenge? It’s one of those situations that’s actually muddied by the use of instant replay. By slowing it down in replay, it looks as if Osorio has more time to pull out of the challenge than he actually did — and the play looks more malicious in nature when it slows down.

“There wasn’t a lot missing today,” he continued. “A centimetre’s difference here or there and things might have been different but the game's like that. Even though we came away empty-handed today we are still on track to achieve the objectives we set at the beginning of the season.”

But, when it came to the player of the week vote, Robbie Keane stood apart from the crowd.

“I think all the boys would probably say it, there weren’t very many that played well today,” added Nelsen. “We are not good enough where we can have an off day and get away with it. Hopefully, we’ll be in a situation where we will be one day. But when we’re not all guns blazing, it can get a bit ugly.”

If Marco Di Vaio and co. are facing the league’s top teams, they don’t lose. And, a stretch of the schedule filled with games against Columbus, FC Dallas, Chivas USA and Toronto FC is more deadly for the Impact than a stretch of games against the top two teams in each conference.