Hocine spent last season with Finnish side Ekenas IF. At six-foot-five, he is expected to be a commanding presence in the box. He was with Ekenas IF of the Finnish second division, and enjoyed a great season where he was nominated for defender-of-the-year honours in the second tier.

The Eddies confirmed that a deal has been consummated between the clubs, but won't release the terms. But this is not a case of a player leaving the academy as a free agent.

“They can’t do anything until they look after us,” said Miller.

“Hanson was free to do what he did,” said Miller. “He was terrific for us He’s decided to move on, the club had made a terrific offer for him to stay. He’s gone from us and we wish him well. He’s come through our academy and we’re after our fee and we won’t stop till we get it, simple as that.”

We’ve seen this over and over. A young players come up through our system, and then our small-but-oh-so-loud Canadian soccer community gives the kid way too much praise, way too much hype. It’s understandable, we’re so desparate for a saviour, an instant solution to decades worth of soccer rot, that we latch on to 17-year-old after 17-year-old. The message boards fill up with dreams of big moves to big clubs. And whether your name is Aleman, Alderson or Teibert, the overreaction to some early career successes puts you on a path to meet expectations that can’t possibly be met.

As MLS began its playoffs, NASL finished the final week of its regular season. So, this will be the final instalment of our power rankings.

If Kyle Porter plays 22 minutes or more for Atlanta in the final week of the NASL season, he is guaranteed to be the Canadian minutes leader in MLS or NASL this season.This is the penultimate instalment of the Power Rankings, with the MLS regular season having wrapped up this past weekend and NASL having just one week to go (save for FC Edmonton, which has a bye on the final week of the season).

As we head into the final week of the MLS regular-season schedule and the last two weeks of the NASL regular-season slate, only four players remain mathematically alive to be the top Canadian in terms of minutes played in either division one or two.

With NASL having a shorter schedule than MLS, this was basically a catch-up week for the second division, which gives us a better idea on how NASL teams rank against the MLS sides when it comes to giving first-team minutes to Canadian players. And, we see Toronto FC’s Jonathan Osorio fall out of top spot in the Canadian minutes-played ranks. Atlanta’s Kyle Porter retakes the lead.

Going into a game against a powerhouse like Mexico, you know Canada’s going to have precious few chances — so, to have any hope at all the conversion rate has got to be decent. Canada had three very good looks; Boakai misplayed the ball, Petrasso hit a poor penalty and Thomas's effort was close, but high.