Through the two most recent games, Larin has become the favourite for minutes, even though Hamilton’s returns have been better. For sure, Hamilton may have needed some rest against El Salvador — hence why he didn’t come into that game till the 81st minute — but Larin had a chance to prove something in that game, and didn’t come up with a finished product.

And, deep into second-half stoppage time, Larin stood right next to Romilio Hernandez as the El Salvadoran forward buried the dagger-through-the-heart winner off a set piece. Keeper Nolan Wirth made a diving stop off the first attempt in the box. Larin, who was back in the box to help defend the set piece, had the rebound carom off of him before it fell to Hernandez, who slammed the ball in.

Along with terrible field conditions in Jamaica and bizarre officiating, it was another example of the surrealist theatre that only Samuel Beckett or CONCACAF could give us.

You couldn’t shake the feeling that Rob Gale, the coach of the Canadian U-20 men’s team, was trying to keep the focus off the high-profile players on his roster.

Hanson Boakai will be going to the CONCACAF Championship in Jamaica, but he’ll be the only FC Edmonton player making the trip.

Now, Marcina can add “Soccer Bowl” to his coaching résumé. Two superb goals — a bicycle kick from Rafa Castillo and a great run and finish by Billy Forbes — gave the Scorpions a 2-1 win Saturday night in the NASL Championship game.

In the end, that supporter should come to the logical conclusion that the Eddies could have easily gone into that game with Fort Lauderdale with an NASL post-season slot already salted away. I’ll look at three games that should have been wins for the Eddies — instead, they only got two points from those matches.

The Defoe/Gilberto/Michael Bradley Designated-Player push was Toronto FC’s final chance to convince the season-ticket base that things had changed. So, no matter what TFC does this off-season, the theme song for fans will be the Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

Canadian national-team coach Benito Floro is going to give wunderkind Hanson Boakai the chance to play with the big boys.

And how did their head-to-head battle look? Well, Ramirez missed a sitter. And Laing, sporting a new dyed-orange hairdo, converted a shot from distance with his less-than-preferred right foot. Laing’s effort turned out to be the winning goal in a 2-1 FCE triumph.