For Canadians Dwayne De Rosario and Paul Hamilton, Wednesday’s fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup saw them make important contributions as their clubs survived.

But, the Whitecaps later found out they would become the first Canadian franchise to qualify for the playoffs after all, as FC Dallas couldn't capitalize on the Whitecaps slip-up, losing 3-1 to Seattle.

Goals from Franck Songo'o and Darlington Nagbe gave the Portland Timbers a 2-1 victory Saturday night over their Cascadia rivals at JELD-WEN Field in front of 20,438 fans.

Hassli and Mattocks injected some life into a Whitecaps team that, for the first 60 minutes of the match, managed just one shot on goal towards Timbers keeper Troy Perkins .

“They’re just here for a week and they’re heading back to Italy tomorrow. I saw my mother but my father was probably walking around the stadium somewhere. He has a difficult time watching me play.”

We tallied up our votes, and came up with our list of how the teams will finish, who will win MLS Cup and who will be the league’s MVP. No need to play the season, now. We have it all figured out.

And, the result only confirmed what we’ve all come to realize since the MLS season began; that Portland is well ahead of Vancouver. The Whitecaps weren’t deserving of losing by the slender 2-1 scoreline.

It’s become obligatory for every sports journalist to provide season previews for the league he or she covers. It’s automatic, and a great space killer! In that vein, The 11 presents its “waited until the last possible second before the regular season” season preview! Why the wait? Because it’s hard to figure out the East. The West? Wow, a lot of power and depth there. As for the East? Last season, New York and Columbus and six other mediocre to bad to awful clubs were in the conference. New York and Columbus left them all in the dust.