One of the goals of the Canadian Premier League was to give opportunities to Canadians playing in Europe — and then fallen off the radars of fans back home — the chance to repatriate themselves.

Like CONCACAF, Asia has a couple of big dogs on the block — South Korea and Japan — who are considered to be automatics to qualify for World Cups. And, Australia, like Canada, has still show itself to be wildly inconsistent in qualifying. But Australia isn’t waiting. It doesn’t see reform as a long-term, long-tail process. There’s a recognition that if you have a talented generation of footballers, you need to develop them, post-haste. It’s an exceptionally ballsy, lay-it-on-the-line goal to say that you want to be a top-10 FIFA nation... in just a little over three years.

Oliver Spring is a name that Canadian soccer fans need to have on their radars. The 15-year-old Toronto native has been invited back to the Netherlands for a third spell with Feyenoord’s academy.

Matt Stinson has the chance to make his debut for the Canadian men’s national team. The Toronto FC youngster is one of just two changes national team coach Stephen Hart has made to his roster ahead of World Cup qualifiers Nov. 11 and 15 against St. Kitts and Nevis.

The members of the Canadian national men’s team who will take the field for a World Cup qualifier Friday in St. Lucia will have to make some interesting footwear choices. Should they go with longer blades or shorter studs?

Joseph Di Chiara thought that he was eventually going to get a call from a Canadian national side — just not the senior national side.

Joseph Di Chiara and Ashtone Morgan will both get their chances to earn their first-ever caps for the Canadian national team. The inclusion of the two youngsters highlights six changes made to the Canadian roster by national men’s team coach Stephen Hart ahead of World Cup qualifiers Oct. 7 in St. Lucia and Oct. 11 against Puerto Rico at Toronto’s BMO Field.

Joseph Di Chiara could get his first Canadian national-team cap when the senior squad travels to St. Lucia for an Oct. 7 World Cup qualifier.

As Canada prepares to begin its World Cup qualifying campaign — which kicks off Sept. 2 against Puerto Rico — coach Stephen Hart has a lot on his plate. With that in mind, The 11, with some input from our readers, has created a list of players — not including Junior Hoilett, he’s been talked about ad nauseam already— who didn’t take part in the Gold Cup and could inject some life into the Canadian squad.

Canada likely won’t have reigning national player of the year Atiba Hutchinson available for the beginning of the World Cup qualifying schedule. Canadian national team coach Stephen Hart said in a conference call Thursday that Hutchinson is still recovering from meniscus surgery in June. The injury forced Hutchinson to miss two of Canada’s three games at the Gold Cup.