The Montreal Impact has been making some waves over the past couple of days, announcing a friendly with the New York Red Bulls and signing a new keeper. The Impact will play Thierry Henry, Rafa Marquez and the Red Bulls at Stade Saputo May 11.

It was a fascinating exercise to go through a couple of hours worth of tweets after Arsenal’s stunning 2-1 win over Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie. The pundits are one thing, but when the tweets come from players or, in the case of Eskandarian, recently retired players, it’s amazing to see people who are (or recently were) paid to play the game become fans.

TSN was officially confirmed Monday as the new official broadcaster of MLS in Canada. But, for fans of Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps, there won’t be an overwhelming number of games on Canada’s most popular sports network.

According to the NASL, the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps can field affiliated teams in Div. 2 as early as 2012. While neither team has concrete plans in place to have affiliated teams in NASL, Vancouver has retained its membership in the league and Montreal plans to do the same when it leaves NASL for MLS in 2012. This is consistent with previous indications from the league.

The Cody Arnoux saga is close to a resolution. The Vancouver Whitecaps released the former Everton prospect on Friday, paving the way for Arnoux to make his MLS debut. He will likely come to the league via a weighted lottery.

Major League Soccer released its full schedule today http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/new-rivalries-highlight-2011-mls-regular-season-schedule, but fans don’t yet know how many teams will make the playoffs this season, or if there will be wild-card slots again in 2011. League spokesperson Will Kuhns stated Thursday that “MLS is reviewing the playoff format and playoff schedule for 2011 and will announce details soon.”

Trialist Gianluca Zavarise scored and was sent off as Toronto FC lost 3-1 to Dinamo Zagreb Thursday in their final training match in Turkey. Despite being without veteran Igor Biscan — the former Liverpool man was out with injury — and Brazilian-born midfielder Sammir, who has been linked to a move to Fiorentina, the Croats triumphed in a game that …

For the second time in three preseason Arizona games, the Vancouver Whitecaps faced CONCACAF Champions League opposition. And, just as the Whitecaps beat Real Salt Lake 2-1, they triumphed over the Columbus Crew by the same score on Tuesday.

As preseason games go, Toronto FC’s 1-0 win over Red Star Belgrade Sunday in Turkey was significant. Usually, when facing European opposition in friendlies or preseason games, MLS teams are used to seeing squads filled with “B” team players and prospects. But Red Star Belgrade fielded what was close to a full-strength squad — and only used three subs, as if the Toronto FC match was a regular Serbian league game. The club resumes its Serbian league schedule Feb. 27 after the end of the winter break.

It’s rare for Caleb Porter to take a break from his passion. The University of Akron head coach is a self-professed soccer junkie, constantly watching, reading about and developing tactics for the game so it was a strange thing for him to put everything aside for a month following his Zips’ 1-0 win over Louisville in the NCAA title match on Dec. 12. The championship was Akron’s first as a school. But given the stamp the 35-year-old Porter has put on the program in his five years in charge, it might not be the last.