They aren’t getting a lot of MLS playing time just yet, but a group of locally trained players have steadily moved up the ranks all the way to the Montreal Impact’s senior roster. Will they eventually get their chances to play?

The third issue of PLASTIC PITCH, our national soccer magazine, is out as of right now.

In North America, interest in soccer is at an all-time high. But the championship game for Major League Soccer doesn’t attract major media attention or viewership numbers. Here are some suggestions on how the league can turn around the fortunes of its marquee event...

Days after the interviews were done and the framework of the story was crafted, I got a press release from the Scorpions that announced they’d made a trade for Costa Rican César Elizondo. But, Elizondo would have been the eighth international on the roster, and NASL rules allow only seven. So, later in the release, came the news that Saiko had been cut loose from the team.

Last year, Canadian striker Kyle Porter made some positive impressions in his first MLS season — albeit with last-place D.C. United. Now that United has signed new players and shot up the table, Porter has found himself back on the developmental ladder; instead of MLS play, he’s spent a significant part of the season with the Richmond Kickers...

Toronto FC General Manager Tim Bezbatchenko, right, has put his stamp on the club, firing his inherited coach, Ryan Nelsen, and replacing him with the waiting-in-the-wings candidate, Greg Vanney. But, for a cynical fan base that’s seen coaching changes come and go, will this one really mark a new path for Major League Soccer’s soap-opera franchise?

The Scorpions are to the NASL what the Oakland Raiders were to the National Football League in the 1970s. They’re a bunch of so-called bad apples brought together — and then transformed into one of the best units in the league.

But there’s something I hope came up at the marketing meetings. If MLS has decided to go ahead with a major rebranding of itself, it should tackle what is maybe its own worst enemy. And that's its name.

But, when asked about who could be in and who could be out, USL President Tim Holt said Tuesday that the process of adding teams is still ongoing.

Well, the only thing to do is crunch the numbers; to sift through all of the matches in 2014 — both MLS and NASL — and isolate all the games where a Canadian referee has watched over a meeting between a Canadian-based side and an American-based side.