Javier Morales’ performance was judged to be superior to that of Javier Martina. The Real Salt Lake midfielder was named the MLS player of the week by the North American Soccer Reporters on Monday. Morales scored twice and set up another goal as RSL decimated the Los Angeles Galaxy 4-1, only adding to Rio Tinto’s reputation as being the toughest place for a road team to go in all of North American pro sports.

Perhaps all Toronto FC needed was to be back at BMO Field. A week after a disappointing loss in the season opener in Vancouver, a much-improved TFC side won its home opener by a 2-0 score over the Portland Timbers. Striker Javier Martina led the way with his first two career MLS goals, but perhaps even more important than Toronto's scoring was the lack of a goal from the other side. The Reds' back line stood up against a persistent Timbers attack and kept the clean sheet, just a week after allowing four goals to the Whitecaps.

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.

The Vancouver Whitecaps created plenty of chances, but had to settle for a 1-1 draw with the Portland Timbers Saturday at the preseason Cascadia Cup in Tukwila, Wash. The Timbers scored inside of the first 10 minutes, with Ryan Pore — who spent three years with the Kansas City Wizards slamming a the ball home after Whitecaps’ keeper Jay Nolly spilled it after the initial shot.

Eddie Johnson scored against the Montreal Impact for the second game in a row. The Portland Timbers prospect, a veteran of the English lower leagues, scored for his new club in a 1-0 exhibition win over the Impact Wednesday in Arizona.

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.

The Vancouver Whitecaps stuck to their guns. Omar Salgado, whose move to the club in August 2010 was scuttled after MLS discovered it would break international transfer rules, was grabbed with the No. 1 pick in the MLS SuperDraft in Baltimore. But, unless Vancouver gets special clearance from FIFA, he won’t be eligible to play for the team until Sept. …

The team still has an interim coach and interim general manager. But the heat on Toronto FC was turned up when MLS released its First Kick schedule Monday. As was widely expected, TFC kicks off its season in Vancouver against the Whitecaps on March 19. The game is exactly what CBC, which would love to expand its reach for soccer broadcasts, would need to create a new national brand that shows that it could create a soccer broadcasting franchise built on the Hockey Night in Canada model. The next week, Toronto FC returns to BMO Field to welcome the Portland Timbers for the home opener.

The shop window featured a heck of a lot of high-priced talent. The Vancouver Whitecaps weren’t buying.

Here are some of the interesting possibilities out there for Vancouver and Portland in Wednesday’s expansion draft. Here are five names that really jumped out on the lists of unprotected players released Monday.