“We knew about it. It’s a little bit difficult but you just have to be focused on what you do on the pitch and let everything off the field take place,” said Hutchinson. “We couldn’t really do anything about it but just remain focused on what we had to do. In the end we didn’t get the chance to play in the Europa (League) but hopefully we’ll be able to get back there.”

“I’m a little bit surprised and a little bit happy to win this award for a second time,” he said Wednesday.

“The game against the States is not the most important,” said the 29-year-old Brampton native and PSV Eindhoven midfielder in a conference call with reporters on Monday from the Canadian team’s training camp in Sunrise, Fla. “We want to be ready for the qualifying games.”

The Canadian Soccer Association announced that our men’s national team will play Armenia during the FIFA international match day of Feb. 29.

Or did the cards really pay off? Because, now that the Whitecaps have secured Nguyen, MLS rules state that the team can no longer participate in any weighted lotteries, unless, by some miracle, all 19 teams get players through the course of the season OR a player is made available that no one else wants.

The Vancouver Whitecaps will face their fiercest Canadian rival on opening day; the question is, how many Canadians will actually be on the field?

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.

“Even worse is the news of Atiba Hutchinson, which is likely to go under the knife again,” said Rutten (translated from Dutch). “I am very disappointed, Atiba always gives 120 per cent and so we must analyze how good the rehabilitation process has gone. In all probability he should go back to surgery and I am afraid to have lost him for a while.”

What would be most interesting is whether or not Hart looks to the NASL ranks — especially for players who would have had experience playing the Puerto Rico Islanders. He said in August that, if players are doing well and getting regular time, he’d look to Div.-2.

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.