It was too good a story to ignore. The membership of the North American Soccer Reporters voted Canadian midfielder Patrice Bernier as the MLS Player of the Week.

After what was a very spread-out vote, Columbus Crew forward Emilio Renteria was named the MLS Player of the Week.

“They’re a good team, but the problem they had is that Champions League killed them. It’s a very tough thing to do in a salary cap league even with three designated players. It’s extremely tough to travel down to Mexico and then up to Montreal. It’s difficult. You are so focused on this championship that you are so close to winning, and then all the sudden you’ve got to refocus on the league and you’re 10 points behind.”

In fact, take Montreal and Toronto away from the equation — and their collective 0-6-0 record against the West, and the East actually has a winning record (12-11-5) in interconference matches.

The Montreal Impact came to visit Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, hoping to slay a dragon. It was somewhat of a David versus Goliath affair, and the probability of its first ever MLS win was unlikely. But, the visitors did a lot to frustrate their more experienced opponent and the effort nearly worked — yet, the home side came out with a 1-0 win.

On Friday, the NASL expansion side announced that it had signed ex-Whitecaps Blake Wagner and Wes Knight. Wagner and Knight will join two other former Whitecaps, Kevin Harmse and Greg Janicki — who were the first two signings the Scorpions ever made.

Major League Soccer's new refereeing structure will not limit opportunities for Canadian officials.

We tallied up our votes, and came up with our list of how the teams will finish, who will win MLS Cup and who will be the league’s MVP. No need to play the season, now. We have it all figured out.

Both the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps were busy in preseason action Friday.

The Montreal Impact has already lost one player to an injury suffered in a preseason match. Impact fans are hoping that the number doesn’t rise to two.