Daniel Fernandes grew up just a couple of blocks away from Clarke Field. He remembers walking past the stadium day after day. He kicked his first ball in Edmonton.

“It was not a good performance from us in the first half, it was better in the second half,” said FCE coach Colin Miller. “We had so many players not at pace today, but, at the end of the day, nobody could begrudge us a point.”

It wasn’t pretty. But, considering the circumstances, it was effective.

When the CBA expires in the middle of the month, we can’t say for sure how many DPs a team will be able to have, and what the cap hits for those DPs will be. Basically, Altidore’s signing would play into a series of moving parts that makes it hard to truly pinpoint the kind of domino effect he would have on the roster.

With the MLS season moved up to its earliest start ever, forgive us if we don’t feel 100 per cent totally prepared for First Kick. Judging by the way many MLS teams finished preseason, with tentative matches and still looking at trialists with a week to go before the games count in the standings, a lot of coaches aren’t quite ready for the early start, either.

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