With the announcement that reigning Canadian U-17 player of the year Bryce Alderson has been promoted from the Whitecaps Residency to the MLS roster, the club has given its most exciting teen prospect the chance to step up — and also helped silence the critics who noted the lack of Canadians on the first team through the 2011 season.

Now, if you’ve ever heard Lenarduzzi speak about the team that went to World Cup finals in 1986, he’ll talk about the number of players on the squad who couldn’t find teams on which to play. It was a ragtag group of players, many of whom didn’t escape the realm of semipro North American soccer. Now, the shoe is on the other foot. Lenarduzzi is the boss. He’s on the club side. And he has obviously learned that management is a cruel business.

Nick Soolsma's 54th-minute penalty kick cinched a 1-0 win for Toronto FC over the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday night at BMO Field in a game that served as a dress rehearsal for Saturday's Nutrilite Canadian Championship final between these same two teams. At least, the Whitecaps saw it as a dress rehearsal. With several regulars left on the bench, it was clear that Vancouver was already looking ahead to the weekend.

The Vancouver Whitecaps were unfortunate to have to face Real Salt Lake at Rio Tinto Stadium the game after the Utah-based squad registered its first loss at home in two years. The result was a 2-0 loss at the hands of RSL in lacklustre fashion. "Today it just wasn't good enough in so many aspects of the game,” said coach Tom Soehn.

But Thordarson decided to use Saturday’s date in New England as a chance to test his squad players. Striker Long Tan, who any Whitecaps fans would be forgiven for not remembering still played for the club, got the start with attack partner Omar Salgado, the teenager chosen first overall in the 2011 Superdraft. The Revs won 1-0, as Shalrie Joseph converted a penalty kick after Whitecap Blake Wagner was adjudged to have stepped on the foot of Rev Benny Feilhaber just inside the box.

But, the Montreal Impact should be the one going through. All Gerba had to do was convert what was a pretty automatic scoring chance in the dying seconds of extra time. But, with Whitecaps keeper Jay Nolly at his mercy and no defender in sight, Gerba's header crashed off the post. The Whitecaps escaped with a 2-1 aggregate win; a 1-1 draw on the night.

Projected to come out on the short end of a one-sided affair against the relentlessly offensive visiting Whitecaps, Marc Dos Santos’s pink and black-kitted crew surprised by showing far better ensemble play than they did on Saturday in its NASL game against Tampa Bay FC and made the game a close one, losing a 1-0 decision to Major League Soccer's Vancouver representative.

But the Montreal-Vancouver matchup is more than a rekindling of an old, bitter rivalry. It’s fascinating test for the staggering Impact, which moves to MLS next season. So, far, this NASL campaign, the Impact hasn’t won in three matches. The club has scored only once. No member of its current roster is signed to a deal that would take him into MLS in 2012.

Still, we have to compare how the Whitecaps progress against TFC’s expansion season. It is as close to apples to apples as we have. So, in 2007, after three games, TFC hadn’t won, hadn’t scored, and had given up nine goals.

Canada lost twice Friday at the CONCACAF U-20 Championship in Guatemala. The Canadians were overwhelmed 3-0 by Costa Rica in their final group-stage match. And, if not for some wonderful saves from Julien Latendresse-Levesque, the scoreline could have been much, much worse.