After playing St. Lucia in a qualifier Sept. 2 in Toronto — in which Simpson scored twice, he flew to Puerto Rico with the team to play in a Sept. 6 qualifier, a Tuesday night. By the Thursday, he and Manisaspor teammate Mike Klukowski were in a hotel, prepping for the Turkish league opener.

Hart said there are a “couple of areas” where Canada needs to improve, and he will make roster changes ahead of the next couple of qualifiers. But he won’t say exactly what the problem spots are.

But national coach Stephen Hart made it clear in a conference call Thursday that he thinks the atmosphere can get a heck of a lot better — and if it wasn’t for the travel issues, he’d prefer to have the team move around Canada rather than call Toronto its sole home.

Canada lived up to its favourite tag in its World Cup qualifying opener against St. Lucia — completely outplaying the Caribbean club for a 4-1 win Friday at Toronto's BMO Field.

Expect the unexpected. This is what Canada needs to be wary of when it kicks off its first qualifying match against St. Lucia on Friday, as the men’s national team begins its long and tough journey to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

So, with that in mind, I did several Ticketmaster searches Wednesday for tickets for the Canada-St. Lucia game on Friday. And it was troubling to see just how easy it was to get large numbers of seats. Want eight seats together in the Canada supporters’ section? Was able to find them in section 117, at the south end of the stadium.

Milan Borjan’s debut season with Turkish side Sivasspor is on hold; but the Canadian national goalkeeper is excited to get Canada’s World Cup qualifying campaign off to a winning start.

Adrian Cann’s knee injury has transformed him from Canadian national team hopeful to superfan. But the Toronto FC central defender is happy to do what he can to rally fan support ahead of Canada’s Friday home date with St. Lucia — the opening of World Cup qualifying. “This game is my passion my life,” said Cann. “But I can do whatever I can to rally support for the team.”

But Sportsnet will not be picking up the Oct. 7 away match to St. Lucia and the Nov. 11 trip to St. Kitts and Nevis. This isn’t unusual; in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, Sportsnet didn’t pick up the broadcasts for Canada’s early-round away fixtures in the Caribbean, either.

From a scandal forcing the delay of the Turkish season to glaring holes at various positions, Hart was forced to pick some players who might be a tad rusty.