Just a little more than a year ago, when the United 2026 bid was made official, it felt like CONCACAF had what amounted to a sitter at its feet. A tap-in. There was no way a push to bring a World Cup to the United States, with a little help from Canada and Mexico, could fail, right?

“I knew it was always going to take a miracle for us to make the playoffs,” said FCE coach Colin Miller after the match. “I would rather focus on the team’s performance tonight. I am very pleased with the effort, and hopefully we can carry that momentum into Wednesday’s game.”

But, when the Mexican, American and Canadian soccer associations joined together Monday in New York to unveil that they would sign a memorandum of understanding to jointly bid for the 2026 World Cup, United States Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati said that, in fact, this tripartite pact had been in the works for years.

FC Edmonton co-owner Tom Fath says that the club is a go for the 2017 season.

During his reign as president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter has made the Canadian Soccer Association one of his favourite federations.

Former CSA president Dominique Maestracci accuses MLS of breaking promises it had made to the association; and he says the relationship with the USSF was not a cooperative one...

“Until two to three years ago, the relationship was non-existent,” says Montagliani. “Basically, we were a foregone conclusion to our friends from the south. But we have strengthened our relationship, first with the USSF, and now we have better relationships at the MLS level, and the NASL level. Our relationships are improving but, remember, it’s been just two or three years.”

To CONCACAF, it doesn’t matter if it’s Canada who gets the job done, or another of the countries from North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

According to the NASL, the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps can field affiliated teams in Div. 2 as early as 2012. While neither team has concrete plans in place to have affiliated teams in NASL, Vancouver has retained its membership in the league and Montreal plans to do the same when it leaves NASL for MLS in 2012. This is consistent with previous indications from the league.

After a close board vote on Friday, the decision to give NASL the Division 2 sanction was ratified by the membership of the United States Soccer Federation Saturday in Las Vegas. But the sanction is only good for the 2011 season. According to a release from the league, “The NASL will need to meet certain requirements defined by the Board of Directors to be granted full sanctioning beyond the 2011 season.”