FC Edmonton not only got a thrilling win in the most compelling game played in either MLS or NASL this weekend, but the Eddies are putting some distance between themselves and the rest of the pack when it comes to playing Canadians.

Even though he needed the aid of a translator — and some of the answers were not delivered in perfect English, Benito Floro let us in the media see some of the frustrations he experiences in coaching the Canadian national team.

And FC Edmonton has run out to a commanding lead amongst MLS and NASL teams — when it comes to giving Canadian players minutes in league games. The Eddies started three Canadians — who all played the full 90 — in their 1-1 draw with Carolina; add to that sub Michael Nonni, who came on for 14 minutes of action.

This week, the NASL enters our weekly ranking of who is getting minutes in the top two divisions in North America.

We also changed the way we do the list in week four. Why? We have headaches when it comes to four players.

Four Canadian players made their MLS season debuts (or MLS debuts, period) in the third weekend of the MLS season. That boosts the number of Canadians who have played in the league so far in 2015 to 12.

But, I did want to take the chance to catch up on a couple of things: The elimination of Canada’s U-17s from the U-17 World Cup picture and the second instalment of The 11’s Quintessentially Canadian Power Rankings.

So, let’s look at the rankings after week 1 of MLS action. The number on the right is the total number of minutes played by Canadians this season. So far, no MLS team has played more than one Canadian per game

Since he has only turned down a Canadian national team invite — and has yet to turn down the Canadian program entirely, it’s OK to applaud Tesho Akindele’s major MLS award win as a victory for soccer in this country.

A Canadian men’s national team press conference just wouldn’t be a men’s national team press conference if there weren’t questions about players who aren’t with the program.