Pizarro was simply wonderful on the night; the best player on the pitch. He looked to be playing in a variety of positions, tirelessly running to help out the back line when needed, going out onto the wing when needed, and supporting the attack when needed.

First, congratulations to Real Monarchs’ forward Mastanabal Kacher, who netted a brace in a midweek game against Sounders 2.

And the glaring, obvious truth is that Canada, despite only having one team in CCL, year after year performs better than the United States, which has four slots in the tournament.

Two Canadians involved in maybe one of the biggest goals ever scored by a Canadian club, in one of the world’s true soccer cathedrals. Pinch me.

Canadians played key roles in the NASL reunion match between North Carolina FC and the Indy Eleven this past weekend.

They’re at BMO field, in the lousy, blustery rainy weather. Before the game, at some point, you'd think manager Miguel Herrera and his staff would have looked at some video of Toronto FC in action, and thought to themselves, “wow, Jozy Altidore and Sebastian Giovinco can really burn you on the counter.”

Michael Cox enjoyed a historic weekend. He drew the penalty and converted the ensuing spot-kick to give Nashville SC a 1-0 win over Bethlehem Steel. It marked the first win in the history of the USL’s expansion club in Music City, USA. Cox’s exploits highlighted a weekend which saw the number of Canadians who have appeared in at least one …

By our count, there are 39 Canadians who have got onto the pitches for USL matches.

Of course, as Beirne will be shaking hands, meeting and greeting, over the next two days, a lot of topics will be covered. We talked about a few Wednesday night.

Highlighting this week’s USL action was a goal from Keven Aleman, the former Canadian youth star who’s become somewhat of a forgotten man in the current national team set-up.