Dixon is just part of a growing trend of Canadians who are deciding that home soil is the best place for them to be. Dixon, who got his first national-team call-up earlier this year, is the newest member of the “come back to Canada club.”

For the three thousand or so watching the stream of the Canadian men’s national team’s friendly against Azerbaijan, it was 90 minutes that offered very little in terms of hope or discouragement ahead of the next two crucial games of World Cup qualifying.

Life isn’t like a John Hughes film. In real life, the socially awkward guy who listens to Echo and the Bunnymen doesn’t end up with the most popular girl in high school. In real life, if the scrawny kid challenges the neighbourhood bully to a fight, he comes home with his own blood on his shirt and there’s fewer teeth in his mouth than he began the day with.

“I’m looking to come back to North America. I’m kind of in between things, talking to a few clubs. Hopefully, after this camp, things will be sorted out.”

Canada will begin the next stage of World Cup qualifying in November. To make it to CONCACAF’s infamous “Hex,” Canada will need to finish first or second in a group that includes Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras. Coach Benito Floro thinks that Mexico is guaranteed a spot — so it’ll be between Canada and the two Central American nations for that second slot...

With his brace on Friday night against Belize, Tosaint Ricketts now has 12 goal in 43 appearances for Canada. That puts him at 0.28 goals per appearance, slightly better than De Ro’s standard. But, more interestingly, Ricketts has seven career goals in World Cup qualifiers; De Rosario had nine in his career.

Now, two years later, it’s looking like the cabal of Miller critics owe the man an apology — at least for the criticisms of how he handled the national side. While Canada flounders through another goalless Gold Cup (as Morrissey once sang: Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before), Miller’s FC Edmonton leads the NASL in goals scored.

The Canadian team is introduced, with Cyle Larin and Tesho Akindele at the top of the formation. The Voyageurs sitting in the nosebleeds reminisce about the long qualifying campaign that led to this point. They wax poetic about the goal Akindele scored against the United States in the Hex; they also recall Larin powering through a group of Honduran defenders and then quieting the crowd in San Pedro Sula.

“There are two things in which we can focus. First, we are going to play Dominica on a pitch similar to this one tonight in these conditions so it has been a good test. Considering that Puerto Rico is a young team but with three or four good players, we consider this game is a good practice to play against Dominica. We have a lot of respect for Dominica because the most important thing is to win the qualification game.”

If you were a neutral and stuck out all 94 minutes of Canada’s 0-0 draw at Panama, well either you really, really love soccer or you’re immune to boredom. You could sit through a Kenny G concert and be entertained.