ut the expected “news” that was to be announced at the town hall proceedings beforehand simply confirmed what The 11 had already reported earlier in the week – Canada will play all three of its CONCACAF World Cup qualifying matches at BMO Field.

“We’ve got to look at ourselves first — the management team,” said Canadian coach John Herdman. “What we could have done better — whether it was the selections, the order of the substitutions — some of the tactics where we could have played things quicker or made a bigger impact with certain things. But I can’t fault the players’ effort.”

Sydney Leroux will have a sort-of homecoming in Vancouver this week.

On the one-year anniversary of Aron Winter being named Toronto FC’s Head Coach and Technical Director, the former Dutch international made a quiet announcement about another addition to club’s personnel.

Or did the cards really pay off? Because, now that the Whitecaps have secured Nguyen, MLS rules state that the team can no longer participate in any weighted lotteries, unless, by some miracle, all 19 teams get players through the course of the season OR a player is made available that no one else wants.

The new coach of the Canadian women’s program got a good result, a 1-1 draw with the World Cup runner-up United States in Kansas City.

The club confirmed Wednesday that Senegalese forward Mignane Diouf was detained at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Sunday, accused of stealing a pair of headphones worth US$600.

If Canada qualifies out of round two of the CONCACAF qualifiers, it knows that it won’t have to face continental powerhouses United States and Mexico in round three.

Now that Group A has completed its schedule, the picture for Canada and what it needs to do to qualify out of Group C has become crystal clear. If Canada beats Panama on Tuesday evening — even by a single goal — it will get through to the quarter-finals of the Gold Cup. And, barring a miracle result Monday night from Grenada, a draw will likely see the Canadian side going home early.

Canada knows that it must go to Kansas City and beat Panama, which leads the group with six points. (The U.S. and Canada have three each). If Canada beats Panama, and the U.S., as expected, beats Guadeloupe, we would have a three-way tie for first. And this is where it gets interesting. The Gold Cup tiebreakers — when more than two teams finish even on points, that is — is the goal difference in the matches played between the teams in question. In real English: The goals in the Guadeloupe games won’t count.