With the first pick of the 2012 SuperDraft, MLS commissioner announced — in French — that the Impact had selected Duke University defender Andrew Wenger with its first pick, leaving high-scoring University of Akron star Darren Mattocks to the Vancouver Whitecaps, who had the second pick.

Brian Ching, scorer of 77 career regular-season goals, made it public that he would rather retire than be plucked off Houston’s roster and go to the Impact. What did Marsch do? He made Ching the first pick of expansion draft.

Goalies on Canada’s two NASL teams are falling like flies. Just two days after FC Edmonton’s Lance Parker broke his right arm in a home loss to the Carolina RailHawks, Montreal Impact goalie Bill Gaudette had to leave during the first half off a 2-1 loss to the Puerto Rico Islanders after getting involved in a three-way collision with PR striker Nicholas Addlery and defender Hassoun Camara.

With seven members of his national championship side off to the pro ranks, coach Caleb Porter has to replenish the cupboards at the University of Akron. What Porter has established in his five years has helped the cause. “We’re always going to have to work hard,” Porter says of recruiting. “Everybody wants those (top recruits) guys and we’re going to have to work to get them. I think our biggest sell right now is not so much that we’ve won but it’s the way we play. The way we play helps to develop players for the next level.

It’s rare for Caleb Porter to take a break from his passion. The University of Akron head coach is a self-professed soccer junkie, constantly watching, reading about and developing tactics for the game so it was a strange thing for him to put everything aside for a month following his Zips’ 1-0 win over Louisville in the NCAA title match on Dec. 12. The championship was Akron’s first as a school. But given the stamp the 35-year-old Porter has put on the program in his five years in charge, it might not be the last.

The Vancouver Whitecaps stuck to their guns. Omar Salgado, whose move to the club in August 2010 was scuttled after MLS discovered it would break international transfer rules, was grabbed with the No. 1 pick in the MLS SuperDraft in Baltimore. But, unless Vancouver gets special clearance from FIFA, he won’t be eligible to play for the team until Sept. …

That’s why this column is coloured when I state that Teal Bunbury made a horrible decision. A wrong decision. On Thursday, he committed himself to the United States national program.