“We want you playing for this team when you grow up, we want you to be hometown heroes,” said CanPL Commissioner David Clanachan to the supporters and youth players who came to Investors Group Field for the announcement.

When he first arrived in Vancouver, Marco Bustos was a homesick teen. After a few months in the Whitecaps Residency, he was told by the club to get his act together. Now, years later, he is one of the Whitecaps’ brightest prospects...

“You know, in terms of hiring a coach, getting the players, you can build a team in four to five months, there’s still time,” said Petrone. “But the real challenge comes with the marketing. It’s not a lot of time, it’s a big part of running a professional team.”

"We want to be big supporters of soccer in Canada, and we are looking at even more cities to add in expansion in the future. Calgary, Winnipeg and Hamilton, those are the names that are always bubbling to the top."

But, there’s also a real need to look at the prep for the Women’s World Cup. As Toronto isn’t a host city, this game against the Americans isn’t fulfilling a promise that the CSA has made to Canadians.

As press conferences go, the announcement of Canada’s 2015 Women’s World Cup host cities was about as anticlimactic as they get.

FC Edmonton’s preseason schedule will see the NASL club make pit stops in both Winnipeg and Vancouver.

“In essence, we need four very good training fields in each city,” said Montopoli. “They need to be at an international standard. There are many options, some can have grass or some can have artificial turf.”

Now, the next part of the debate: Which cities will get the plum games — Canada’s home games, semifinals and final? FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association released the names of the seven “candidate” cities to host games. Toronto wasn’t on that list, as expected, because of the conflict between the WWC and the Pan Am Games. The seven cities: Halifax, Moncton, Montreal Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver.