And now there's bad news on the injury front. And that comes from 27-year-old midfielder Selenia Iacchelli — the former University of Nebraska captain who overcame a series of injuries to work her way back into the senior national-team picture.

But, instead of folding, the Canadian side showed some resolve. Yes, the Canadians had to defend deep. It was the nature of being down to 10 players. But, there were some wonderful defensive performances. And the Canadian side held on for a 2-1 win.

Born at the wrong time. Born under a bad sign. If Selenia Iacchelli had any luck at all, she might be as familiar to Canadian women’s soccer followers as Diana Matheson, Sophie Schmidt or Desiree Scott. But, Iacchelli had to wait till she was 27 years of age to break into the Canadian soccer mainstream. Her story is remarkable; filled withbroken limbs, career-path changes and a love of frozen yogurt...

“If you take a look at the NWSL right now, out of the Americans teams there, not all of them are in MLS markets. So, if it works for them, why wouldn’t it work in Canada? I don’t see it that way than an NWSL team has to be in the same city as an MLS team. What we want is committed, stable ownership, that ticks off all the boxes.”

“We can’t say yet what will happen over there (Clarke) one way or the other. Will it be changed in time for next year? I can’t say at this point. People have to be aware that our resources are limited and potholes need to be addressed. Though, I do understand the turf at Clarke has potholes as well.”

The Rams, ranked No. 2 in the country, got the 120th-minute extra time winner from Nick Lambis, off a corner from Martin Dabrowski, to claim a 3-2 OUA quarter-final win over the University of Toronto.

Pilar Khoury broke her own school record, scoring her 13th and 14th goals of the season, as the Ottawa Gee-Gees, ranked No. 1 on the CIS women’s chart, finished the OUA regular season with a 3-0 triumph over Ryerson.

And even though the late autumn/early winter conditions in Edmonton won’t be anything close to the July conditions we’ll see at the 2015 Women’s World Cup, Herdman said that getting a friendly in at the stadium where Canada will open the tournament will be vital to the team’s preparations. And, he said the cold can be a coaching tool, to see “if the players can focus on the task at hand.”

But Gloucester Celtic, from the Ottawa area, can boast it’s the best senior amateur men’s team in the country. A 3-0 win over the Surrey United Firefighters in Halifax Monday was all the proof needed. The win gave Celtic the Challenge Trophy, emblematic of men’s senior soccer supremacy.

UBC, which has lost just once this season, swept its two-game weekend series with UNBC in Prince George, winning 4-1 and 3-0. Milad Mehrabi scored three times over the course of the two wins, while Reynold Stewart scored twice in the opener against UNBC.