First Person View – Are You Ready? Media Guides, Injury Reports and Fantasy Football

    With first kick of First Kick barely an hour away – Philadelphia hosts Kansas City at 4 pm EST – there are a few topics on my mind before the action gets underway.

First Person View – Soccer on Canadian Television

    It’s been a volatile time for soccer on Canadian television. Counter intuitively, it seems the more the big players get involved in broadcasting and rights holding, squeezing out the smaller boutique outlets, the less is available for viewers.

    It wasn’t so long ago that one could find at least a match or two available live every day and replays of matches dotted the overnight schedules, but now large swathes of the programming calendar are left empty, while the sport plays on.

First Person View – Canada-USA Build-Up – Day One - Press Conference

    Still damp from the morning exposure, but freshly refueled with some coffee and a rather tasty hipster burger, the time had come to head over to BMO Field for the official pre-match press conference with the head coaches and a player representative.

First Person View – Canada-USA Build-Up – Day One – Canada Training Session

    Lovely weather welcomed the Canadian National Team back home to Toronto. Howling winds and slashing rains, less than comforting conditions especially given it was a return from an extended warm-weather acclimatization camp in Florida in preparation for the midday match in Cuba next Friday.

Well-Played Montreal

    Montreal Impact took the opportunity of a relatively quiet morning in the Canadian soccer landscape to announce that the club has signed their first designated player, Marco Di Vaio, most recently of Bologna FC.

Beyond POV-FS – MLS Travel Series: Montreal Exposed at The Shin Guardian

    New piece up at The Shin Guardian – part of their travel series featuring a look around Montreal with a few members of the local media. Food, drink, live music, and entertainment; all that good stuff. Check it out.

    Special thanks to Olivier Tremblay and Philippe Germain for their assistance, much appreciated.

First Person View – Umbro Centennial Kit Launch, CSA Media Conference, & the Impending Qualifiers

    I had the pleasure of attending last week’s Umbro kit launch at BMO Field on Wednesday afternoon. Doubtless by now you will have seen the celebratory kit and read up on what Stephen Hart will have had to say - there are many who report such facts much better than I, so we’ll stick to my impressions of the whole affair.

From a Different Point of View – 3rd Week of March Edition

Some Things You May Have Missed From the Last Week

First Person View - Hoilett Says No to Jamaica?

    Sorry about the misleading tagline, but I came across something interesting last night while listening to BBC Radio 5 live’s Monday Night Club.

In Defence of MoJo

    Today marks the one-year anniversary of the firing of Mo Johnston as Director of Soccer at Toronto FC. While others will revel in the demise of the man, his tenure deserves a closer examination.

Quote of the DWW* Double Dose

     Benni McCarthy speaks his mind on Karren Brady and TSN - despite current efforts to engage the soccer public – let slip their old bias.

Picture of the DWW*

This is wrong on so many levels. Say it ain’t so Dimi!!!

Quote of the DWW*

     Today: A double dose of quotations.

     Firstly, Mr. Schaad puts his finger on something I’ve been thinking all season long; the Toronto Sports Media are a bunch of cannibals. While, Mr. Lenarduzzi responds to the statement that BMO Field has lost some of its ferocious magic.

Quote of the DWW*

     On the realization of Tony Pulis’ cunning plan to transform his Stoke squad having secured their place in the Premier League for a fourth straight season.

Quote of the DWW*

    "We recognise that the failure to relocate the goalposts is a real own goal."

Quote of the DWW*

     Chris Pontius and Charlie Davies of DC United on the controversial penalty awarded to Davies in their weekend match against Real Salt Lake.

Quote of the D/W/W*

On LA’s decision to conceal that David would not be travelling with the squad to Colorado.

Letters to the Editor

    Some of the mainstream media response to the Canadian National Team’s match versus Ecuador in Toronto Wednesday has been less than adequate.

Thrown Out: Whispers on Super injunctive Twitter

    There is a storm brewing over the apparently overheard whispers of Sir Alex Ferguson regarding a journalist who had the temerity to ask how important Ryan Giggs was to Manchester United in light of recent super injunction revelations. Some would argue that SAF was in the wrong and has had a Gray-Keys moment of his own, forgetting he was sitting in front of a barrage of microphones, recording even the most unintelligible of syllables from the mouth of the great man.