Random thoughts...

When the dust settled, the Montreal Impact picked up a tie against Toronto F.C. and thus winning the right to represent Canada in the CONCACAF Champions League. The best way to describe this is, "Great for Canadian soccer"!! With all the problems Canadian soccer faces in terms of development of players, qualified coaches and cash in hand from the Canadian government, it's nice to see a Canadian squad win it, not Toronto F.C., an international club dressed up Canadian clothing. Montreal will now represent Canada. Hopefully this means that Leduc, Braz, and the rest of the Canadians playing regularly for the Impact will do us proud as Canadians and get more experience for Dale Mitchell's Canadian National team squad.

Has the David Beckham signing been good or bad for business in the MLS and North America? Well, the latest report seems to make you think it's still very good for business. Currently, the L.A. Galaxy are the leagues top attended team, averaging 27,094 per game, around five grand more than the next best, Canada's own, Toronto F.C., and with his appearance in New York against the Red Bulls over the weekend, the New York club brought in just under 47,000 spectators, about 30,000 more than they usually get. So it appears someone in the league might be getting their money's worth.

Ronaldinho has signed for AC Milan and will apparently wear #80 as a jersey number. This following Ronaldo's #99 shirt in Milan. Wearing the 80 shirt is supposed to be a reference to Ronaldinho's birth year. I don't know about you, but I absolutely hate the fact that teams allow players to wear a number as ridiculous as 80. Whatever happened to wearing something between 1 and 30 on a soccer team!

Apparently demanding that you be moved to Liverpool and then having it fall through, only to return to the club that you wanted to leave is kind of difficult... Gareth Barry played 60 minutes for Villa in an appearance at Walsall. During the night, he touched the ball while receiving chants of 'Judas', 'Barry Who?' and 'You're not fit to wear the shirt'. It might be a long year for Barry if Liverpool don't step up soon.

There was a lot og hype surrounding Andrei Arshavin following Euro 2008 and his impending move to either Spain, Italy or England, which has yet to come to fruition. Doubts remain on the playmaker and Zenit's £21 million asking price has scared off many teams who don't know if his playmaking and physical strength can last through an entire season of top flight football on a top flight team. At this point, it looks like Arshavin will play another season at Zenit.

The MLS All-Star game goes Thursday night... and while the game may be getting attention in Toronto (and will obviously get attention on the major TV networks in Canada), it's playing out in Vancouver as a chance for the Whitecaps to get an MLS franchise. This is a little premature. After talking with a source close to the 'Caps, I've been told the MLS will NOT announce Vancouver has an MLS franchise. Instead, the announcement will be about the future of MLS and the further expansion, not only in Canada, but in North America, meaning, they will say, Montreal and Vancouver are great cities and ones we will look at when we decide to expand again (in 2011 you will see those two teams in the MLS). I will say this though, expanding too fast will be a negative on a league that people say is already weaker than their European counterparts. Is there enough talent in the pool to play here in North America? Hopefully it doesn't get too watered down, otherwise it's going to be bad for the league and especially the fans.

written by Tyler Green