Montreal Impact best team in Canada

Toronto FC's slump continued last night as they only managed a 1-1 tie against the USL's Montreal Impact. With the point, the Impact won the Nutrilite Canadian Championship and earned a trip to the CONCACAF Champions League Cup, which begins next month.

Now the question is will this win have an effect on a possible move to MLS by Montreal? Impact head coach John Limniatis thinks it does.

The platform (for entering MLS) was already set...

I think, obviously, this helps. This just shows we're capable of competing ... From what I understand, we're aiming for the start of the 2011 season to be in the MLS.

The Impact organization has a lot going for it (stadium, rich owners, good fan base) and adding solid play against top-tier teams will only help them in their quest to land in MLS.

However, this failure by Toronto as well as the defeats suffered by MLS teams in the US Open Cup points to a very different issue, player salaries. With just around $2.5m to spend on a full squad MLS teams are very limited in the depth that they can bring in, thus the difference between the two divisions is not as pronounced as it should be. If MLS did up their pay level to around $5m a year, it helps elevate this issue.

Some might think that it is not a big thing that MLS teams often get toppled by USL clubs, however I disagree. League officials are usually quick to claim MLS as a world-class league, however what fan is going to believe them if top-level teams are consistently dropping games to lower-level opposition? In the perception race, these upsets need to become a rare bread.

US 1-0 Barbados - US advances

US 1-0 Barbados

In a game that saw the favorites look tired and even more defensive minded then normal, the underdogs had their chance to run the game. But unlike the Italy-Spain Euro match, the US was able to see their opposition out of the competition.

Yesterday's game was a flashback for me as right from the opening moments, it reminded me of some late-80's games due to the horrible video production. Combine that with the frustration of the US to break through a Caribbean nation's backline and a crowd that was less then present and it was just like the old days (except the broadcast wasn't on some UHF channel that I didn't even know I got nor was the game tape delayed to 3am nor was it dubbed in Spanish).

The good news, unlike the old days, the team on the pitch was not our A-team and that was probably the biggest lesson of the day.

This is the type of match the US men are going to see a lot of over the next 16-months as we begin the full World Cup Qualifying run. The 'lesser' teams of Concacaf are all going to adopt a similar structure to Barbados and play heavy defense while hoping for something on the counter. This is nothing new, but it still gives the US problems.

Overall, it was a boring game that saw Barbados have the better run of play for most of the second half. A few players looked good (Szetela, Lewis, Pearce, Adu), some had their moments (DeMerit, Califf) and some looked a bit under focused (Bradley, Guzan, Beasley, Moor). Nothing came out of this game that is going to cause major changes to Bradley's future lineups (with the possible exception of getting Kenny Cooper on to the pitch).

The US senior men are off till August 20th, when they travel to Guatemala to take on Carlos Ruiz and La Azul y Blanco.

One last thing, great idea by the USL-1 teams to sponsor all the boards during this match.

Bradley names his roster for Barbados World Cup Qualifier

USA vs. Barbados
Sunday - 2:55p ET/11:55a PT
TV: ESPN Classic & Galavision (Spanish)

Bob Bradley has released his 18-man roster for the second leg of the US-Barbados World Cup Qualifier. With the US up 8-0, the starting lineup is likely to include a number of younger players.

Here is the full roster:

GK (3): Dominic Cervi, Brad Guzan, Chris Seitz

D (6): Carlos Bocanegra, Dan Califf, Jay DeMerit, Drew Moor, Oguchi Onyewu, Heath Pearce

M(6): DaMarcus Beasley, Michael Bradley, Sacha Kljestan, Eddie Lewis, Danny Szetela, John Thorrington

F (3): Freddy Adu, Chad Barrett, Chris Rolfe

The big thing I notice is the lack of Tim Howard and Eddie Johnson from the list as they were not players he released earlier in the week. The Howard move makes sense since he has a minor injury and Guzan (who got called back into camp) needs the international cap. The lack of Johnson is good since we need to find some other forward options, although Barbados is not much of a test.

Some people might wonder why Lewis is in there, but it makes sense since the experience of most of the players is limited. Good to have some old timers in to bring the experience.

Here is my guess at a starting lineup:

GK: Guzan
D: Moor, Califf, Bocanegra, Pearce
M: Kljestan, Bradley, Lewis, Beasley
F: Adu, Barrett

Jack Warner in another money fight - Wants T&T to play all home games abroad

Can FIFA VP and Concacaf President Jack Warner have any aspect of his life not surround buy chaos? If not, could the chaos at least not have anything to do with money just once?

Mr. Warner has asked FIFA to allow T&T to play all future home fixtures abroad because he is unhappy with the fees the T&T Ministry of Sport change the team to play at Hasely Crawford Stadium.

This fight over stadium costs almost lead to the cancellation of England's 'remember this visit come 2018 voting time' match earlier this month. In that case, a court ruled the ministry could not charge 10% of gate receipts as a fee. Instead, the court ordered a lump sum payment of $24,000.

Warner liked that idea then but when the ministry asked for the same rent for last weekend's match against Bermuda, he wasn't so thrilled saying it is 'ludicrous' to charge the same fee for Bermuda as for England. Perhaps the 10% plan might have worked out a little better.

So let's see, Warner is fighting with T&T's best players because he doesn't want to pay them the money he promised them ahead of the 2006 World Cup and know he is fighting with the T&T government over rent for the stadium. And let's not even bring up the issue of 2006 World Cup tickets. Awesome.

In the end, this might all be for nothing as T&T are down 2-1 going into their second World Cup qualifying leg in Bermuda.