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 Olympic roster - Guzan, McBride and Parkhurst overage Olympians

Peter Nowak has released his 18 man roster for Beijing and there are not a lot of surprises. As expected, Nowak went with Bad Guzan in goal and McBride up top. Both will give the team much needed depth in their positions with McBride providing a little bit more then Guzan.

The overage selection that could benefit the most from this experience is New England's Michael Parkhurst. Since the US's backline is probably going to have a lot put up against it, especially if they advance to the knockout stage (hello Argentina), a solid showing by Parkhurst could get some European suitors.

Overall this roster represents the best the US has to offer in the under 23 group at this moment.

As far as MLS teams go, they account for 10 of the 18 with the Houston Dynamo, Real Salt Lake and Toronto FC each losing two players for the games.

Here is the full roster:

GK (2): Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake)

D (5): Patrick Ianni (Houston Dynamo), Michael Orozco (San Luis), Michael Parkhurst (New England Revolution), Nathan Sturgis (Real Salt Lake), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC)

M (7): Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Benny Feilhaber (Derby County), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Danny Szetela (Brescia Calcio)

F (4): Jozy Altidore (Villarreal), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF), Brian McBride (out of contract), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)

Asain 2010 World Cup Qualifying final group draw

The two groups have been drawn for Asia's final round of World Cup Qualification. Each group has five teams with the top two from each group advancing to South Africa. The third place teams in the groups will meet in a two-legged playoff with the winner playing the champion of Oceania.

Here are the two groups:
Group A
Australia
Japan
Bahrain
Uzbekistan
Qatar

Group B
South Korea
Iran
Saudi Arabia
North Korea
UAE

Although both groups have their difficulties, it looks to me like Group B is the tougher one since three of the teams made it to Germany in 2006 (S Korea, Iran & Saudi Arabia), plus North Korea is always capable of a surprise.

Group A seems designed perfectly for Australia and Japan to make it through.

Group play starts on 6 Sept and runs through 17 June 2009.

Former FIFA president says World Cups were fixed

Joao Havelange, president of FIFA from 1974-1998 claims the 1966 and 1974 World Cups were fixed and produced the exact results his predecessor to the job, England's Sir Stanley Rous, wanted.

Havelange, who is Brazilian, claims that during both finals, the referees made decisions that allowed European nations to advance and help the host country win the cup (1966 England, 1974 West Germany).

In the 1966 semifinal between England and Argentina, a ref gave Argentina's captain Antonio Rattin a direct red for arguing. England won the match 1-0. In 1974 he points to missed calls that resulted in Pele getting injured and Brazil losing their chance to play Germany in the final.

There are been theories for years that some sort of fixing happened but there has never been an official as high ranking as Havelange to back them. So is this true or is this just the talk of a proud South American?

As far as I can see, he doesn't offer any sort of proof other then the 'isn't it strange this happened' kind. The fact that calls seemed to go to the home country more often then not is no surprise. The additional fact that it was European refs that made a number of the calls against South American nations just adds fuel to the speculation, but without any proof, there really is nothing to this story.

FIFA - Even though Qatar cheated, they still get to advance

FIFA has denied Iraq's appeal to disqualify Qatar from World Cup Qualifying even though it admits Qatar did not play by the rules.

This Sunday saw Qatar beat Iraq 1-0 to advance to the final round of Asian WCQ, however one of their players was not eligible to play for Qatar.

Marcio Passos De Albuquerque, know as Emerson, was born in Brazil and represented Brazil at youth level, thus he was ineligible. In addition, he 'was also reported to have been detained by Brazilian police back in 2006 for falsifying his age on his birth certificate.'

FIFA's response: 'The player is not eligible to play for Qatar and cannot play any further matches for the representative team of Qatar.'

The loss to Qatar resulted in Iraq placing third in their group, thus missing the final round by just one point. Emerson did not play in this match, however he did play in the earlier game on 6 Feb, which Qatar won 2-0. This was the only group match in which Emerson played.

FIFA says that Iraq waited to long to file their complaint.

It seems to me that if FIFA knew that an illegal player was used in a match, the team should be forced to forfeit the game, even if their FA didn't know the player was ineligible. A team should not be able to prosper from illegal activities in the past.

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.