An amazing weekend of stylish play and well-struck goals left Canadian soccer fans looking foward to the week ahead.

Both Toronto FC and Team Canada scored emphatic wins in what was, arguably, the best weekend Canadian soccer fans have seen in many years. And that's taking into account the 0-1 home loss suffered by the Montreal Impact to the Charleston Battery in USL play.

Ahhh, that Montreal-Charleston rivalry. Those teams HATE each other. Don't they?

Well, that loss aside, Canadian fans had to be up on their hind legs and howling at the feast of goals served up in Saturday's 3-0 thrashing of Guatemala by Canada, followed by Sunday's 4-0 branding by Toronto FC on an FC Dallas squad that looked all too eager to mount up and ride home.

For those who viewed both matches, there was extra satisfaction in watching two days of misery for Guatemalan forward Carlos Ruiz. The serial dive artist is known to his fans as El Pescadito(The Little Fish) , perhaps because his flopping antics make him look like a well-hooked bass on a dock.

He was on the losing end for both games, earning a yellow card for a nasty elbow that split open Canadian defender Richard Hastings head, then 'showing up' for Dallas a day later and getting another yellow for chirping. Is their a Spanish word for 'schadenfreude"?

Toronto FC couldn't have found a better way to bid a temporary goodbye to the friendly confines of their BMO Field. They'll be on the road for their next six games as the U-20 World Cup tournament evicts them until late July.

They'll set off brimming with confidence, having raised their W-L-T record to 4-6-1, an impressive turnaround from an 0-4-0 start. And for a team that couldn't find the net through that initial four-game losing streak, Toronto has begun delivering goals that are pure eye candy.

It continued on Sunday, as defender Kevin Goldthwaite sold the Brooklyn Bridge on a cutback move that almost had his Dallas marker sliding into the beer garden behind the goal. His follow-up cross resulted in a first-ever goal for top rookie Maurice Edu.

Carl Robinson honored his daughter's Father's Day wishes to get a goal and planted a neat header in off the bar for his first goal in Toronto colours. Even the near misses are drawing oohs and ahhs.

Coming a day after Canada demolished Guatemala with three first-half goals, with Ali Gerba slicing home a sharp right footer to cap a dazzling, seven-pass masterpiece,  Canadian fans have to wonder what has happened to the stodgy punt-and-plod that was a hallmark of their game for decades.

Respected for defending well and breeding decent goalies, Canada has never been associated with eye-catching buildups or highlight-reel goals. It looks like it's all about to change.

This edition of the national team is full of atheticism, skill and quick minds, but most importantly, high-level playing experience .

No longer forced to rely on a conservative game plan based on defending well and making the most of set pieces, Canada can mix the power of sturdy veteran Dwayne De Rosario and the distribution and work rate of winger Martin Nash with the agile close control of Atiba Hutchinson and the playmaking and decisive touch of Julian De Guzman.

Thursday's Gold Cup semi-final with the United States in Chicago should provide an excellent examination of this blossoming soccer program. When you factor in these results with the promise of Canada's U-20 side, it's becoming clearer that the Canadian game has never been healthier.

And with a club side like Toronto FC giving Canadian youngsters an attractive  target to aim for in their future playing aspirations, the chances of this country experiencing another loss of talented players like Owen Hargreaves or Jonathan De Guzman become smaller all the time. 

"Toronto FC hasn't proven anything yet, We're still the best team in Canada and our goal is to continue to be the best team in Canada and, if we have the opportunity to play Toronto FC, our goal would be to prove it.”  

 Montreal Impact owner Joey Saputo, March 1, 2007

 Joey Saputo has every right to be proud of the accomplishments of his Montreal Impact soccer club. Now playing in the United Soccer Leagues Div. 1, they’ve been tier-two soccer’s ongoing, on-field success story and they’ve enjoyed a consistently growing level of support throughout their 15-year history, now averaging around 12,000 fans a game.

 So there was a time when a brash comment like that quoted above would have been appropriate. It’s fair to say that it was appropriate when he said it earlier this year. But not any more.

 The truth is, his beloved and well-supported Impact squad aren’t even Canada’s best team in tier-two soccer, let alone the nation’s best team period.

 A unique and enjoyable two weeks of far-flung business commitments provided your correspondent with a first-hand sampling of the best in professional Canadian club soccer, on both sides of the continental and competitive divide.

 A visit to Vancouver's delightful Swanguard Stadium to watch the Whitecaps entertain USL Div. 1 rivals from Carolina and two rollicking MLS games at Toronto FC's pulsating BMO Field were sandwiched around an intriguing night in Montreal, where a packed house topping 12,000 witnessed the Impact host the first-place Whitecaps in a battle of USL leaders.

 All four games were tense, entertaining battles but the chance to watch games from both leagues in close comparison showed the difference in skill levels to be quite obvious.

 For all the hard running and purposeful effort put in by USL players, their games are ultimately undone by a lack of polish around the net and by the number of unforced errors. Stray passes and errant clearances frequently create midfield turnovers that quickly become dangerous opportunities.

 But when three top USL clubs can only combine to turn those chances into just one goal in two games, it gives clear indication of why USL Div. 1 is just a developmental league. It's a big reason why a cultured audience like the one in the Toronto area failed to support the USL's Toronto Lynx.

 It seemed like half the Whitecaps’ squad, searching for an equalizer in a 1-0 loss, had a crack at the Carolina goal in a second-half shooting gallery, wasting some fine chances created by good runs and well-placed crosses, often the result of crisp deliveries from standout winger Martin Nash.

A week later, Montreal’s lively fans were holding heads in disbelief as striker Charles Gbeke found the woodwork or missed the net on clear-cut chances from in close as Montreal and Vancouver ground out a scoreless draw.

The contrast couldn't have been sharper watching Toronto FC play against Colorado and New York, where superior finishing skills delivered memorable goals – Jeff Cunningham’s first for Toronto, pounded into the roof of the goal after crafty Andy Welsh’s nifty pass, Andrew Boyen’s textbook header of####reat corner kick from dead ball artist Ronnie O’Brien or Danny Dichio’s clinical touch inside the six-yard box to cap off Marvell Wynne’s sensational set up. All of them, first class stuff.

 MLS delivers much more quick, skillful interplay, numerous one-touch passing sequences used to relieve pressure, establish control or create time and space to set up a smart through ball. You just don’t see that very often in USL soccer.

 To be fair to Joey Saputo, his comments were made almost three months ago and Toronto were still scuffing about in pre-season training, giving no one a clear picture of what they were capable of. Still, you’d like to think that Saputo might be willing to give MLS some praise for putting on a better show than he gives them credit for.

Given the permanent small-time status of USL soccer, MLS is a league he may well want to be a part of sooner rather than later and it’s not the first time he’s courted controversy in commenting on MLS. It’s an attitude that could cause him some short-term pain if MLS honchos choose to make him sweat out a franchise acquisition.

He’s been outspoken before, balking at paying an MLS expansion fee of $10 million and taking issue with the quality of play in MLS compared to that served in USL Div. 1. He’s always backed up his words with his wealth, paying competitive wages to bring decent players to Montreal and building a new stadium that will open next year. Judging by the size and enthusiasm of the crowd that came out to watch the Whitecaps visit, he may well need to start planning to expand it beyond its initial size in the 15,000 range. A lot of Montrealers think a place in MLS is Saputo’s for the asking. He might want to consider asking nicely.

 If Toronto FC has quickly established itself as the best professional team in Canada, Vancouver is about to become the apple of MLS’ eye as the league views a list of prospective sites for its next round of expansion, a process that MLS president Don Garber says will increase the league by three teams to a total of 16.

 And Garber has indicated his awareness of the progress being made in Vancouver’s preparations to build a spectacular waterfront soccer stadium, with an initial capacity in the 20,000 range, expandable to 30,000. The target date for completion is 2010, which gives the Impact a two-year head start in playing in their new soccer-specific stadium.

 There’s every reason to believe, though, that Vancouver’s stadium, bordering on the lively Gastown district, with a spectacular view of the North Shore mountains, will be the site MLS will choose first in adding a second team Canada. If the league expands by three teams in 2010, two western teams and one eastern franchise would balance out the two divisions evenly at eight each. A rebirth of the mothballed San Jose Earthquakes and a return to glory for the Whitecaps would give MLS two additions with great soccer traditions to build on and an ability to quickly establish hot rivalries with the two L.A. clubs. Vancouver would also broaden appeal within Canada and their matches with Toronto will bristle with intensity.

 At first glance, the impending MLS expansion in the east can’t afford to include Montreal. The league needs to add another rival, beyond the New England Revolution, for Red Bull New York, whose on-field excellence is being met by fan indifference at having to watch games in sterile Giants Stadium. Philadelphia would make the most sense, a city where soccer fans would easily get fired up over games with D.C. United.

 However, questions continue to be asked about how viable the Kansas City Wizards operation will remain. They’re drawing little more than  family and friends currently at 70,000-seat Arrowhead Stadium and are facing an uphill run getting local municipalities to agree to provide funding for a soccer project that would include a soccer-specific stadium that meets MLS standards. The alternative is an image-crushing move into a refurbished high school football stadium.

 The creation of an expansion team in nearby St. Louis might save this situation. Maybe not.  This is heartland America and baseball country first and foremost every summer.

If it was necessary to move this franchise, it might make more sense to take a proven star like Eddie Johnston and a competitive squad like the Wizards into Philadelphia and let the geographic heat of rivalry add to the competitive sparks that have flown between Red Bull and the Wizards this year.

That would open the expansion door for another eastern city and Montreal would be worthy of consideration given the track record established by the Impact and the credibility created for the Canadian marketplace by Toronto’s sensational start. It may not be Don Garber’s first, or even second, choice, but he needs to take the game to cities where he knows it will be supported from the get go.

Maybe it’s time for Joey Saputo to start cuddling up a little to MLS. He’s established that soccer has strong appeal in Montreal and he’s already building a stadium that gives him a head start on other competitors for an MLS franchise.

 Everyone connected with MLS has taken notice of what Toronto has brought to the league this year and it’s clear that Montreal has the potential for a repeat success story.  A little diplomacy will go a long way towards earning Saputo and his loyal fans the rewards they deserve.