SOCCER CANADA - NEWS

Bradley and Altidore Connect in Carson for USMNT

It was a sight that will provide optimism for Toronto FC supporters expecting big things out of Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore in 2016. 

The TFC duo is currently with the United States Men's National Team, as their January camp concludes with matches against Iceland and Canada. 

The U.S. fell behind early against Iceland, but Bradley and Altidore combined to make it 1-1 with an excellent pass-finish combination. 

Weber: Whitecaps have an eye on a somewhat nasty guy

At 34, forward Blas Perez could bring experience and an edge to Vancouver’s lineup, but his status with FC Dallas is an issue

Blas Perez is out of contract but not a free man in MLS. Figure that one out.

For those unfamiliar with the league’s myriad roster rules, here are the broad strokes.

FC Dallas doesn’t want Perez — a 34-year-old Panamanian international forward — back for a fifth season.

The Whitecaps are among the teams interested in Perez, who has scored 37 goals in 103 MLS games — four of those goals against Vancouver — and has made enemies just for fun with his abrasive style.

But Dallas still holds Perez’s MLS rights and wants $50,000 in allocation money from the Caps, according to multiple reports.

Perez is free to sign outside the league but seems to want to remain in MLS.

Some reports out of Colombia and Panama say he’s headed back to Latin America, but the fact this has dragged on so long would suggest he’s willing to wait it out and see if Dallas can strike a deal within the league.

Or, perhaps MLS will step in and try to move this along, as they sometimes do when a player gets caught in the middle.

Montreal has also been rumoured as a possible destination for Perez, along with Vancouver’s now obvious and understandable interest.

Perez would cost the Caps less than Darren Mattocks on the cap and provide something different and more valuable.

His experience, for one.

He’s Panama’s third all-time cap leader and second all-time in goals. In Dallas, his younger teammates, like Canadian forward Tesho Akindele and winger Fabian Castillo, have praised him as a mentor.

He’d also bring an edge and a craftiness to the Caps’ lineup that could serve them well. Perez suffers — or is that sells? — even more fouls than he dishes out, although he’s capable of crossing the line, too.

He’s been sent off against Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake, and Colorado, twice. He’s also been suspended retroactively a couple of times, once for a dangerous elbow to Jordan Harvey’s head in 2012.

“There’s guys that you hate to play against but you’d die to have on your team,” Dallas goalkeeper Chris Seitz said of Perez in an MLS Insider documentary last season.

For Caps fans who can’t stomach the thought of Perez on their side, consider this: The rest of the west hates to play against him, too.

If Dallas won’t budge on the alleged asking price, the Caps will have to weigh the intelligence of paying this ransom for Perez on top of his salary.

He earned $374,250 last season and logic suggests he’d command closer to $250,000 at his age and coming off a year where he was limited to 14 starts due to injury, international duty and falling behind the younger David Texeira on the depth chart.

Perez has his green card, so there’s no issue with international spots. But there are certainly a few moving parts here because the Caps would have to clear cap room.

Mattocks earned $272,000 last season so he’s likely to be around $300,000 on the cap in 2016. If he’s still a Whitecap on opening day it will be a shock. Gershon Koffie’s name has also come up constantly in transfer and trade rumours. He earned $241,000 last season.

In revamping the Caps’ attack this offseason, coach Carl Robinson has already brought in Japanese striker Masato Kudo and Costa Rican World Cup winger Christian Bolaños, and completed a loan deal for Fraser Aird, the energetic young right-back/winger from Glasgow Rangers.

What the Caps don’t have is a target man like Perez, who would add guile and a few goals, and also happens to be a nasty piece of business on the field.

But he’s not a free agent, and that’s certainly complicating matters.

Impact's dramatic goal-scorer Porter has another surprise: speaking French

MONTREAL - Cameron Porter is full of surprises.

The 22-year-old beat the odds by making the Montreal Impact's roster and quickly playing himself into a starting role after being drafted 45th overall in 2015.

Then he produced one of the most dramatic goals of the year in the dying seconds to lift the Impact past Mexican club Pachuca and into the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals in March, although soon after he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and missed the rest of the season.

But then he stunned the Montreal media this week when he showed up to training camp suddenly able to speak quite good French.

"I decided to set new goals this year since I'd have more time, not doing therapy and not being in school, so I got (language-learning computer program) Rosetta Stone," said the native of Centreville, Ohio. "They don't have Rosetta Stone in Quebecois, so it's hard.

"And I also decided that, when I watch Netflix, I'd watch French movies. Those two have helped."

Porter had already won fans with his spectacular Champions League goal. Their numbers should only grow now in a mostly French-speaking city.

While Montreal's biggest team, the Canadiens, is down to three or four players who speak French, the Impact have several, including arguably their three best players — defender Laurent Ciman, midfielder Ignacio Piatti and striker Didier Drogba — as well as captain Patrice Bernier of Brossard, Que.

Add Porter to the list.

The lanky forward has much to talk about after his 2015 campaign.

He was sent on as a late substitute in both legs of the aggregate-goals quarter-final against heavily favoured Pachuca.

Trailing 3-2 in the fourth minute of added time, Porter took a Hail Mary pass from Calum Mallace off his chest and beat veteran goalie Oscar Perez to give Montreal the victory on the away goals rule and send the Olympic Stadium crowd of 38,104 into a frenzy.

"The biggest thing is that goal brought on a lot of supporters on who have helped and motivated me," said Porter. "I don't know if, without that support, I would have been able to push myself as hard as I did to come back as quickly as I did."

Only two games into the regular season, in his first MLS start, Porter went up for a high ball, landed awkwardly and blew out his knee. He was to miss nine-to-12 months.

He used the time to complete his computer science degree from Princeton and learn French.

He is wearing a brace early in camp but expects the knee to be up to full strength in a month. Whether he picks up where he left off remains to be seen.

Drogba now owns the striker's job, but the 37-year-old doesn't like artificial turf, on which four of Montreal's first five regular season games will be played. So far Porter, Dominic Oduro and 2015 first-rounder Romario Williams are the top candidates for playing time.

But coach Mauro Biello won't rush Porter back.

"We don't want to put him in a situation where he's got all the pressure to come back," said Biello. "It was a big injury."

Porter is just happy the injury is behind him.

"It was the biggest challenge of my life, between waking up really early, doing rehab for five to six hours, going home, doing school until I got to bed," he said. "It was the most intense part of my life, but I learned a lot and grew from it.

"Now the challenges I face seem pretty minuscule."