Successful Canadian footballers?

Tonight, having already qualified for the 2011 World Cup in Germany after their semi-final win over Costa Rica, Canada's Women's National Team has the chance to clinch the Concacaf championship tonight.  They're favourites as well, as rather than taking on the heavily favoured US team, they'll actually be playing Mexico who lost 3-0 to Canada in the group stages, before stunning the US in the semi-final.  You can watch the game on CBC Bold, or if you're not one of their approximately 12 subscribers, online here.  Congratulations to Carolina Morace and her team for a successful qualification, and hopefully they can finish the job tonight and cap what's been a busy and enjoyable weekend of football.

In the MLS playoffs, San Jose destroyed the "dream final" by knocking out Thierry Henry and the Red Bulls, and you've got to say that the first half-season of the Henry experiment was a bit of a failure really.  Not a Mista level failure by any means, but he's going to have to improve next year to justify the big bucks.  Columbus also lost, in a shootout to Colorado, and San Jose-Colorado really is an appropriate final for what was a very bad year for Eastern Conference clubs.  In the Western Conference, Dallas beat Real Salt Lake, before a higher seed finally won, with LA knocking out Seattle.  So either David Beckham or Jeff Cunningham will be playing and potentially lifting the the cup at BMO field, it's safe to say I'll be supporting whoever comes out of the "East".

Back in England, it was a mixed weekend for the small clubs in the FA cup.  Tipton Town and Hythe Town both got hammered, though Hythe did at least score.  Dover upset Gillingham, getting revenge against all the management and coaches who went from Dover to Gillingham this summer and FC United of Manchester got a 94th minute winner against Rochdale.  Darlington beat League one side Bristol Rovers 2-1, though even when they win, they can't win, as computer problems in the ticket office led to very long waits to get in and quite a few people apparently giving up, so that's a good chance to win some new converts, or win back some old fans wasted, but still, an excellent result.

Throw in Chelsea and Arsenal both losing to EPL minnows, and it's been a really good weekend, Canada being champions would be a great way to finish it.

Edit:  And they did finish it off, a 1-0 win giving them the title, 5 games, 5 wins, 0 goals against, a really good tournament all round.  Well done Ladies.  Campeonas! Campeonas! olé, olé, olé!