It’s game day, eh?

It’s about three hours until kickoff, so that means that about 2,700 miles east of here, the lumberjacks and fur traders of the greater Toronto area are leaving their igloos to travel by dogsled to gather for their pre-game festivities. (One of them may drive a particular type of Camaro, which they will refer to as a “Zed-28.” There is no letter “zee” up north, although there is an “eh.”) They’ll be eating their blubber, clustered around bottles of Labatt’s Blue, Molson, and Moosehead, awaiting a kickoff which will take place “aboot” noon, Pacific time and trying to forget that the CBC failed to renew its license to use the traditional “Hockey Night in Canada” theme. (Whew! That’s just about all of them.)

Meanwhile, Toronto FC coach John Carver “is sick and tired of players using his club’s Field Turf as a reason for either leaving or not signing with the Major League Soccer side,” according to a story that appeared on Friday in the Toronto Sun. Carver told the paper, “I’ll be honest with you, I was concerned about it when I first arrived, but I have seen nothing in terms of injury to our players that can be blamed on the pitch.” Today’s Sun offered the perspective of Ronnie O’Brien and Darren Huckerby on the issue of fake grass, and we’ll just say their opinions differ from Carver’s.

Meanwhile, the Quakes have officially announced the signing of Francisco Lima and the departure of goalkeeper Dan Benton, while the recently waived Joe Vide has been signed by DC United. Lima’s signing has been overshadowed a bit by that of Darren Huckerby, but it’s worth noting that Lima has appeared in more UEFA Champions League matches than anyone in MLS besides David Beckham, as Fox Soccer Channel broadcaster Christopher Sullivan noted when our own Harvey Rañola spoke with him on Tuesday night. It should be noted as well that Sullivan played a key role in bringing Lima to San Jose — at Tuesday night’s press conference, both GM John Doyle and coach Frank Yallop thanked the former Clash midfielder for recommending the Brazilian to them earlier this year.

On to the game-day stories:

- Canada’s media is all over this one, with stories from the CBC,  Toronto’s Globe and Mail, and the Toronto Star.

- SJEarthquakes.com also offers a pre-game fact sheet, as well as the latest Quake Shake video with Charles Wollin.

(Oh, and in case anyone thinks we’re really bashing Canada, we’re not. We heart Canada. In fact, we’re still dismayed that Search Engine has been taken off the air and that Moxy Früvous’ “temporary hiatus” has entered its seventh year — there was nothing like a Früvous concert, although it’s cool that young Canadian girls will lip-sync their “Green Eggs and Ham” on YouTube. Ehwotay!)