Ryan Gauld v Barry Smith: The alternative Dundee derby taking place in Canada

If you look hard enough, there’s always a game of football to watch.

Nestled nicely between the end of the last international window and before the women’s Euro 2022 tournament gets under way next week is the Canadian Championship semi-final between Vancouver Whitecaps and York United, which kicks off in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

Better still, the meeting contains local interest. Local to Scotland that is. A Scot is guaranteed to reach the final though whether it is Ryan Gauld, playmaker with the favourites Vancouver Whitecaps, or Barry Smith, assistant manager of York United, remains to be seen.

The smart dollars will be on Gauld, who it was recently revealed earns US$2.265 million a year. The York United budget is around CAD700,000 in total.

The clash between one of Canada’s three MLS representatives and the team currently lying sixth in the eight-team Canadian Premier League has been portrayed as a David v Goliath contest. Smith knows all about winning out against long odds.

He was manager when Alloa Athletic reached the final of the Petrofac cup after a stunning comeback win over Rangers in 2014. Smith also steered Dundee to survival in their so-called "Dee-fiant" season in the Championship when they were hit by a 25-point penalty following a second spell in administration.

Now 48, Smith, whose last position in Scottish football was as an assistant to Jim Duffy at Dumbarton, felt the need to head elsewhere to reboot his career. He feared his past achievements risked being forgotten about in the rush to hire younger coaches.

“The defiant thing was great and something I am proud of,” he says. “But they forget when you go to Alloa and what an achievement it was keeping them in the Championship and getting to