Terry Dunfield considered himself lucky to have a 17-year playing career in England, Canada and Scotland, and he’s carried that same sense of good fortune into his next career.

“You still wish at times you were out there, but what a great second job,” said Dunfield, the likable former Whitecaps midfielder who is now an analyst for MLSE and TSN Radio in Toronto. “You hear all the stories of people making the transition from playing and how difficult it is, but I’m lucky enough to not just keep watching soccer, but I get to analyze it.”

And get paid to do so.

Dunfield, who was gutted by England’s tie Monday, will take a brief break from Euros coverage Tuesday night to provide insight into the Amway Canadian Championship first-leg final between the Whitecaps and Toronto at BMO Field (4:30 p.m. PDT, TSN 1, TSN 1410).

The return leg goes a week Wednesday at B.C. Place with the series winner — on total goals — claiming the Voyageurs Cup and Canada’s berth in the 2017-18 CONCACAF Champions League.

Dunfield, 34, should make for good listening on the game. He played for both teams, joining the Caps ahead of their inaugural MLS season before being traded to Toronto just 12 games into that 2011 season. He at least had enough time in his native Vancouver to score on opening day — against Toronto, no less — and leap into the stands at Empire Field. It was a wonderful scene.

“It was one of the best moments of my career and something I’ll never forget,” he said.

After a stint with TFC, Dunfield signed with Oldham Athletic in Manchester — where he was once a youth player for Manchester City — and then he joined Ross County in Scotland in 2014-15.

He went back to England to get his coaching badges and then almost signed as a player with FC Edmonton ahead of this season.

But when full-time media work came up with MLSE it was too good to pass up. Dunfield had been shadowing TSN’s soccer TV crew — Luke Wileman, Jason de Vos and Kristian Jack — to learn the business. He’d also been doing some in-house media work with TFC.

“I was gripped by it,” he said of his time in the TSN studio. “I’m getting a full media degree on the fly. I’m learning each week and hopefully getting better and better, and less stiff in front of the camera.”

His longer-term goal is to be on TV, but he’s enjoying the radio gig and website work for now. His biggest challenge is distilling everything he’s learned about the game into sound bites.

“That’s the toughest thing,” he said. “You’ve got all this knowledge, but it’s how to execute it, and the timing.”

It can be a funny feeling interviewing friends and former teammates — like Will Johnson, his ex-roommate with the Canadian national team — but Dunfield’s a self-described “real-positive guy” and “real pro Canadian,” and of course working for MLSE means he’s never going to completely skewer a TFC player on air.