Until the day comes when a Canadian scores a goal for the national team, assuming it does come, Canadian fans can make do with their countrymen scoring goals for their international club teams.
This week, Lucas Cavallini (above) stepped up to the plate, notching his second goal in nine appearances for Centro Atlético Fénix since coming over on loan from Nacional in January. The 21-year-old, who has been playing in Uruguay since 2010, also picked up a yellow card in Fénix’s 2-1 loss to Danubio on Sunday.
Across an ocean, Michael Petrasso celebrated last week’s signing of a new three-year deal with Queens Park Rangers by scoring for their Under-21 side in a 3-1 win over Millwall.
No other members of the CanMNT player pool found the score sheet this week, though several strikers – Daniel Haber (Apollon Limassol), Simeon Jackson (Millwall), Olivier Occean (Kaiserslautern), Tosaint Ricketts (Bucaspor) – did earn playing time as substitutes for their respective clubs.
Veteran Kevin McKenna made his second straight full-90 appearance for FC Köln, and appears to finally be fully fit after nearly a year away from the first team due to injury. On the flip side, young Daniel Stanese seemed likely to go the full 90 for FC Augsburg II on Saturday, but cut his own day short with a red card just before halftime. Andre Hainault appeared as a sub for VfR Aalen in a loss to Fortuna Dusseldorf.
Goalkeeper Kenny Stamatopoulos – who, based on playing time at the club level, may find himself as Canada’s No. 1 in 2014 – earned a 1-1 draw with AIK Stockholm against Örebro. Fellow ’keeper Julien Latendresse-Levesque bounced back from a rough 4-0 loss last week to post a clean sheet for FC Lokomotive Leipzig, his fourth in six games since taking over the starter’s role.
This is normally where we would tell you that Julian de Guzman (Skoda Xanthi), Samuel Piette (Fortuna Dusseldorf II), Atiba Hutchinson (Besiktas), Pedro Pacheco (CD Santa Clara) and Nik Ledgerwood (MSV Duisburg) all went the full 90 for their respective clubs, just like they do seemingly every week.
But no, Ledgerwood was subbed off at halftime on Saturday in a 2-0 loss to Stuttgarter Kickers. Sure, the other four all did their usual duty, but it wasn’t the usual five-for-five.
Randy Edwini-Bonsu also took part in the Stuttgarter game, by the way, playing 61 minutes for the Kickers. And elsewhere in the German lower divisions, Caleb Clarke played the first half for FC Augsburg II in a 1-1 draw with Ingolstadt II on Saturday.
And over in Japan, Dejan Jakovic went the distance for Shimizu S-Pulse in their 2-0 victory over Omiya Ardjia.
