The odds just got a bit better that there will be some Canadian content in Europe’s top leagues next season.
While David Edgar’s Burnley (pictured) clinched promotion to the Premier League with a 2-0 win over Wigan on Saturday, Kevin McKenna’s FC Köln punched their ticket to the Bundesliga with a 3-1 win over Bochum on Monday.
Both have experience in their respective top flights. Edgar famously scored against Manchester United in 2007 as a member of Newcastle. As for McKenna, he spent several years in the German top flight with Köln before their relegation in 2011-12.
Edgar hasn’t played regular minutes for Burnley this season, while the 34-year-old McKenna has only recently rejoined the team after a year off due to knee surgery. Whether either will figure in the top flights next year remains to be seen – but helping a team win promotion is a nice feather in any player’s cap.
Another nice feather in one’s cap is scoring a late game-winning goal for one’s team. Tosaint Ricketts earned such a cap feather this weekend, notching the deciding tally in Bucaspor’s 2-1 win over Orduspor in Turkey, his seventh goal of the season. Fellow Canadian Tam Nsaliwa featured in the first half for Bucaspor.
On the other hand, receiving a red card is quite the opposite of a feather in the cap. Pedro Pacheco was one of three members of CD Santa Clara to see red in a wild match against Pondela on Saturday in Portugal.
With Santa Clara already down to nine men, Pondela scored an equalizer in the fourth minute of stoppage time, then added the winner two minutes later. Pacheco picked up his second yellow of the day in the seventh minute of stoppage time.
Things were a little less wild for the remainder of Canada’s exports this past week.
Kenny Stamatopoulos was in goal for AIK Stockholm’s 2-1 loss to Norrkoping, while fellow ’keeper Julien Latendresse-Levesque earned a 3-2 win for Lokomotive Leipzig over Neustrelitz.
Andre Hainault (VfR Aalen) and Dejan Jakovic (Shimizu S-Pulse) went the full 90 in defense for their squads, while Atiba Hutchinson also went the distance for Besiktas in a 1-1 draw with Fenerbahçe.
Charlie Trafford, a 21-year-old midfielder from Calgary, made his second appearance for Turun Pallosuera since coming over in the Finnish offseason, picking up a yellow card in a 1-0 loss to VPS.
Simeon Jackson (Millwall), Olivier Occean (Kaiserslautern) and Nik Ledgerwood (MSV Duisburg) made appearances as substitutes, while strikers Lucas Cavallini (Fénix), Caleb Clarke (FC Augsburg II) and Randy Edwini-Bonsu (Stuttgarter Kickers) all started for their clubs, but none could find the back of the net this week.
