After a shaky start to the season, Vålerenga have found their footing and started to climb the Norwegian Tippeligaen table.
Crucial to their recent run of good form has been goalkeeper Lars Hirschfeld, the Canadian international who has collected three clean sheets from the Oslo-based club’s past five league matches. Over the weekend, Hirschfeld was again in goal for a Vålerenga shutout, as his side blanked visiting Tromsø 2-0 to move to within eight points of the top of the table.
Another Canuck ‘keeper seeing lots of game action this summer is Tomer Chencinski, who went the distance for VPS in a 1-1 draw with KuPS in Finland’s Veikkausliiga on Sunday. The deadlock was VPS’ fourth consecutive draw, and the club sits in 11th place.
In a battle at top of the Veikkausliiga table, second-place Inter Turku — with Canadian Frank Jonke — fell 4-2 to league leaders HJK on Friday. Jonke entered the match in the 39th minute.
Fellow Canuck striker Riley O’Neill subbed in for MyPa at the beginning of the second half of a 1-1 draw with hosts Honka on Sunday. With the point gained, MyPa took sole possession of eighth place.
Finally, the other pair of Canadians in Finland’s top flight, Luca Bellisomo and Mason Trafford, remained on the bench as their club IFK Mariehamn defeated Haka 2-1. Mariehamn are fifth after 14 matches played.
