The Bundesliga season may still be a few weeks away, but the German second division is off and running with a number of Canadians seeing action.
After a solitary season in the top flight, forward Olivier Occean is back in the lower league with Kaiserslautern. The Quebec native (above) made his debut off the bench in the 71st minute on Saturday as his Kaiserslautern got their season off on the right foot with a 1-0 win over Paderborn.
Forward Rob Friend is continuing his loan with 1860 Munich this season and their campaign started off with a losing effort as they lost 1-0 to St. Pauli on Saturday. Friend, on loan from the Bundesliga’s Eintrach Frankfurt, played the full 90 minutes.
Former Houston Dynamo defender Andre Hainault saw just a few minutes of action last Friday as he made his debut for VFR Aalen. Hainault came on in second-half stoppage time as Aalen and Sandhausen played to a scoreless draw.
Over in Sweden, goalkeeper Kenny Stamatopoulos and club team AIK are making a real push at the Allsvenskan title as the season heads into the second half. Stamatopoulos was in goal on Monday as AIK beat Hacken 3-2 to record their third win in a row and are riding a nine-game unbeaten streak.
In Finland, it’s now five games without a win for defender Roger Thompson and his Mariehamn slide as they dropped a 2-1 decision to Lahti on Sunday. Thompson played the whole game for Mariehamn, who have slipped to eighth place in the Veikkausliiga standings.
A week after scoring four goals, forward Frank Jonke was held off the scoreboard, but his Jaro team rallied from two goals down to salvage a 2-2 draw with TPS. Jaro are in fourth place.
Down in the Ykkonen, goalkeeper David Monsalve and Oulu are right in the middle of the table after they went down a goal to Kajaani before scoring twice in the last 15 minutes to pick up a 2-1 win on Wednesday. Monsalve was in goal as Oulu are in fifth place in the 10-team league.
In Singapore, it was a good start for the two Canadians involved in Singapore Cup quarterfinal action as both Jordan Webb and Jerome Baker were on winning sides.
Webb played the whole game on Tuesday as Home United beat Geylang International 2-0 in their quarterfinal first leg and Baker also played the whole game on Monday as Hougang United beat Balestier Khalsa 2-0 in their first leg.
Midfielder Sherif El-Masri was on the field for Young Lions as they were involved in S-League play on Saturday. Young Lions are now 17 games unbeaten in the league as they played Warriors to a scoreless draw.
