Iain Hume isn’t with the Canadian national team at its current training camp, but there’s a very good reason for that – he’s getting ready for a trip to Wembley.
Fleetwood Town FC, where Hume is on loan from Preston North End, are off to the League Two playoff final against Burton Albion on May 26, a one-game showdown with promotion to League One on the line. They booked their spot last Friday in a 0-0 draw with York City in the semifinal second leg, a game in which Hume started and played 64 minutes.
The last time a Canadian striker took part in the League Two playoff final at Wembley was back in 2009, when Simeon Jackson scored a last-minute winner to clinch promotion for Gillingham. Could similar heroics be in the cards for Hume?
Last-minute heroics were delivered this week by another Canadian striker, Daniel Haber. On Sunday, in Apollon Limassol’s final game of the season, Haber came on as a second-half sub and scored an equalizer in stoppage time to secure a 2-2 draw with Anorthosis. Canadian fans will be hoping Haber carries that momentum over to Canada’s upcoming friendlies against Bulgaria and Moldova, with Les Rouges searching for their first goal in 14 months.
Atiba Hutchinson closed out the season for Besiktas with a customary 90-minute performance in a 1-1 draw with Genclerbirligi on Saturday, while Samuel Piette also went the distance in Fortuna Dusseldorf II’s 0-0 draw with Schalke II on the weekend.
Roberto Stillo got a rare start in goal for Perugia, in their final game of the season, and earned a 3-1 win over Virtus Entella on Thursday. Fellow goalkeeper Julian Latendresse-Levesque also posted a victory, 2-1 for Lokomotive Leipzig over Magdeburg, while Tomer Chencinski finished out the season for Hakoah Ramat Gan with a loss against Hapoel Ashkelon.
Daniel Stanese, prior to joining Canada’s training camp, put in 90 minutes of work for FC Augsburg II in a 2-0 win over Bayern Munich II on Friday. Roger Thompson (IFK Mariehamn, Finland) and Dejan Jakovic (Shimizu S-Pulse, Japan) also put in full-game performances this past week, while former FC Edmonton midfielder Dominic Oppong played the first half for AC Oulu in a 4-4 draw with KTP.
