Canada Goes Estonian, Ali Gerba Goes Bavarian

Eeka meekä bik bak bük! No, that’s not Ewok-speak, but rather Estonian! It actually isn’t, but that’s what most Estonian looks like to me anyway. Why am I talking such nonsense about this not-talked-about-very-often Baltic nation? Why, because Canada is going to kick their little Estonian asses in a friendly match in March, of course!

As of a few days ago, FIFA’s official website have listed an Estonia-Canada matchup scheduled for 26 March, most likely to be played at A. Le Coq Arena in the capital, Tallinn. If you know your shit, you’ll know that Canada played at that very same stadium on 29 March 2003 (wow, that’ll be, like, almost exactly five years!) and came out on the losing end, thanks to a brace by Andres Oper that topped Paul Stalteri’s goal for the Canucks.

So what are Canada up against? Well, to be honest, I don’t know much about the Estonians’ style of play, as I have never seen them play, like most people on the planet. But while their FIFA ranking of 124th is nothing to be proud of, they’re not going to be a walk in the park. Their squad includes aging but sharp goalkeeper Mart Poom (gotta love that name), who plugs away at Watford these days. There’s also the aforementioned Andres Oper, who is Estonia’s all-time top goalscorer with 33 goals scored since his first cap in 1995. He plays his club football at Roda JC in Holland, where he’s got the much-coveted number 11 shirt. Also within the team’s ranks is 168 cm-tall Martin Reim, who is the most capped player ever not to appear in a World Cup (that’ll score you big in your next trivia game), and is the most capped European player ever as well. Estonia also has a handful of experienced players such as Kristen Viikmäe, Sergei Terehhov and Andrei Stepanov, who among the three of them have earned 274 caps.

At this point in time we can’t really tell what players are going to be repping the Great White North aside from the usual suspects, but I would wager on seeing some youthful elements on the pitch, like maybe a little bit of David Edgar, Jamie Peters or Asmir Begovic. However there’ll be more to say when the date gets closer. For more info on this matchup, check out Jon’s post over at the wicked Out Of Touch blog.

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You know, it’s always kind of embarassing when I try to defend the Canadian national team’s honour while talking to my French friends and having to say our best players play at clubs such as Depor La Coruna, Houston and the absolutely dreadful Caley Thistle (Psyche! Just kidding, Ian). Well, now I’ll have to tell them that one of our most promising strikers, Ali Gerba, just packed his Swedish suitcase and has schlepped over to play with FC Ingolstadt 04 of the German third division.

Gerba, who impressed many at the Gold Cup and who is included on the ballot for the Canadian Player of the Year Award (although that ain’t saying much), who didn’t play much with his former club, IFK Göteborg, but enjoyed some decent success with AC Horsens of the Danish Super League this year, scoring four goals in fifteen games (according to Wikipedia).

Now, as much as Ingolstadt is not a glamorous club by any stretch, they’re possibly not as bad as one might be led to think at first glance. The club was actually founded no earlier than 2004, when the city’s two clubs, ESV and MTV merged together as one. They were thrown into the fourth tier of German football, the Öberliga, and finished second (not enough to be promoted, how cruel!) in their first season, but finished head and shoulders above the rest in their second campaign and are doing mighty fine where they are now, currently fifth, where they finished last year as well.

It’s a tough life for that club, seeing as Munich is a stone’s throw away, and I’ve heard there’s a pretty good club that plays there. And I have more trivia for you! For some reason that Wikipedia doesn’t bother to develop, FC Ingolstadt boasts a decent-sized Scottish fanbase within their 1400-strong average home crowd.

Now, this is an almost frightening coincidence. Remember how I wrote about Lars Hirschfeld signing with Cluj in Romania, which is of course the birthplace of Dracula (not Cluj exactly, but that region)? Well, it turns out Ingolstadt is the exact “birthplace” of Frankenstein’s monster in Mary Shelley’s classic novel. Go figure.

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Now, a lot of you have been griping about the previously mentioned vote ballot, so now you can do something about it. Canadasoccer.com offers you the chance to send your votes in here. We can make a difference!

One last thing: Rami from the Tunisia WCB posted an article featuring the Tunisian league’s best goals of the season yesterday, and they quite simply blew me away. So check it out right now or you’ll be sorry.

I’ll catch you cats later, kosh out!