October rankings

Somehow, the release of the October FIFA rankings last Wednesday escaped my attention. On the Canadian front, there wasn't a lot of activity, with a move up 3 spots to 51st, just off the first page.

The interesting stuff was going on at the top, with Italy falling out of 1st, being passed by rivals Argentina and Brazil. Here's the top 20:

1	Argentina	1533	1		82
2	Brazil	1459	1		15
3	Italy	1387	-2		-101
4	France	1271	2		51
5	Germany	1245	-1		-85
6	Spain	1226	1		48
7	Netherlands	1207	-2		-39
8	Portugal	1203	0		34
9	Czech Republic	1174	2		92
10	Croatia	1155	0		4
11	England	1137	-2		-28
12	Romania	1086	0		49
13	Scotland	1049	1		24
14	Greece	1034	1		94
15	Mexico	978	-2		-48
16	Russia	960	10		109
17	Uruguay	900	2		11
18	USA	886	0		-11
19	Nigeria	841	4		-26
20	Poland	837	-4		-89

Lots of action in the middle of the CONCACAF table, including big jumps from St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados, while Trinidad and Tobago and Costa Rica tumbled.

15	1	Mexico	978	-2		-48
18	2	USA	886	0		-11
51	3	Canada	596	3		49
55	4	Honduras	574	4		58
64	5	Cuba	485	7		43
65	6	Panama	483	1		13
66	7	Costa Rica	476	-10		-58
68	8	Haiti	469	15		62
73	9	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	428	24		70
78	10	Trinidad and Tobago	414	-14		-63
92	11	Guyana	362	11		25
93	12	Barbados	359	16		51
100	13	Guatemala	341	-12		-46
103	14	Jamaica	319	-7		-42
134	15	Bermuda	202	1		8
141	16	El Salvador	175	-4		-7
144	17	Suriname	160	-1		0
145	18	Antigua and Barbuda	156	-14		-59
148	19	Dominican Republic	143	-9		-32
156	20	St. Kitts and Nevis	107	-10		-39
161	21	Nicaragua	96	-3		0
163	22	St. Lucia	92	0		5
165	23	Grenada	90	-3		0
170	24	Bahamas	68	-2		0
180	25	British Virgin Islands	34	-1		1
181	26	Turks and Caicos Islands	32	0		0
183	27	Netherlands Antilles	30	-1		0
187	28	Dominica	21	-1		0
188	29	Cayman Islands	20	0		0
195	30	Puerto Rico	10	0		0
197	31	Anguilla	4	0		0
200	32	Belize	0	0		0
200	33	Aruba	0	0		0
200	34	US Virgin Islands	0	0		0
200	35	Montserrat	0	0		0

To be honest, I don't really understand how St. V & G jumped 24 spots, even though they haven't played a competitive match since May, but beyond the top 40 or so spots, the whole FIFA table is pretty suspect.

Canada's next opponent, South Africa, dropped 10 spots to 83, in the region that Canada inhabited a year ago.

Fun with Babelfish

In the internet days of yore, Altavista was one of the pre-eminent search engines. These were different times, and nerdier times. So it should not be surprising that the translation tool that Altavista featured was named after the "babel fish", from the Douglas Adams sci-fi series, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

But Altavista's babelfish is still around and is handy when reading soccer articles outside of my core group of competent languages (English, Français, Nederlands). And especially this weekend, with Rob Friend having another big weekend for Borussia Moenchengladbach in Germany.

The German online newspaper Welt, after a headline reading "Rob Friend ist Gladbachs bester Freund" (Rob Friend is Gladbach's best friend, clever, no?), offered the following lead paragraph:

Im Spitzenspiel bei Greuther Fürth gelangen dem kanadischen Torjäger drei Treffer für Tabellenführer Borussia Mönchengladbach. Während Mainz und Aachen patzten, verbesserte sich 1860 München auf einen Aufstiegsplatz.

Babelfish translates thusly:

In the point play with Greuther Fuerth arrive to the Canadian gate hunter of three hits for table leader Borussia Moenchengladbach. While Mainz and Aachen patzten, 1860 Munich improved on an ascent place.

It seems babelfish hasn't improved much upon this tool in the last half decade. Let's let Google Translate at it:

In the top game at Greuther Fuerth reach the Canadian striker three goals for table leader Borussia Moenchengladbach. While Mainz and Aachen patzten, improved 1860 Munich on a career.

Not much better.

More from the article:

Borussia Mönchengladbach bleibt die Nummer eins in der 2. Fußball-Bundesliga. Zum Auftakt des elften Spieltags gewann der Tabellenführer das Spitzenspiel am Freitag bei der SpVgg Greuther Fürth nach einem Dreierpack des Kanadiers Rob Friend mit 3:1 (2:0) und steuert mit nun sieben Siegen aus den letzten acht Spielen dem direkten Wiederaufstieg entgegen.

The fish:

Borussia Moenchengladbach remains the number one in the 2. Soccer federal league. For the prelude of the elften play day the table leader won the point play on Friday with the SpVgg Greuther Fuerth after a three-luggage of the Canadian Rob Friend with 3:1 (2:0) and steers with now seven victories from the last eight plays the direct reclimb against.

A little better. Not sure what to do with a 'three-luggage', but I get the picture.

Friend had another big weekend. After not scoring last weekend (after I made this post about his current hot streak), he made up for it with a hat trick on Friday and now sits tied atop the goal scoring table in Germany's 2. Bundesliga.

It seems he has good reason to smile.

Olivier Occean has cooled a bit lately, and Ali Gerba hasn't been anywhere near the pitch for his team in Sweden, so I'd expect Rob to be the first-choice striker for Canada for some time.

Update: Watch the Friend hattrick:

Bored at work?

There's a big match tomorrow in the 2. Bundesliga featuring two big clubs and two Canadians. Kevin McKenna and his 1. FC Koln side are paying a visit to Borussia Moenchengladbach, who will start the red-hot Rob Friend at striker.

You can watch, if you like, and if you have SopCast software, a P2P video streaming program. Several streams are likely to be available, try here, here and here.

Friendly competition

We're in a bit of a slow period right now for Canadian soccer, with the Men's National Team idle during the current international break, and only the South Africa friendly remaining on the 2007 schedule, while Toronto FC's season is winding mercifully to a close.

But things are happening with some of those MNT players and their club performances. Namely, a couple of players are scoring in bunches. Not since the days of Carlo Corazzin tearing it up for Northampton Town, somewhere in the nether regions of the English pyramid, has a striker been as hot as Rob Friend, playing for Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Have a look at his output from the last five games:

5	1	-/-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	2,5	Erzgebirge Aue	A	3:2 (2:0)	Analyse
6	1	-/-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	2,5	FC Augsburg	H	4:2 (1:0)	Analyse
7	1	-/-	-	1	-	-	1	-	46	3	FC St. Pauli	A	3:0 (1:0)	Analyse
8	1	-/-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	2,5	Alemannia Aachen	H	2:1 (2:0)	Analyse
9	2	-/-	-	2	-	-	-	-	-	2	TuS Koblenz	A	5:0 (2:0)	Analyse

The bolded numbers are goals in his side's most recent games, all victories. In short, he's hot right now.

He also leaves his mark on the top scorers table in the 2. Bundesliga after 9 matches (and keep in mind Rob only appeared as a late substitute in the first 2 matches):

Pos	Spieler	Verein	Tore
1	Novakovic	1. FC Köln	7
	di Salvo	1860 München	7
3	Gunkel	1. FSV Mainz 05	6
	Friend	Borussia M'gladbach	6
5	Nicu	SV Wehen Wiesbaden	5
6	Kolev	Alemannia Aachen	4
	Hdiouad	FC Augsburg	4
	Lanig	SpVgg Greuther Fürth	4
	Reisinger	SpVgg Greuther Fürth	4
	Copado	1899 Hoffenheim	4
	Borja	1. FSV Mainz 05	4
	Feulner	1. FSV Mainz 05	4
	Neuville	Borussia M'gladbach	4
	Rösler	Borussia M'gladbach	4
	Göktan	1860 München	4
	Marvin Braun	FC St. Pauli	4
	König	SV Wehen Wiesbaden	4
18	Geißler	Erzgebirge Aue	3
	F. Heller	Erzgebirge Aue	3
	Kaufman	Erzgebirge Aue	3
	Diabang	FC Augsburg	3
	Edu	1899 Hoffenheim	3
	Omodiagbe	FC Carl Zeiss Jena	3
	Dzaka	TuS Koblenz	3
	Sukalo	TuS Koblenz	3

Not to be outdone, Olivier Occean is also doing his part to represent Canada in the scoring tables of Northern Europe.

The Norwegian Tippeligaen's top scorers:

18mål:		Thorstein Helstad, Brann
14mål:		Peter Ijeh, Viking Daniel Nannskog, Stabæk
13mål:		Steffen Iversen, Rosenborg
12mål:		Veigar Pall Gunnarsson, Stabæk Olivier Occean, Lillestrøm
10mål:		Arild Sundgot, Lillestrøm
9mål:		Morten Berre, Vålerenga
8mål:		Morten Moldskred, Tromsø Ole Martin Årst, Start
7mål:		John Anders Bjørkøy, Fredrikstad Tarik Elyounoussi, Fredrikstad Sigurd Rushfeldt, Tromsø Espen Ruud, Odd Grenland

They're nearly done the season in Norway, so 1st place looks to be out of reach, but 2nd is certainly not out of the question.

Rather disappointlingly, the third member of the MNT striking triumvirate, Ali Gerba, has yet to feature for his team this season as he is languishing somewhere along the fringes of the IFK Goteborg squad. If he gets going, and Friend and Occean can transfer their production to the international game, then it will finally be looking bright up front for Canada.