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Posted by
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October 29, 2015 |
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Steve Bottjer
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Despite facing his fair share of the challenges that most professional goalkeepers deal with over the last ten plus months, 2015 has ultimately ended up being a very good year for Canadian goalkeeper Tomer Chencinski both on and off field.
After struggling to earn minutes with Israeli super club Maccabi Tel Aviv, the 30 year old shot stopper made the decision to leave Israel and return to the Finnish Veikkausliiga with RoPS. With Finland being a country where he had previously enjoyed great professional success and with a good run of form in preseason, the Canadian International looked to be well placed to regain his previous level of exceptional form and play regularly.
“The move back to Finland was rejuvenating,” Chencinski told RedNation. “When I first came to Finland in 2011 for my first European experience, I loved it. The culture, atmosphere, the love of the game, it was amazing. I wanted to feel that again, and I wanted to get back to what I really love to do, and that’s play football (matches). Whenever I reflected on my time in Finland, I had a smile on my face. So I knew that coming back, I would find that love again.”
Unfortunately, 2015 also become the year in which Chencinski endured his first major injury as a professional athlete.
“I got injured the first match of the season, three minutes into the game against HJK at home,” Chencinski explained. I was having a great pre-season too and we had made it to the League Cup finals, first time in club history. The injury happened on their first corner kick. I came out and I caught the ball. Their striker (Mike Havenaar) hit me from behind and I lost my balance and just landed on my right shoulder on a bit of an angle. I heard a tear and then just pain.”
“I thought that maybe I just jammed my shoulder or something, so I continued to play,” Chencincki added. “But after thirty minutes of playing, the pain wouldn’t go away and I just started to feel sick and I couldn’t really move my shoulder. On one play, without even thinking, I made a save and quickly threw the ball to start play quickly. I thought my shoulder was going to fall off, that’s when I knew I needed some help.”
An MRI would reveal a full tear in his rotator cuff, leaving the hardworking goalkeeper devastated initially and then more focused than ever to do whatever it would take to get back to full fitness and back onto the pitch.
“The club asked if I wanted to stay here or go home to do some of the rehab,” Chencinski explained. “I stayed with the club because I knew how badly I would push to get back and I’m so happy I did. My recovery time gave me an opportunity to work on other aspects of my game and I now I know why they say injured players work twice as much as the fit ones. I was doing rehab for 4-5 hours per day. I was fully focused on coming back stronger and nothing was stopping me.”
“The injury was a big challenge,” he added. ”I had never faced something like that. I had never been injured before, so it was totally new. I felt lost coming to watch the training sessions and not being able to be with the guys on the pitch. I just had to remind myself that this was not permanent. One of my old coaches always used the phrase ‘tough times don’t last, tough people do’. I kept that in the forefront of my mind and always pushed myself every day to be better.”
Despite his frustration at being unable to compete on the pitch, life had never been better for Chencinski off the pitch, as he got engaged and had the support of his fiancé as he made his way through the struggle of coming back from injury.
“I am getting married to the most amazing woman in the world,” Chencinski stated. “She is so supportive of everything I do. She has helped me with everything. When I got injured I made sure to do all the research and look into how I could get back to the pitch the fastest. This is where I also have to credit my amazing fiancé who helped keep me positive and always gave me words of encouragement. She did the research with me and researched which foods would help with reducing the inflammation and whatnot.”
With a solid support system behind him and the determination that has always characterized him as a player, Chencinski made his way back to full fitness, but then had to wait for his chance, as goalkeepers often do.
Once the current number one at RoPS eventually succumbed to an injury of his own, Chencinski then took his opportunity and went on a run of form that played a major part in what became a historically successful season for his club. On the back of a run of clean sheet performances by their keeper, RoPS finished second in the table – their best ever performance in the Veikkausliiga – and earned a spot in the UEFA Europa League tournament.
With that success, Chencinski’s return to Finland transformed his season from one of frustration to one of triumph.
“Returning to Finland has really helped me find again why I love the game so much – and when a player is really enjoying himself, they can perform well,” Chencinski said. “I feel that translated to on field success, both for me personally and as a team.”
With his Veikkausliiga campaign now concluded, the 6 foot 3 goalkeeper would now like nothing more than to cap his year off with a return to the Canadian Men’s National Team.
“I would love to get back into the (Canadian National Team) fold,” Chencinski said. “My fitness and form have been very good and I am very happy with it. I have worked very hard and put a lot of time and effort into getting to where I am. I know that I am doing whatever I can, so when it happens, it happens. I only have control over certain things. If I continue to do the things I can control well, then the rest is out of my hands. I do hope to get back into the fold, and show what I can contribute.”
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