Club over country? At least for now. New York Red Bulls fans can breathe easy knowing that Joel Lindpere won’t be traveling halfway across the world and back to make Estonia matches. With that degree of travel likely to hinder performance and the Red Bulls likely to lose a good portion of their roster to the CONCACAF Gold Cup in summer, it will be huge for the team that they’re able to keep Lindpere around. Rafael Marquez, Roy Miller, Tim Ream, Dane Richards, and Juan Agudelo all seem likely to miss time for that competition.

At this point in his career, it’s not surprising that Lindpere is electing to stay in the States for most of his country’s international fixtures. Also, with no disrespect intended towards Estonia, they are highly unlikely to qualify for Euro 2012, so Lindpere’s absence is unlikely to be a big deal. Lindpere was his country’s captain, but it sounds like he will almost certainly be sacrificing that armband.