French Recap: Reynolds, Rennes Hand Weah, Marseille Their 3rd Loss in a Row

There was one Battle of the Yanks, but the second one never materialized as Folarin Balogun continues to be stranded in the Monaco wasteland.

Rennes 1 – 0 Marseille

This Battle of the Yanks pitted Tim Weah and his Marseille gang on the road against Bryan Reynolds and the Stade Rennes gang. Captain Weah played the full 90 minutes, but Reynolds only came onto the field in the 68th minute. Not bad, a 22-minute cameo, considering that he never got off the bench in the last two games and the one before that, the Ligue 1 opener, he only played 2 minutes.

The game was settled by just the one goal, that was sent into the back of the net by Adrien Thomasson, his first of the season, just seven minutes into the second half.

Ten minutes into the game, the visitors broke forward with Weah carrying the ball up the right flank and picking out his teammate,
Igor Paixao but although it was a hard shot, it was too close to the keeper who got a hand to it. Weah then had a shot from distance around the half hour mark but the keeper, again, got a hand to it and tipped it over the bar.

After Angel Gomez blew the chance for Marseille to take the lead, the ball was down the other end of the field and knocked into the back of the net by Thomasson’s right foot. It was the Frenchman’s 50th Ligue 1 goal and his first for his new club since joining Rennes from RC Lens.

This was the Olympians third loss in a row, so they’ll hope to break that streak before the international break. Next up will be a visit to Istanbul to take on Besiktas in Europa League action, followed by a visit from the French champions. Rennes will go into Europa League action when they take on Strum Graz on the road. This will be followed by a trip to take on Tanner Tessmann and Lyon.

Strasbourg 1 – 1 Monaco

Giovanni Reyna was in Strasbourg’s starting line-up when they hosted Monaco to Stade de la Meinau over the weekend. The Folarin Balogun saga continues with the team claiming that the American striker is still injured.

Monaco scored twice in the Alsace Region but unfortunately one was in the back of the Strasbourg net and the other in the back of their own net. A Strasbourg free kick about 25 yards out was delivered into the box and defender Sadibou Sane, who was unchallenged, misdirected his clearance header and beat his keeper.

With 20 minutes remaining, Monaco’s 20-year-old German striker, Paris Brunner put his foot through the ball from way outside the box and beat the Danish keeper, Filip Jorgensen.

Monaco kept their unbeaten streak alive after game day five, while Strasbourg has collected seven points in their last three games. Up next for the boys from the Principality will be a trip to Bulgaria on Tuesday to take on CSKA Sofia in Conference League action, before traveling to Lorient. Meanwhile, Reyna’s side will go up against Paris FC in the French capital.

Lorient 2 – 2 Toulouse

Mark McKenzie started and went the distance in his usual central defensive spot as Toulouse came from a 2-0 deficit to steal a point on the road at Lorient. It took the hosts 37 minutes to break the deadlock and a couple minutes later claimed the second of the half.

Early on, in the 14th minute, an attack up the right flank from Toulouse could have put them ahead but Ilyas Azizi’s only managed to rattle the near post and bounce out of harm’s way. Around the half hour mark, they were at it again but this time the denial was from the Swiss keeper, Yvon Mvogo who made a nice diving save.

Panos Katseris was allowed to run most of the length of the field with the ball at his feet and then pushed it forward into the box for Ibrahima Balde to strike into the visitor’s goal. The Greek right wingback assisted on the next one too, this time setting up the Belgian loanee from Bayer Leverkusen, Noah Mbamba. He hit a beautiful shot from the edge of the box and managed to squeeze it between the near post and the keeper.

Just three minutes after the restart, the Violets got one back thanks to Casper Tengstedt, who just joined the team in the summer from Feyenoord where he couldn’t get a game. The Danish head coach, Jens Askou brought his fellow countryman on at the half and was repaid almost immediately when he headed the ball in from just a few yards out. Thomas Jorgensen, another Dane brought in this summer, secured the comeback and a point.

Toulouse will next be in action when they host Le Havre before the international break.

Notes

Tanner Tessmann got to play the last three minutes as Lyon’s trip to the capital to take on Paris FC ended scoreless. The American midfielder seems to be somewhat overlooked thus far this season, after 4 games in the Ligue 1 campaign, the former FC Dallas player has only played 27 minutes. The game ended scoreless. Next up, Lyon will host Rennes and hopefully we’ll see two Americans going head-to-head in that one.

In the Battle of the Yanks, I think we’ll leave Balogun on the list for now but since his team claims that he is injured and the fact that he is likely to never play for Monaco again, I don’t see him ever getting into a Yank vs Yank clash.

Reynolds picks up 3 points against Weah and Reyna gets nothing against Balogun.