French Recap: Weah Sees Red, While Balogun Returns from Exile

The good news is that Balogun has worked his way back into the Monaco team. The bad news is that Weah will miss the next game. On the Yank vs Yank front, you’ll have to scroll to the bottom.

Marseille 1 – 2 PSG

Marseille captain Timothy Weah definitely did not lead by example as the French champions grabbed the game winner in the 74th minute just before the American was shown his second yellow card, which we all know means ‘au revoir’ in French.

With just three points from their last four games, their worst start to a Ligue 1 season in 20 years, the Olympians were looking to get back on track in front of their home fans and in the first half, they held their own against the French and European champs.

Ousmane Dembele went close for the visitors after 12 minutes, but his chip shot went over the keeper and also the crossbar. It took Marseille 24 minutes to get a shot off and on goal but Pierre-Emile Hojberg’s effort from the top of the box was easily collected by the PSG keeper. Just past the half hour mark, PSG’s former academy youth, Weah, was show a yellow card for tripping.

Ten minutes after the re-start, PSG had two excellent opportunities to take the lead but, in both cases, poor finishing was their downfall. The hosts then had their chance when Amine Gouiri crossed the ball into the box from the left flank for Neal Maupay, but the silly boy kicked it into the back of his own leg! They paid for that one because soon after, a cross into the Marseille box saw second half sub, Ferran Torres nod the ball into the back of the net. This was his seventh goal in six matches.

Just a half dozen minutes later, Englishman Angel Gomes received the pass after the Parisians lost the ball in the middle of the park. With a few sweet side steps around defenders, he fired just inside the near post to score his first since last November.

The Marseillais smiles were erased two minutes later when captain Marquinhos was played into the box and fired his shot from close range. Dutch keeper Jeffrey De Lange got a strong hand to it but it only fell back to the Brazilian who didn’t miss a second time.

Then Weah had a moment of silliness when he grabbed hold of Nuno Mendes and was shown his second yellow in the 77th minute. No further damage was done however but it means that Weah will have a longer rest after the international break, so will miss the trip to Troyes on October 11th.

Paris FC 2 – 1 Strasbourg

Giovanni Reyna and his Racing boys travelled to the French capital and hopefully they picked up some souvenirs of the Eiffel Tower to take home because they certainly didn’t return to Alsace with any points in their suitcases. Gio started in central midfield and got to play 67 minutes before he was relieved by Dario Essugo.

After three early and impressive saves from the Strasbourg goalkeeper, who is on loan from Chelsea, Filip Jorgensen was finally beaten by Ilan Kebbal, when the Algerian spotted the Dane further off his line than he should have been. Their second came in the second half, 57 minutes to be exact, when Pablo Pagis hit the cross from the right with his first touch and beat the diving Dane.

The game was pretty much over with Strasbourg struggling; that was until Mamadou Mbow decided to score one for them past his own goalkeeper. The city’s second team, however, held on for the win.

Next up for Reyna and Strasbourg will be a nice trip to Nice after the break.

Toulouse 3 – 2 Le Havre

As always, Mark McKenzie was in the heart of the Toulouse defense as they held off visiting Le Havre for the victory and the three points. Although the first half produced no goals, the second half was definitely worth watching as the ball had to be picked out of the back of the nets on five occasions.

Toulouse’s two goals came early on and just a couple of minutes apart. Caspar Tengstedt converted from the penalty spot in the 49th minute after his fellow countryman, Thomas Jorgensen was brought down in the box. His next one came from a towering header with a ball provided by Jorgensen. The great Dane is finally finding his form, with three goals in the last two games.

In the 70th minute the visitors got one back when Josh Maja found the back of the net with a tap in that was provided by tapping in Sōta Nakamura’s grass cutting cross played at his feet. But it only took another eight minutes before Toulouse got their two-goal cushion back. This time Jorgensen, who had a hand in the first two goals, created one of his own by driving into the box from the left wing and firing past the hapless Gauthier Hallon in the Le Havre goal.

Le Club Doyen again got themselves into the game when Ally Samatta headed at Guillaume Restes, only to see the effort parried away. But the soccer gods were with him and he was able to bury the rebound into the Toulouse goal to set up a few nervous minutes for the hosts. McKenzie and his back line stood up to the task and denied a third to secure the points. The win ended the Violets six game Ligue 1 streak without a win.

After the international break, Toulouse will head east to take on Monaco in what can be a Yank vs Yank clash.

Notes

Folarin Balogun returned to the Monaco team sheet but was on the bench when they kicked off at home against RC Lens. The recently exiled American came on for the last 14 minutes as the boys from the principality collected all the points in a 2-1 victory.

Tanner Tessmann added 11 more minutes to his Ligue 1 playing time this season when he came on late for Lyon in their demolition of Bryan Reynolds and Rennes. Reynolds did start however and played for 74 minutes, so is slowly working his way into the starting XI. The final score was 4-0.

Tanner Tessmann went up against Bryan Reynolds and with those 4 Lyon goals, Tessmann is now two wins out of two while Reynolds drops to one out of two. So, the Alabama man is leading the pack with 6 points, followed by Weah and Reynolds with 3.