Toronto’s Jacen Russell-Rowe scored his first goal for Toulouse, while Bim Pepple kept Plymouth Argyle’s League One playoff hopes alive and Alistair Johnston made his long-awaited return to the pitch for Celtics.
Here’s a look at Canadians in action over the weekend.
Jacen Russell-Rowe, Toulouse
Jacen Russell-Rowe’s transition to Ligue 1 has not be the easiest. The 23-year-old Toronto native joined Toulouse from Columbus Crew in January after 16 goals in 80 appearances across four Major League Soccer seasons. Playing time has come at a premium for Russell-Rowe as he adjusts to the demands of French football.
Handed a rare start on Saturday as Monaco visited, Russell-Rowe made it count. The Toronto FC academy grad notched his first goal in France. The goal spurred on a comeback as Toulouse fought back to earn a point.
Saturday’s game was just the third start for the Maryland product in a Toulouse shirt. Russell-Rowe had not started since a Mar. 21 victory over Lorient. In the the four matches since, Russell-Rowe had played in a combined 82 minutes.
It was the visitors who struck first, within the first 10 minutes of the match. A Monaco corner was punched away by Guillaume Restes, but not cleared. After pinballing around the area for a moment, it came to Simon Adingra whose left-footed volley was headed home by Jordan Teze in the sixth to make it 1-0.
Monaco would add a second a little over 10 minutes later and they were full value for it. After a period of sustained pressure, Maghnes Akliouche broke forward at midfield with Lamine Camara. With options on both his left and right, Camara instead chose to take a pop at goal himself. From just over 20 yards out, Camara curled a fine right-footed effort past a diving Restes to make it 2-0 in the 18th.
Minutes later, Toulouse should have been within one through Russell-Rowe. In the 22nd, Aron Donnum played in Russell-Rowe just inside the area. With Lukas Hradecky caught stationary, Russell-Rowe dragged his left-footed shot just outside the far post. Having the keeper dead to rights, Russell-Rowe simply had to do better there.
But the hosts would strike back just after the hour-mark as Russell-Rowe took centre stage again and this time made good. Donnum sprung Dayann Methalie down the right. Cutting inside, he slipped a picture-perfect pass across the face of goal for Russell-Rowe to slot home in the 61st minute to pull Toulouse within one at 2-1. The goal was Russell-Rowe’s first since an MLS playoff goal for the Crew against FC Cincinnati back on Nov. 8.
Russell-Rowe’s evening ended in the 74th as he made way for Emersonn. Russell-Rowe finished his shift with three shots and a foul. Coincidentally, it was Emersonn who equalized for Toulouse in the final minute of the 90 to end the match at 2-2.
Firmly in the midtable, the point wouldn’t mean much for Toulouse, but the two dropped points could be costly for Monaco’s European ambitions. After reeling off five straight wins from Feb. 28 to Apr. 5, Monaco is now winless in three and trails Marseille by two points for the final European place with three matches remaining on the season.
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Bim Pepple, Plymouth Argyle
As League One heads into the final matchday of the season on Saturday, Plymouth Argyle’s playoff hopes are improbably still alive. “Improbably” might be an understatement. Calgary’s Bim Pepple scored both goals in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over relegated Port Vale in a match where the Pilgrims did themselves no favours in their chase for a top-six spot.
Things couldn’t have started better for Argyle, playing at home at Home Park. In just the third minute, Lorent Tolaj played in a fine pass for Pepple to try to get on the other end of with goalkeeper Joe Gauci bearing down. Pepple got there just in time to slot home and make it 1-0.
Their joy was very short-lived, however. Only two minutes later, Argyle would be down a man. A deep ball into the Argyle half was played for Ben Waine to find. For some reason, Pilgrims goalkeeper Conor Hazard was well off of his line and on the edge of the 18-yard box. After Alex Mitchell couldn’t get to the ball before Waine, Hazard was forced to swipe it down outside of the area to prevent a scoring chance. Handling outside of the box meant a straight red to the Argyle No. 1 in just the fifth minute. With every remaining point valuable, Argyle was playing with fire on 10 men.
Port Vale made them pay in the 14th. From a corner, Jordan Shipley launched a great cross from distance towards the far post. There to head home was Connor Hall to make it 1-1.
It’s never a good idea to go down to 10 men in a match, but if there was a team in League One you could get away with it against, it might be Port Vale. One of the main reasons why Vale was relegated this season was their inability to score, scoring the fewest number of goals in the league this season. Hall’s goal made it 34 on the year.
With their offensive struggles, Vale never managed to take advantage of the extra man. Luca Ashby-Hammond, forced into duty with the dismissal of Hazard, wasn’t called on often, but managed to do what he was asked of to keep the match level. In the early moments of the second half, Argyle would retake the lead.
In the Vale half, Owen Dale forced a turnover while being fouled. Pepple gathered up the ball and the referee played the advantage. Skipping into the area, Pepple’s low drive beat Gauci inside the far post to make it 2-1 in the 47th. The goal was Pepple’s 16th on the season. The 10 men of Argyle would hold on for the remainder of the match to claim the three points and keep their playoff dreams alive.
For the Pilgrims to finish in the top six, they’re going to need some help. They head into Saturday’s match with Northampton Town in eighth place, two points behind sixth-place Stevenage. Argyle couldn’t ask for a better opponent than the already relegated Northampton who sit dead last in the table. Stevenage hosts Wigan, while seventh-place Luton Town, also still alive, visit third-place Bolton. While the Wanderers are assured of a playoff spot, they can still finish as low as fifth, so they won’t be taking it easy on Saturday.
The math is simple for Pepple and Argyle - win and hope both Stevenage and Luton don’t. With a superior goal difference over Stevenage, Argyle would get the nod should the two teams finish level on points. That means a draw won’t be enough for Stevenage.
Everything is left to play for on what should be a very exciting Saturday of football.
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Alistair Johnston, Celtic
For the first time in 184 days, Alistair Johnston was back on the pitch on Saturday. Opening up the second phase of the Scottish Premiership campaign, the 27-year-old Vancouver native came on the 72nd minute for Anthony Ralston in Celtic’s 3-1 win over Falkirk. With the victory, the Bhoys jumped Rangers into second place in the table, three points behind leaders Hearts.
The appearance was only the fifth of the season for Johnston, whose campaign has been ravaged by a nagging hamstring injury. Picking up the ailment in a Champions League qualifier against FC Kairat in August, the initial injury kept Johnston out of action for nine weeks. His return, in a Europa League match with Sturm Graz on Oct. 23 was short-lived. He was subbed off only 25 minutes into the match and had not played again before Saturday’s appearance.
“It’s been tough watching from the sidelines pretty much this whole season,” Johnston said after the match. “To see all the work these guys have point in, on the pitch, on the training ground and even just warming up [during the game] for the 60 minutes, it was exhausting.”
When Johnston was introduced, the match still hung in the balance. Celtic was leading 2-0 on goals from Daizen Maeda and Kieran Tierney before Kyrell Wilson answered back for Falkirk only minutes before Johnston came on. The Hoops got a late goal in the 83rd from Maeda to wrap up the win.
Johnston said that coming back into a high-pressure situation immediately was difficult.
“I was hoping to come in at 2-0, but when I was jogging over, [Wilson] scored a worldie,” Johnston said with a laugh. “At the same time, not all of the games for the rest of the split are going to be easy, so it’s good to go out there and get some minutes where you could feel it was getting a little nervy, but I thought the subs were great and I thought the boys who started the match put in a great shift and it was nice to get that third goal, for sure. It was something that I thought we deserved based on the football that we played and the chances that we created.”
