Reyna Scores Then Limps Off as Toulouse Beat Strasbourg 3-1 in Ligue 1

For forty-five minutes, Strasbourg held. Then, in the first minute of stoppage time, Santiago Hidalgo picked the ball up, beat two defenders and finished low from close range, and the whole evening tilted Toulouse's way. The goal needed a VAR check before it stood, confirmed in the 45th minute plus four, but there was no doubting what it did to the game: Toulouse went in ahead at the break, and Strasbourg, who had come to the Stadium de Toulouse looking to steady a wobbling season, were suddenly chasing it. The second half belonged, at first, to the home side. Mark McKenzie, the American defender, rose to meet Cristian Cásseres Jr.'s delivery in the 56th minute and headed in Toulouse's second, and at 2-0 the match looked settled. It was the kind of goal that says everything about how Jens Berthel Askou's team play at home: organised, direct, and happy to let a centre-back decide a game from a set piece. But Strasbourg had one answer, and it came from the other American on the pitch. Giovanni Reyna, enjoying the best run of form he has had in years, pulled a goal back in the 67th minute with a flat right-footed finish, his third goal of what has been a genuine bounce-back season in France. For a few minutes the game was alive again, Strasbourg pushing, Toulouse suddenly unsure. Then came the moment that mattered more than the scoreline. Reyna went down and left the pitch with what looked like a thigh injury, and the worry travelled instantly across the Atlantic. The United States play their Concacaf Nations League quarter-finals this month, and Reyna's participation is now in doubt. It was a cruel way for a good night to end: a goal, a reminder of everything he can do when fit, and then the sight of him walking off hurt. Toulouse made sure the points stayed home. Nine minutes after Reyna's goal, Thomas Jørgensen met Rasmus Nicolaisen's cross with a volley from the left and restored the two-goal cushion, 3-1, and that was that. Strasbourg, beaten for the fifth time in six league matches, had no reply left in them. The win was Toulouse's second in four matches and lifted them to tenth in Ligue 1 with thirteen points, three clear of a Strasbourg side that now sits thirteenth and looks badly in need of the international break. Both teams are back in action on Saturday 21 November, Toulouse away at Lens and Strasbourg at home to Brest. For Strasbourg, the fortnight cannot come quickly enough — and for the United States, the first news out of the treatment room will matter more than any result in France this weekend.