July 23, 2026
AFC Toronto defeat the Montreal Roses at Stade Boreale in Laval
The Montreal Roses tonight welcomed AFC Toronto back to Laval, having set off on a bit of a winning streak of late. Last week, the Roses strolled in Alberta and beat the Calgary Wild on the road at McMahon stadium, and dispatched the Halifax Tides in Laval week prior to that.
AFC Toronto are coming off a three-to-nil defeat at the hands of the Vancouver Rise last week and a loss to the Ottawa Rapid the week prior to that. AFC Toronto though, are still in possession for the last playoff spot, in a tightly contest battle with both Vancouver who are a point ahead of them in third, and Halifax who are a point behind them in fifth place.
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The Roses had a bit of a trick of their sleeves tonight though. The debut of Marie-Yasmine Alidou, a Montreal native who expressed pride at playing for local team through social media posts earlier in the day.
“Getting to play professional soccer in my hometown is something I’ll never take for granted” said Alidou.
Alidou, 31, was transferred from the Portland Thorns, ironically, to the Roses on July 8th and made her debut tonight. She’s a member of the Canadian women’s national team and has made quite a mark over in the European leagues in recent years.
Sadly, it was also the only trick the Roses had on a rather lackluster Thursday evening in Laval.
The two squads were pretty equal in the first half, sharing possession of the ball while not many chances were earned or conceded at either end. It was a bit of a messy affair, with three yellow cards shown, but nothing of note.
While the first half had been played on fairly even ground, AFC Toronto caught Montreal sleeping to start off the second half, notching the first goal of the match just four minutes into the half.
Kaylee Hunter used her great vision to spot a an opening in the Roses defensive line, and chipped a ball into it for Rowe to chase, and she was away to the races with nobody in her path to the goal but goalkeeper Anna Karpenko who did her best to get to Rowe’s low strike, but came up up short as the ball found its way to the inner far post as AFC Toronto took the lead.
Just under an hour into the game, Alidou was substituted off in favor of Noamie Paquin.
In the 73rd minute, Chloe Minas was shown her second yellow card of the match for tackling Rowe from behind, earning her a red card and a sending off. The Roses were down to ten players now. But importantly, the foul had taken just outside of the box and AFC Toronto now had a free kick in a very dangerous position.
The free kick was taken by Kaylee Hunter who curled a wonderful strike into the left side of the goal, as Karpenko dove the right way but was out of reach of the ball. AFC Toronto were now up by two goals and a player and time was ticking away from the Roses in Laval.
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Montreal’s best chance of the match came in the last minute of the game, when Lorie Thibault found herself room to make a great strike on goal, but AFC Toronto goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo, in her AFC Toronto and NSL debut, was up for the challenge, and made a great diving save on a ball that seemed destined to find the back of the net.
The Roses will now hit the road and head over to the west coast, where they’ll challenge the Vancouver Rise once more at Swangard stadium on July 29th. For AFC Toronto, they next welcome Calgary Wild to Ontario, on July 28th.
