Timothy Weah had been waiting for his opportunity to start for Ligue 1 side Lille and the U.S. Men’s National Team forward delivered on Thursday in the club’s Europa League group stage finale.
Weah played 78 minutes for Lille against his former club Celtic, scoring his first goal of the season in a 3-2 defeat. It was a strong performance from Weah who gave Christophe Galtier something to consider heading into a Ligue 1 clash with Bordeaux on Sunday.
After the two teams combined for three goals in the first half, Weah made the most of his first and only effort on goal. The 20-year-old volleyed home with his left foot inside of the Celtic box after a failed clearance from the hosts off a free kick.
Tim Weah scores his first goal for Lille. The @USMNT forward scores against his former team. pic.twitter.com/TznTIU3jQ0
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) December 10, 2020
It was Weah’s first goal for the club since arriving from Paris Saint-Germain in the Summer of 2019.
David Turnbull would score the winning goal for Celtic in the 75th minute, giving the hosts a home win despite already being eliminated from the competition. With Lille losing in Glasgow, the club finishing second in its group behind AC Milan by two points.
Weah was strong in possession for Lille, drawing three fouls, delivering three successful tackles, and also making five recoveries from his left wing positions. Despite making the most of his first start of the season, the forward was disappointed to come up on the losing end of the scoreline.
“We came here to win and finish first in the group,” Weah said post match. “Unfortunately that was not the case and we did not manage to do a better result than Milan in Prague. We are still qualified and despite the defeat, we are still very proud of our start to the season, whether in the league or in the Europa League.”
“We must forget this result and refocus on the next match against Bordeaux, Sunday, as well as the race to the top of the table. Personally, I’m glad I scored, but I’m not happy with it. I have to score more goals, go through more games.”
Lille hosts Bordeaux in Ligue 1 play on Sunday before finding out its opponent for the Europa League Round of 32, which is slated to take place in February.
I could be wrong, but his celebration reminded me a lot of john brooks(I think) goal in the world cup where he became overwhelmed with emotion for moment, which I think might be the case due to the fact that it was his first in more than a year. Imagine scoring goals at the highest level as your primary job and you have been unsuccessful at it since you joined so long ago. The relief must have been nearly overwhelming.
So long ago, after injuries and this being against his old loan team? Its called respect.
Well, I for one liked his response to his goal. The initial reaction was exuberance — at scoring, getting off the mark, and breaking a long duck of injury and recovery — immediately tempered by backing off and not wishing to rub it in against a club that still holds meaning to him. It shows he’s a passionate kid with some class. No issues here.
First off there’s a huge difference between Rossi and Weah in these situations. Huge. I do not understand how celebrating a big and in this case very nice goal is in any way disrespectful. This is a strange soccer related “look at how respectful I am” thing. I can’t think of a similar example in mainstream American sports.
I don’t know that I agree with it either I’m just saying it’s one of those unwritten rules that occur in sports. I’ve said for awhile it’s time for people to let it go with Rossi. I’m guessing LeBron poses a lot less when he plays the cavaliers. Different I know because he’s from Akron
I can agree that the “making a show of muting your celebrations” thing is definitely cringe and increasingly overdone, but this didn’t seem that bad to me. If anything, Tim looked like a guy who had a lot going on in his head (as one would expect after his extended injury and playing drought) and just wanted to stay cool.
Not a big fan of the Lille team so far…everyone just seemed to be a bit selfish, which is what I have noticed the other times I’ve watched them play…many of the goals scored this season have come from 3-4 of the same people and they seemed to be hell bent on being the hero and getting a goal…Weah didn’t touch the ball too much because he was interested in doing 1-2 touch passing but his teammates were not sharing the same thinking..
Glad he got a goal in the game because he has only been getting mop up time…hopefully he can get more run outs…maybe his teammates can begin to embrace team build up mentality….
I really hate the “I’m not celebrating” goal celebration
I think the Celtic fan base was pretty supportive of Tim and were upset when they didn’t keep him. Not celebrating was being respectful to them. Look how Rossi is vilified ten years later for celebrating his goal against US.
Ahhh that is a great point. I think you nailed it. His best season so far was with Celtic too