Tim Weah scored his first goal in more than six weeks on Wednesday, helping Ligue 1 leaders Lille to a 3-0 victory over Bordeaux.
The U.S. Men’s National Team forward made his first start in more than three weeks and made the most of it, finishing off a lightning-fast counterattack to score his first goal of 2021 and help secure Lille’s fifth straight win.
🇺🇸 TIMOTHY WEAH gets the final touch as @LOSC_EN break loose to go up 2-0 over @girondins_en #FCGBLOSC
📺 – beIN SPORTS
💻📱 – beIN SPORTS CONNECT pic.twitter.com/AtPVtB0fEs— beIN SPORTS USA (@beINSPORTSUSA) February 3, 2021
The new year had seen Weah struggling for consistent playing time after having finished 2020 with a good run of form. He scored three goals in five matches in December to close out the year, but had managed just one start in five matches in the new year before he was handed a starting nod on Wednesday.
The 20-year-old has made a successful return to regular action after missing a year with a pair of major hamstring injuries. He returned to a difficult battle for playing time on an improved Lille side that is a putting together a strong challenge to Paris Saint-Germain’s perennial hold on the Ligue 1 title.
Weah has yet to appear with the USMNT since Gregg Berhalter took charge in 2019, having suffered the first of his hamstring injuries just before he was set to take part in his first camp under Berhalter. With his current level, the former PSG forward should be a leading candidate to take part in the USMNT’s March friendlies, which are expected to take place in Europe and feature European-based players.
With the recent lone moves, the March friendlies should be close to what is possibly our strongest 23. The only missing players would be a keeper or two and Long at CB, and Lletget as a CM.
Looking forward to seeing what choices Gregg makes, and hope that he’ll choose Weah over Arriola (but wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t).
If you look at wingers from November: Weah, Llanez, Konrad, Ledezma and Reyna. Ledezma is out but Pulisic takes that spot, then Llanez and Konrad are not getting regular first team minutes so they might be able to be released for Olympic Qualifying. That provides spots for Morris and Arriola. Sorry to Haji and Sabbi. Of course since Tuchel played Christian as a false 9 last weekend maybe that opens another slot. If Musah doesn’t show then Reyna could be tried in midfield as well opening a slot. I think Arriola would be a good overage player if we qualify for Tokyo, experienced can play multiple positions on both sides of the field. Although given our young talent and the lack of a U20 tourney we may not use our overage spots.
Johnnyrazor – I don’t have a lot of faith in Gregg’s player evaluations. Covid basically forced him to have 2 totally separate squads (MLS & Euro), so he had to test/try more players.
Agree that the situations with Uli, Ledezma, and even Konrad would/should rule them out of consideration for the March friendlies…and with the Olympic Qualifying operating within the same window some players (Otasowie, Cardoso, etc…) my be released for the Olympic team instead of the Sr. Friendlies.
This combined with the recent exports of MLS players to Europe makes it the 1st time in a long time we’ll actually see what Gregg’s preferred players may be.
If available/healthy Pulisic, Reyna, & Morris are all fairly well inked in for the wide attackers. That leaves Weah & Arriola challenging for the final spot. If Musah doesn’t attend than yes it would open another roster spot, but since it is a Friendly and wouldn’t cap tie him I would expect Musah to be in camp…Unless the English 1st team calls him up.
Berhalter is usually pretty open about what he’s thinking. He mentioned both Green and Johansson specifically last week as guys he still needs to bring in (although with ArJo not playing anywhere currently not sure if March is the time). With the confirmation the Olympics are occurring there are plenty of fixtures to see this expanded roster even if the the U23s fail to qualify there are 3 major competitions.
My favorite Tim Weah story, well, my only Tim Weah story. He’s visiting family in NYC 2 years ago. He’s with PSG, but it’s the off season. He puts it out on social media that he’s looking for a pickup game. A men’s team in a 7-a-side league at Chelsea Piers invites him to play with them – they’re missing a couple of players for that night’s game. Weah shows up, they give him a green t-shirt, and he plays in the game. He’s going at 50% but is still by far the best player on the field, as you’d expect. Mostly setting up his teammates. After the game, he takes pictures and thanks the guys. Worth reading the full account.
It’s still pretty wild that Weah is only 20. It feels like he’s been around for a while. The same is true for Sargent. Pretty awesome.
He played in the November friendlies
Yes, 11 minutes against Wales and 28 versus Panama.