Tim Weah will miss the U.S. men’s national team’s first match back in CONCACAF Nations League play.
Weah’s two-match suspension from the Copa America will carry over into the 2024-25 Nations League schedule, U.S. Soccer announced Tuesday. The 24-year-old served the first match of that suspension in Monday’s 1-0 group stage finale loss to Uruguay.
He will now miss the first leg of the USMNT’s eventual Nations League quarterfinal tie this November. The USMNT earned an automatic berth in the quarterfinal round after winning the 2023-24 edition earlier this March.
Weah was sent off in the USMNT’s 2-1 loss to Panama last Thursday after punching Panama’s Roderick Miller in the head in the 18th minute. The Juventus winger/wing back was originally suspended one match for his actions, but CONMEBOL upgraded his suspension and fined U.S. Soccer $3,500.
He will be available for selection when the USMNT faces Canada and New Zealand in friendly play this September. In addition, the USMNT have already scheduled a home friendly vs. Panama on October 12 in Austin, Texas.
The USMNT suffered a disappointing elimination on Monday night in Kansas City, one that could lead to head coach Gregg Berhalter being fired from his position.
I’m fine with Weah never wearing the crest again. Because of his impulse control problem he made 2 years of USSoccer preparation for a big home soil tournament all meaning less.
I don’t care how talented he is. No evcuses. Good-bye.
Sad that this Hemisphere is subject to piss poor officiating and teams that play overly physical futbol. I should rephrase to overly dirty futbol for more than half the teams. Yes Weah needs to show restraint but how much should you take before breaking point. It’s not OK to constantly be subjected to bush league football. The US plays a brand of soccer that is physical, but I wouldn’t say dirty. It’s more suited to what you see in Europe. In fact the only time we see wide open games might be Mexico, who we farewell against I wonder why? Cats out of the bag the way, the slow down is constantly fathom be overly physical and aggressive that all the teams will do it. Even Uruguay was hacking until they luckily received a gift offside goal. Only saw the first 75 minutes realize the US was going tow ro tow with them. Greg or whoever this coach of this team needs to reset some mentality regarding physicalness I wouldn’t say be dirty but I would absolutely ask my team to be more aggressive and physical. Not talking cheap shots. I’m just saying any chance you get the bump someone hip checked them Elbows below shoulder to ribs and there just make sure side judge are focused elsewhere send message we’re not gonna deal with this shit anymore until we do so teams are gonna continuously hack us. It sucks that’s not what football should be but that’s what this hemispheres all about.
my response would be that, setting aside we don’t seem suited to tiki taka nor are we the second coming of spain 2010, that spain 2010 prospered in a particular refereeing era. memory serves 2006 and 2010 they were handing out cards — much less kicks — for breathing on someone funny. this culiminated in a holland vs. portugal game with 4 reds and 16 yellows. do our games in any hemisphere look like that as a matter of reffing and discipline? no. not even with europe. now, to be fair, we are not yet to the full pendulum swing point of “no blood no card” which i experienced in international youth tournaments.
anyways, setting aside teams long ago thought up plentiful cheat codes to beat our 15 year old tactics, having the pendulum swing over to softer reffing makes it easier to break up possession offensive concepts.
on defense, we don’t play a good formation for defense, the original GB teams were way too soft, and the reds we now get suggest GB failed to find the happy medium. like he is now whipping them into a frenzy but hasn’t taught them how to play like an italy or uruguay that understands how to slide tackle and be physical without heaping cards, and basically grasps where the limits are.
all due respect to theories that europe is different but have you watched teams like italy? at a point of complaining about how a ton of teams play you feel like GB’s passive defenses c. 2019. the world is what it is. if you and your team concept aren’t prepared for that world, you haven’t selected tactics for the world as it is. this was one of my beefs with the whole snob response to 2010, is when i grew up soft teams got their tails kicked, did not finish first, and if you’re trying to out-skill everyone you better be spain 2010. that we had wandered off into wish-land and departed from what our roster has skillsets to do, or from tactics for the teams that show up to play us.
we had 1-2 teams this summer that would let us play our way. one is eliminated and winless (bolivia). the other we tied and they finished second in their group (brazil). everyone else whooped us. physically and at soccer. your tactics need to adjust to that world.
if the world adjusts in a card happy direction we can reconsider playing cute passing soccer again. as it stands it’s been proven wrong for this era if not for the personnel we have.
if i wanted to get particularly pointed, i have heard interesting arguments where our 2009 defeat of spain — the USA’s — laid out a template that others could use. we then imitate the team we beat. having already helped teach teams how to beat those type teams.
does this seem wise?
to me the fundamental issue is US tactics seem selected in the abstract and not to suit the roster or because we sat down, looked at the opposition, and thought up a chess response that helps beat those opponents.
the normal use of formation and tactics is to frustrate opponents and win soccer games — and not prove some theoretical or aesthetic point. if you feel frustrated butting up against how other teams actually play, you haven’t designed tactics to actually contend with other soccer teams.
Not going to lie I could care less about the Nations league. Whats the point of having it every year? Here’s to hoping some bigger nations get invited to the Gold Cup in 2025.
Nations league should expand to include top 4 conmebol teams then it would be more significant. The America’s Nations League.
Then you could have QF’s, semis, and final.
this sounds cute but as long as the rest of the world is in WCQ or afcon stuff or their own NL so what. i don’t even understand why we have bailed on NL group rounds seeing as unless we are willing to get creative and play random foreign teams we will end up playing regional foes anyway.
i mean, schedule the first 2 windows is CAN PAN NZ. two of those 3 would be potential NL opponents anyway. at that point, so what, is what it is.
personally i think the more useful NL critique is we don’t tend to dominate NL groups, it exposes road game weakness, but we don’t learn a darned thing as long as we advance. just like we seem eager to not learn a darned thing from getting drummed out of copa.
I just want to know what the Panama guy said to Weah to get punched.
Does it matter? You can rationalize it all you want but he let his team down, his coaches, his country, and all his fans. It is up to Weah to move on and become a better player and teammate
good read