Five months after his costly red card against Panama, Tim Weah is ready to put his Copa América 2024 controversy behind him and start a new chapter with the USMNT under Mauricio Pochettino.
The last time Weah represented the U.S. men's national team, the winger was sent off for striking Panama defender Roderick Miller in the back of the head at Copa América 2024. Weah received a two-game suspension, keeping him off the pitch for the USMNT's next match against Uruguay and the first leg of the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinals against Jamaica.
With his ban officially behind him, Weah is set to play his first minutes for the Stars and Stripes against Jamaica in the second leg of the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinals. It will also mark his first appearance since Pochettino took charge of the USMNT.
When speaking with the media ahead of the USMNT's match against the Reggae Boyz, Weah reflected on the impact of his red card and how he dealt with the fallout.
"It was hard," Weah said. "It played a pretty negative role on how the rest of the tournament went and obviously no player wants that to happen. No player wants to be the reason why his team gets knocked out. Or not exactly the reason, but it played a huge factor in why we didn't go on."
Down to 10 men, the Stars and Stripes could not salvage a result against Panama and went into its final Copa América 2024 group stage match with just three points. Uruguay then defeated the USMNT, knocking the host nation out of the tournament. Gregg Berhalter was fired just nine days later.
"So I mean it was a moment and I think I've kind of accepted it and matured in a way that it just never happened again and we just have to move on," Weah continued. "Having the summer off kind of just [put] a lot of things in perspective and [I] kind of just focused on all the positives, just being there for the rest of the guys and soaking in all the love that I can from family."
After the summer concluded, Weah returned to Juventus. The 24-year-old already scored four goals this Serie A season despite missing significant time with a shoulder injury. The injury also kept him out of Pochettino's first camp back in October.
Fully recovered and back to full strength, Weah is back with the team and ready to contribute to the USMNT's big goals moving forward.
"Leading to Copa, we had this big dream of doing something amazing and it didn't happen and that was just the reality of it," Weah said. "And now we can focus on something else, focus on something bigger, and now it's just time to work on that and be positive and go in that positive direction."
The USMNT is one match away from advancing to the Concacaf Nations League semifinals as it looks to secure its fourth-straight title in the competition. Of course, the bigger dream is to perform well at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
First, the USMNT must get past Jamaica in its final match of the 2024 international calendar.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as USMNT's Tim Weah Ready to Move in a 'Positive Direction' After Copa America Red Card.
