Weah sparks a goal-fest
Tim Weah is a big reason why Mauricio Pochettino is the USMNT head coach - the winger’s 18th-minute red card for punching Panama defender Roderick Miller in the Copa América in June arguably cost Gregg Berhalter his job.
After Weah’s dismissal Folarin Balogun gave the US the lead only for the ten men to concede twice in what proved a pivotal loss that doomed Berhalter, who was watching from the stands in St Louis on Monday as Weah catalyzed a terrific attacking performance by Pochettino’s team.
The US beat Jamaica 4-2 on the night (5-2 on aggregate) to progress to the Concacaf Nations League semi-finals in Los Angeles next March, adding another useful competitive fixture for the new manager as he looks to battle-harden the team ahead of the 2026 World Cup. Victory also ensured the US qualified for the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup.
Weah’s senseless and uncharacteristic foul last summer was a very visible emblem of the creeping dysfunction under Berhalter: losses of discipline, cohesion and creativity at various points in various matches that implied the project had lost its forward momentum. The Copa group stage exit provided tangible evidence.
On Monday, though, positivity flowed as the US compiled some inspired attacking combinations, with Weah, Weston McKennie, Yunus Musah and Antonee Robinson advancing into dangerous areas and providing the sort of verve and invention that has been in short supply without the oft-injured playmaker, Gio Reyna.
Starting on the left, Weah set the tone by crashing a shot off the post in the fourth minute and thumped in the fourth goal in the second half. In-between, Christian Pulisic scored from a perfectly-weighted McKennie cross and forced a second when his shot was deflected into the net for what looked like an own-goal. As in the first leg last Thursday, Ricardo Pepi contributed a precise angled finish. It was Weah’s first international appearance since his red card five months ago and obvious that he was determined to make up for lost time.
“It was an amazing performance,” Pulisic told TNT. “We should definitely feel good after these results. We’re learning a lot of new things, obviously, with the new coach some things have changed. And I think it connected well today and hopefully we can just continue to improve.”
Fringe benefits for Pochettino
A year after managing Chelsea to a 4-4 Premier League draw with Manchester City at Stamford Bridge, a stunning game voted the best of the Premier League season, this was another four-goal haul for Pochettino, even if the opponents were much less gifted and the setting wasn’t quite as impressive: the second leg of a Nations League quarter-final in a small stadium with more than a few empty seats.
The 52-year-old’s first competitive win as an international boss came in last Thursday’s 1-0 victory in Kingston, an unedifying and very Concacaf night on a field so heavy and bumpy it deserved to be traversed by quad bike. Two months into the role, Pochettino has won three of his first four games, the sole defeat coming away to Mexico last month with a squad missing key members through injury.
This was easily the best display of the four, though Pochettino is yet to coach Reyna, Tyler Adams, Sergino Dest and Balogun and he won’t see them in a competitive US game until March at the earliest, when the Americans will seek to win the Nations League for the fourth time in succession. At least the absences have enabled him to get a good look at fringe players such as Tanner Tessmann, who was reliable, and Pepi, whose well-taken goals were his first for his country since October last year, giving Pochettino food for thought as to who will be his central striker when Balogun is fit again.
Captain America is Captain Maga
It was a history-making night for Pulisic, who became the fastest player in USMNT history to contribute 50 goals or assists and the first to do a goal celebration that copies the dancing of a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist.
Yes, it’s a silly dance. But much of the US is not in the mood for jocular references to Donald Trump’s return to the White House – the segments of the population that value democracy, civil rights, science and facts, for example. All the same, after scoring, America’s talismanic forward decided to participate in a craze afflicting the NFL and UFC popularized by a Trumpy San Francisco 49ers player who apparently did not get the memo about how athletes should stick to sports.
After McKennie and Pepi briefly joined in with mimicking Trump’s dancing style, Pulisic was congratulated for his goal by Yunus Musah (born in New York to Ghanaian parents, a beneficiary of birthright citizenship, a constitutional right Trump wants to end). “It’s not a political dance. It was just for fun,” Pulisic said, according to The Athletic. “I saw a bunch of people do it and I thought it was funny, so I enjoyed it,” he added: a stance that is either disingenuous or exceptionally naive.
Regardless of intent, the nation’s best and most famous player is now a right-wing media hero hailed for owning the libs. This was the face of American soccer, however blithely, volunteering for duty in the culture wars and appearing to position himself at the opposite end of the political spectrum to many fans and the USWNT, whose advocacy has attracted Trump’s wrath.
All in all, a gauche move from the Hershey-born 26-year-old, proving that Pennsylvania is a swing state but not a swinging one. It would have been nice to enjoy a night off from divisive politics and simply appreciate an excellent performance under an exciting new coach whose salary is funded by (checks notes)… a billionaire who has recently donated $100m to Republican causes.
Age is nothing but a number
Tim Ream is so age-defying that a cosmetics firm should sign him to be the face of their next advertising campaign. But he is 37 and has captained all four of Pochettino’s games. A surprise selection for the 2022 World Cup roster, having been essentially discarded by Berhalter during the qualifying campaign only for injuries to create an opening, Ream is now a linchpin of the defense even as he enters his late thirties and has swapped Fulham for Charlotte.
It’s a remarkable tale of endurance and ability, but is he really going to be a starting center back in 2026? And if not, why isn’t Pochettino testing out alternatives given the limited time he has before the tournament? The game was won by half time on Monday but Jamaica still made the US back line creak on a couple of occasions and sloppy defending contributed to their two goals. Center back is the team’s most problematic position. Even if Ream continues to mature like Missouri’s answer to Thiago Silva, it’s not clear who his partner should be, with Mark McKenzie unconvincing against Jamaica.
Pochettino believes in equality
As a new arrival in American soccer, perhaps he was making an extra effort to be polite. Still, it was noteworthy that Pochettino, who spent his entire coaching career in Europe before taking charge of the US, talked up MLS on Sunday, saying that being part of the league was no barrier to selection. “For me they’re going to have the same possibility playing in MLS [as] if they played in the Premier League or in La Liga or in Belgium, in France,” he told reporters.
A decade ago, Jurgen Klinsmann’s plain-speaking on MLS’ inferiority to Europe ignited a war of words with the league’s commissioner, Don Garber. He took offence at Klinsmann’s dim view of the MLS returns of Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley: high-profile PR coups made slightly less coup-y by comments from the then-national team head coach that evoked the dirtiest two words in the MLS lexicon: r*ti*em*nt le*g*e.
Klinsmann argued it is harder for top players to maintain high standards in a lower-level competition. But playing regularly against weaker opponents can boost confidence and form and is surely preferable to sitting on the bench in Europe - as goalkeeper Matt Turner may conclude before long. Not overtaxed in St Louis, he saved a penalty against Jamaica last week. But he’s made only 17 league starts since moving from MLS to England in 2022.
“After [getting] to know the MLS, it is not easy to play here, it’s very physical,” Pochettino said. MLS has expanded greatly in size in the past decade but the addition of eleven clubs since 2015 (with another coming in 2025) has spread the talent more thinly.
The league might revive a stalled or fading career but solid lifers such as Jesús Ferreira, Aaron Long and Walker Zimmerman have looked overmatched at international level against sharper opponents outside Concacaf. It’s not about lacking physical attributes; it’s about not possessing the know-how that comes from working every day with the world’s best. As a coach, Berhalter didn’t have that experience either; at least Pochettino does.
Lauding MLS is also pragmatic for Pochettino given that the next training camp, for a friendly against Venezuela in Florida on 18 January and another match to be announced, will comprise MLS players while the European-based majority remain with their clubs. No sense discouraging the attendees.
And the chances are that a significant minority of the 2026 World Cup squad will be drawn from MLS: two years ago, the 26-man Qatar roster named by Berhalter contained nine such names. Pochettino’s already picked players based in Scotland and the English second tier: a sign of the limited depth in the talent pool. Regardless of the caliber of MLS, he’ll need it.
