Weah sparks a goal-fest; Pulisic is Captain Maga: five things we learned from USMNT

Weah provides a goal celebration

Tim Weah is a big reason why Mauricio Pochettino is the USMNT head coach. The winger’s red card in the 18th minute for punching Panama defender Roderick Miller in the Copa América in June may have cost Gregg Berhalter his job.

After Weah’s dismissal, Folarin Balogun merely gave the US the lead, allowing the 10 men to concede twice in what turned out to be a crucial defeat that went down for Berhalter, who watched from the stands in St. Louis on Monday as Weah put in a stellar attacking performance of Pochettino’s team.

The US defeated Jamaica 4-2 on the night (5-2 on aggregate) to advance to the Concacaf Nations League semi-finals in Los Angeles next March, adding another useful competitive fixture for the new manager as he strives to harden the fight. team ahead of the 2026 World Cup. The win also ensured the US qualified for the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup.

Weah’s senseless and uncharacteristic mistake last summer was a highly visible emblem of the creeping dysfunction under Berhalter: losing discipline, cohesion and creativity at several points in several matches, implying that the project had lost its forward momentum. The Copa group stage exit provided tangible evidence.

However, positivity flowed on Monday as the US put together some inspired attacking combinations, with Weah, Weston McKennie, Yunus Musah and Antonee Robinson pushing into dangerous areas and providing the kind of verve and ingenuity that was in short supply without the often wounded. playmaker, Gio Reyna.

Weah started on the left and set the tone by hitting a shot off the post in the fourth minute and tapping home the fourth goal in the second half. In between, Christian Pulisic scored from a perfectly weighted cross from McKennie and forced a second when his shot found the net in what looked like an own-goal. Just like in the first leg last Thursday, Ricardo Pepi provided a precise, angled finish. It was Weah’s first international appearance since his red card five months ago and it was clear he was determined to make up for lost time.

“It was a great achievement,” Pulisic told TNT. “We should definitely feel good after these results. Of course we learn a lot of new things, but with the new coach a number of things have changed. And I think today it fits well and hopefully we can just keep improving.

Extra-legal benefits for Pochettino

A year after Chelsea won a 4-4 Premier League draw against Manchester City at Stamford Bridge, a stunning match voted best of the Premier League season, this was another four-goal goal for Pochettino, even if the opponents were far less gifted and the setting was not as impressive: the second leg of a Nations League quarter-final in a small stadium with more than a few empty chairs.

The 52-year-old’s first victory as international boss was last Thursday’s 1-0 victory in Kingston, an unconstructive and very Concacaf evening on a pitch so heavy and bumpy it deserved to be crossed by quad. Two months into his role, Pochettino has won three of his first four games, with the only defeat coming in Mexico last month when a side was missing key players through injury.

This was by far the best performance of the four, although Pochettino has yet to coach Reyna, Tyler Adams, Sergino Dest and Balogun and won’t see them in a competitive American match until March at the earliest, when the Americans will look to win. the Nations League for the fourth time in a row. The absences have at least allowed him to get a good idea of ​​fringe players like 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 about the future. 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 with a contribution of 50 goals or assists and the first to do a goal celebration that copies the dancing of a convicted felon and convicted rapist.

Yes, it’s a crazy dance. But much of the US is not in the mood for joking 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. Nevertheless, after scoring, the American talismanic striker decided to take part in a craze that swept the NFL and the UFC, popularized by a Trumpy San Francisco 49ers player who apparently didn’t get the memo on how athletes should do it stick to sports.

After McKennie and Pepi briefly joined in by imitating Trump’s dance style, Pulisic was congratulated on his goal by Yunus Musah (born in New York to Ghanaian parents, a beneficiary of birthright, a constitutional right that Trump wants to end) . “It’s not a political dance. It was just for fun,” said Pulisic The Athletics. “I saw some people do it and I thought it was funny, so I enjoyed it,” he added: a position that is either disingenuous or exceptionally naive.

Regardless of intent, the country’s best and most famous player is now one right-wing media hero praised for owning the libs. This was the face of American soccer, however cheerful, that volunteered its service in the culture wars and seemed to position itself at the opposite end of the political spectrum to many fans and the USWNT, whose advocacy has drawn Trump’s ire.

All in all, a lame move from the Hershey-born 26-year-old, who proves that Pennsylvania is a swing state, but not a swing state. It would have been nice to enjoy an evening free from divisive politics and simply appreciate an excellent performance under an exciting new coach whose salary funded by (checks notes)…a billionaire recently did donated $100 million for Republican causes.

Age is nothing but a number

Tim Ream is so old-fashioned that a cosmetics company 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 squad, essentially thrown out by Berhalter due to injuries during the qualifying campaign to create an opening. Ream is now a linchpin in the defense, even now that he is in his late 30s and has swapped Fulham for Charlotte.

It’s a remarkable story of endurance and skill, but will he really be a starting center in 2026? And if not, why doesn’t Pochettino test alternatives, given the limited time he has before the tournament? The match was won before halftime on Monday, but Jamaica cracked the American backline a few more times 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 as Mark McKenzie is unconvincing against Jamaica.

Pochettino believes in equality

As a newcomer to American football, he may have gone the extra mile to be polite. Still, it was notable that Pochettino, who spent his entire coaching career in Europe before taking charge of the US, spoke about MLS on Sunday and said participation in the league was not a barrier to selection. “For me, they get the same opportunity when I play in the MLS [as] when they played in the Premier League or in La Liga or in Belgium, in France,” he says told reporters.

Ten years ago, Jurgen Klinsmann’s outspoken statements about the inferiority of the MLS compared to Europe caused a war of words with the league’s commissioner, Don Garber. He took umbrage with Klinsmann’s dim view of the MLS returns of Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley: High-profile PR coups made slightly less coup-like by comments from the then national team head coach that used the dirtiest two words in the MLS lexicon evoked: r*ti*em*nt le*g*e.

Klinsmann argued that it is more difficult 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 certainly preferable to sitting on the bench in Europe – as goalkeeper Matt Turner may soon conclude. Not overextended in St. Louis, he saved a penalty against Jamaica last week. But he has made just 17 league starts since moving to England from MLS in 2022.

“After [getting] to know the MLS, it is not easy to play here, it is very physical,” Pochettino said. The MLS has grown tremendously in size over the past decade, but the addition of eleven clubs since 2015 (with another on the way in 2025) has left the talent spread more thinly.

The competition can revive a stalled or fading career, but solid lifers like Jesús Ferreira, Aaron Long and Walker Zimmerman looked outmatched at the international level against sharper opponents outside of Concacaf. It’s not about the lack of physical properties; the point is that you don’t have the knowledge that comes from working with the best in the world every day. As a coach, Berhalter did not have that experience either; at least Pochettino does.

Praising MLS is also pragmatic for Pochettino as the next training camp, for a friendly against Venezuela in Florida on January 18 and a new match to be announced, will include MLS players, while the Europe-based majority at their clubs remains. There is no point in discouraging those present.

And there’s a good chance that a significant minority of the 2026 World Cup squad will come from MLS: two years ago, the 26-man Qatar squad Berhalter mentioned included nine such names. Pochettino has already picked players from Scotland and the English second tier – a sign of the limited depth in the talent pool. Regardless of the caliber of MLS, he’s going to need it.