‘It sucks’ – Christian Pulisic reacts to reckless ‘mistake’ costing USMNT as Tim Weah red card leaves Copa America quarter-final hopes hanging in the balance

The United States headed into that contest – their second at a Copa America event on home soil – looking to wrap up qualification for the quarter-finals. Having overcoming Bolivia 2-0 in their opener, confidence was high inside Gregg Berhalter’s camp.

Juventus star Weah was, however, to be dismissed inside 16 minutes against Panama in Atlanta – after aiming two reckless jabs in the direction of Roderick Miller – and the U.S. were left with a mountain to climb from there. Folarin Balogun did fire them in front, but an 83rd-minute effort from Jose Fajardo condemned them to a 2-1 defeat.

Captain Pulisic told reporters afterwards of seeing the USMNT shoot themselves in the foot: “Timmy knows the mistake he made. That's it. He's going to learn from it. It sucks. It's not the way you want to put your team in that position. It hurts. Just the minimum, it's a lapse of judgment. It's just one simple second, you respond to something.”

The United States can still make it into the last eight, but will need to take something from a meeting with Uruguay in their final Group C fixture to stand any chance of reaching the knockout stages. Pulisic added on the challenges being faced from here: “We have to go and we have to represent our country with passion and we have to go and play the best game of our lives and that's it. We want to go, and we want to win. We want to continue this competition.”

Berhalter’s side will be heading to Missouri and Arrowhead Stadium – the home of the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs – for their clash with Uruguay. Weah will be serving a ban for that contest and La Celeste are in fine form, with eight goals recorded through back-to-back wins over Panama and Bolivia.