U.S. double: McKennie, Weah keep Juve unbeaten

Updated: Oct 30, 2024, 07:47 pm

United States internationals Weston McKennie and Tim Weah salvaged Juventus’ unbeaten start to the season.

The duo scored on Wednesday to help Juventus draw 2-2 at Parma. Enrico Delprato and Simon Sohm had twice given Parma the lead.

Juventus are on 18 points, seven adrift of leaders Napoli, and slipped to fourth as Atalanta moved a point ahead after their 2-0 win over Monza. Parma are 14th on nine points.

It was the second successive game Juventus had to come from behind to salvage a point after a 4-4 draw at Inter Milan on Sunday.

“I think today we conceded too many restarts. At their goal kicks we were trying to bring the defender out to then be able to press and cause an error, but we didn’t succeed,” Juventus head coach Thiago Motta told broadcaster DAZN.

“In the defensive phase we made a lot of mistakes.”

Parma started fast and after working the ball across the pitch from a corner kick, Adrián Bernabé’s cross into the box was nodded back across goal by Botond Balogh and Delprato headed into the roof of the net.

Juventus should have drawn level 10 minutes later after Zion Suzuki saved a header from McKennie, but when the rebound fell to Dusan Vlahovic he somehow sent his shot over the bar.

McKennie, however, made no mistake when his USMNT teammate Weah whipped a ball into the area, steering his header past the dive of Suzuki but Parma were soon back in front as Juventus struggled to deal with the pace of the visitors.

Dennis Man collected a long ball in the area and pulled back the perfect pass for Sohm to drill past Di Gregorio and they held their lead until the break.

Juventus’s unbeaten record was on the line but they pulled level again shortly after the interval. Khephren Thuram powered through from midfield before passing to Francisco Conceição out wide and his cross was volleyed home by Weah from close range.

In the draw at Inter, Kenan Yildiz came off the bench to score the two goals which levelled the match, but the Turkish forward was among the substitutes against Parma, replacing Weah and almost scoring an added-time winner.

“Weah played well at San Siro and again today, scoring,” Motta told Sky Sports.

“Kenan coming on later, with the game more open, is an ideal player to create situations. He has freedom in the final metres, it was normal today to want to open things up against such a closed team.”

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.