Weak soccer team, one short, all but eliminated in US (7)
I believe the answer is:
tenuous
'weak' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'team one short all but eliminated in us' is the wordplay.
'team one short' becomes 'ten' (a football team has eleven players).
'all but' means to remove the last letter ('all but' can mean 'almost' or 'nearly').
'eliminated' becomes 'out' (I've seen this in another clue).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'out' with its final letter taken away is 'ou'.
'ou' put into 'us' is 'uous'.
'ten'+'uous'='TENUOUS'
'soccer' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. It may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tenuous that I've seen before include "Sketchy" , "Very slight, insubstantial" , "Thin - slight" , "Slender - insubstantial" , "Flimsy, thin" .)