Tim Ream says USMNT felt ‘shock’ after Belgium World Cup blowout
The U.S. captain told ESPN the locker room struggled to process a 4-1 loss to Belgium after a promising run on home soil.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
Tim Ream said the United States locker room was left trying to make sense of a brutal 4-1 World Cup exit against Belgium, telling ESPN that the mood after the round-of-16 defeat was one of “shock.”
The U.S. men’s national team captain appeared Thursday on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” and said the performance felt out of step with the team’s earlier tournament form.
“It’s disbelief,” Ream said, describing the reaction after the match. “It’s trying to put together and understand what had just gone on because it was polar opposite of the way we had played up to that point.”
Ream added that the players were “trying to understand where and why we had the game that we did.”
A promising run ends hard
The loss to Belgium ended a World Cup run that had built momentum for Mauricio Pochettino’s team. According to ESPN, the Americans had impressed in the group stage before beating Bosnia-Herzegovina in the round of 32.
That Bosnia-Herzegovina win came despite the U.S. playing more than 30 minutes with 10 men after striker Folarin Balogun, the team’s leading scorer, was sent off.
The Belgium match was a sharp turn. ESPN described the U.S. defeat as marked by mistakes, and Ream said the whole team fell short of the level it had shown earlier in the tournament.
“You mentioned Christian there, but I don’t think anybody had their best game by any stretch,” Ream said, referring to Christian Pulisic. “It just seemed like everything that could go wrong was going to go wrong that night, which is a shame because we put so much work in to get to that point.”
Pulisic’s difficult tournament
Pulisic, the AC Milan attacker, drew heavy criticism after the U.S. exit, according to ESPN. He left the Belgium match in the 59th minute with a right ankle injury and watched the collapse from the sideline.
ESPN reported it was Pulisic’s second injury of the tournament. After a lively first half against Paraguay, he dealt with a calf issue that caused him to miss parts of three matches.
Pulisic finished the World Cup without a goal and with one assist, according to ESPN.
Ream still sees something to build on
The U.S. opened the tournament at home with wins over Paraguay and Australia. ESPN reported that it was the first time since 1930 that the American men had won consecutive World Cup matches.
The defeat also continued a familiar pattern. ESPN reported that the U.S. has gone out at this stage in four of the past five World Cups, with 2018 the exception because the team did not qualify.
Ream said the players had also discussed how their play could help draw more fans to soccer in the United States.
“One of the secondary conversations that we were having as a group was how can we inspire and get more people to love this game?” Ream said. He said the team understood that strong performances and wins were part of that push.
Even with the heavy ending, Ream said the group felt proud of the games it won and the support it felt building during the tournament.
This story draws on original reporting from ESPN.