The captain of the United States men’s national soccer team, Tim Ream, expressed the team’s feelings of “shock” after their disappointing exit from the 2026 World Cup, which came at the hands of Belgium.
The U.S. entered the round-of-16 clash filled with optimism, buoyed by standout performances in the group stage and a notable victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina in the previous round, despite the challenge of playing with 10 men for over half an hour after their top scorer, Folarin Balogun, received a red card.
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However, their hopes were dashed when Belgium handed them a crushing 4-1 defeat, marked by several U.S. errors. This elimination marked the fourth time in the last five World Cups that the U.S. has been knocked out at this stage, with the only exception being their failure to qualify in 2018.
“It’s disbelief,” Ream told ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” on Thursday, reflecting on the atmosphere in the locker room after the match. “It’s challenging to comprehend what just happened, as it was the complete opposite of how we’d been playing before.”
“The overall feeling in the room was one of shock, trying to understand what led to such a poor performance.”
The team has faced significant criticism after their exit, particularly towards star forward Christian Pulisic.
The AC Milan player had to leave the field in the 59th minute due to a right ankle injury and watched helplessly from the sidelines as the U.S. fell apart. This injury marked Pulisic’s second of the tournament; after a lively first half against Paraguay, he had already been grappling with a calf injury that saw him miss parts of three games. He concluded the World Cup without scoring a goal and recorded just one assist.
Ream emphasized that the whole team performed below expectations that night.
“While Christian’s performance comes to mind, I think nobody really had their best game,” he stated. “It felt like everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and it’s disappointing because we worked so hard to get to this point.”
The U.S. began their World Cup journey on home soil with victories over Paraguay and Australia, marking the first time since 1930 that the American men have achieved back-to-back World Cup wins. Despite the ultimate letdown, Ream believes the team made a positive impact on the growth of soccer in the U.S.
“One of the conversations we had as a group was about how we can inspire more people to love this game,” Ream shared. “How can we engage them to develop a passion for the sport, support this team, and make soccer even more popular? What do we need to do as players to achieve that?”
“We recognize that we need to deliver strong performances and secure victories. Throughout the tournament, we felt the enthusiasm grow. From that perspective, we take pride in the performances and the victories we achieved.”