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U.S. men’s national team captain Tim Ream has accumulated more than 80 caps at the international level. Yet at age 38, he’s helping to maximize a new challenge.
An up-tempo, high-press system.
“This style,” Ream said while appearing on FOX Sports’ “The Herd” on Tuesday, “it’s fun to play. It’s enjoyable, but it’s harder than any style or system that I’ve ever played. But when it works, when you see what Friday brought, it is so enjoyable to be a part of.”
USA’s 4-1 victory against Paraguay on Friday at Los Angeles Stadium was a result of a high-risk, high-reward system paying off. And paying off because of a wild card that the U.S. has struggled to find, in consistency. A creative and clinical striker, Folarin Balogun.
“Flo is a natural striker,” Ream said. “He’s one of those guys that — you saw it on the second goal — loves getting in, and darting behind defenders and getting the ball in front of him and being able to take guys on. But he’s also out of this dimension of being able to hold the ball up and bring other players in. And now you find this connection.”
Before the 2026 FIFA World Cup started, Ream emphasized that Balogun put in the effort to make a connection with the midfielders behind him — Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Malik Tillman and others.
“It’s a lot of things that are done not in front of the camera that people don’t see,” Ream explained. “Conversations and extra touches, extra drills.”
That time together, away from the heat of competition leads to slotting away the chances that present themselves, and — even more crucially to this system — it leads to trust. Each attacker is assured their teammate will press if they lose the ball, giving them the confidence to take risks and make mistakes.
Balogun found himself on the receiving end of that collective courage, as he scored two goals on Friday off his own skill but also sublime setups from teammates. The first was a low cross from Pulisic that landed right at Balogun’s foot for a one-time finish. The second was a through ball from Tillman that reached Balogun in stride, giving him the momentum to skirt around defenders and create the angle for a shot.
Finishing those chances awarded the aggression the U.S. put forth to winning the ball back in the final third after just losing it there.
“We will be attacking and we will lose the ball. Yeah, that’s a given,” Ream said. “But being in the right place before things happen is how you mitigate the negatives of playing that way.”
Aside from Balogun, Ream is crucial to USA’s system because he is the eyes at the back, and an extension of manager Mauricio Pochettino on the field. His job has been made easier because of Balogun’s talent, plus team-wide trust.
“I don’t really think about being on an island,” Ream said. “Sometimes I just think of, ‘OK, where do I have to be, and where do I have to put guys in order to make sure that we’re in a solid position to not have any crazy counter-attacks?'”
The bedrock of that trust, in Ream’s opinion, is the manager, Pochettino. Because he cares for and empowers his players, they play for him in this high-intensity system.
“Once you get to know him and his staff, it’s very easy. They’re very charismatic,” Ream said. “They’re very caring about the players. They have an interesting focus about them when we’re on the field, but this idea that they want to connect with the players individually and then that translates into the players connecting off the field in a larger group, in a bigger collective.”
The U.S. is coming off an ultimate high — a performance Ream dubbed “one of, if not the best performances the guys have put in over my many years.”
Part of that is because, in all Ream’s years, he hasn’t seen such a unique system flowing in synchronicity. He’s confident the U.S. has the pieces, starting with Balogun at the top, down through Ream and Pochettino, to keep the system working on Thursday against Australia, and throughout the World Cup.
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