Hercules Gomez, former USMNT player, doesn’t hold back on Tim Ream: “Defensively, he’s a liability”

As one of the three host nations at this summer’s World Cup, expectations are higher than normal for the United States’ men’s team. While nobody realistically believes that Maurico Pochettino’s team are capable of lifting the trophy or even making it to the final, the idea is to at least get past the group stage and from there, go as far as possible.

Saturday’s 2-5 defeat to Belgium exposed a lot of home truths about the USMNT, and showed that the team is evidently not at the level that some had thought. In some ways, the friendly victories against Paraguay and Uruguay at the tail end of last year gave a false sense of security. Belgium, ninth in the FIFA ranking, showed the USMNT where they are at - and Tuesday’s opponents, Portugal (ranked fifth) will prove an even tougher test, as will Germany in the final warm-up.

USMNT self-belief masks deficiencies

Former USMNT player Hercules Gomez, who now works as a pundit for ESPN, gave his thoughts on what the Belgium defeat means for Pochettino and his players: “It tells us that the US men’s national team isn’t quite the US men’s national team that they thought they were - that Maurico Pochettino thought they were. And that’s a good thing," Gomez reasoned. “This is a reality check, a bit of humble pie will do this program good and I think it will help Pochettino figure a few things out.

“Before the pre-game, Maurico Pochettino was going on the local, pre-game telecast talking about, ‘Hey, we should dream - we’re gonna be here in the semifinal, that’s what we want to be’. They felt very good about themselves after the last five games, when they were playing the likes of Ecuador, Paraguay, Australia, Japan... teams that had already qualified for the World Cup. They came to the United States for a friendly fulfillment. They got good results against those teams after abysmal showing at the Gold Cup. Not everything is going well”.

Despite having slightly more possession of the ball (52% to Belgium’s 48%), the USMNT were far less effective in front of goal and looked vulnerable at the back, allowing their opponents 21 attempts - 10 of them on target and half of those entered.

While the team as a whole was at fault, Gomez singled out captain Tim Ream for a special mention. The defence as a whole could not cope with Belgium from the start of the second half and Ream, caught out of position on occasion, inexplicably gifted the third goal, a penalty, after handling the ball in the area.

Ream exposed after the coach makes defensive adjustments

“There are things that Pochettino did in this game that make you scratch your head,” Gomez added. “Why is it that you try to protect Tim Ream with a back line of three and then you go to four here? Tim Ream may not have been directly involved in a goal, but indirectly he was involved in more than a few goals. He’s a player with the ball that is very good for you, but defensively, he’s a liability. And to all of a sudden change to a back line of four when you’ve not had any success with it I thought was a bit of a head scratcher. Mauricio Pochettino will have to explain why he went down that road”.

Ream took the captain’s armband from Christian Pulisic in October 2024 and played all but five of the USMNT’s 19 games last year. At 38, he is the oldest member of Pochettino’s roster and at a point in his career when questions are being raised about what he brings to the team and whether his age is a factor in his performances.

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