Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – United States captain Tim Ream told AFP an “intense” training camp was vital to his team’s dream World Cup start, as a 4-1 thrashing of Paraguay turbo-charged the co-hosts’ hopes of unlikely glory. The US squad has spent three weeks with coach Mauricio Pochettino since assembling for pre-tournament friendlies. Preparation racheted up several gears last weekend as they arrived at their California base camp.
Carrying the high expectations and intense scrutiny of being joint hosts — along with Mexico and Canada — the US players and staff struck a relaxed pose in front of media through the build-up. But Ream admitted tensions had run higher behind the scenes, insisting that same passion proved essential as they ran rings around Paraguay Friday night. “We’ve been together for almost three weeks, and training has been intense — there’s been some tense moments, amongst ourselves,” Ream said. “That’s just a sign of guys who are ready to go, ready to get after it, and we showed that today from the very beginning” of the Paraguay win, he said.
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Ream did not specify the nature of those fractious “moments,” but said by the time his team took to the field in front of 70,000 fans, “I didn’t have to say too much today — we’ll leave it at that.” The emphatic scoreline puts the US in a strong position to progress from Group D, with games against Australia on Friday and Turkey the following week still to come. In his post-game press conference, Pochettino emphasized the importance of having his full 26-man roster together for an extended period of training. It is a luxury he has not often been afforded since taking the job nearly two years ago.
“We were desperate one year ago to work with the whole team, and we didn’t have the possibility,” said Pochettino. “Because we know very well that if you have the possibility to work three, four weeks with a whole group that you believe can arrive to the World Cup, these type of things can happen, no?” Since Pochettino took the national team role in 2024, players have had to juggle club commitments, and recover from injuries, while several key players, including Christian Pulisic, chose to rest during last summer’s Gold Cup. “They need to know us, we need to know them, to understand what we expect from them. When you only have a few days to reunite and to play, you only select players, but you cannot coach players,” said Pochettino.
The victory was watched by 16 million people on Fox — a record for a US soccer match on English-language TV. It has triggered a spike in ticket prices for upcoming US games and had some fans and pundits wondering if their team could win the whole thing. While not going quite that far in his post-game statements, midfielder Weston McKennie said his team have no intention of letting that intensity fade. “This is something that we don’t want to over-celebrate. Because we want this to be the normal for us, and the normal expectation that we have for ourselves,” he said. Ream added: “It’s easy to do it one game; you then have to back that up with another game. And then another game.”
© 2024 AFP
