United States men’s national team defender Tim Ream said that head coach Mauricio Pochettino continues to stress to his players the importance of having a winning mentality.
Ream, 37, is one of 24 players taking part in the annual USMNT January camp, which started last Tuesday and includes matches against Venezuela on Jan. 18 in Ft. Lauderdale, and then Costa Rica in Orlando four days later.
“Even if you’re on a team that is always winning, you still have to have that kind of bite, that mentality because as soon as you start to feel like you’re at a point where you’re doing well, then the rug gets pulled out from underneath you,” Ream told reporters.
Ream added he thinks the emphasis on mentality isn’t because it’s something the team lacks, but more a trait that has to be reinforced.
“I think it’s more of a winning mentality every single day, every single training session, every single pass,” he said. “Everything matters, right? And I think that’s more what [Pochettino’s] desire and his meaning is, is that everything counts. Everything matters every single day from the minute you wake up until you go to sleep. And it’s important to understand that and understand what he wants and that shines and shows through in training sessions … They’re intense.”
Ream had spent the bulk of his career in England before joining up with Charlotte FC in the middle of the last MLS season. As such, this is Ream’s first January camp since 2011 when he was with the New York Red Bulls.
By point of comparison, 19-year-old Benjamin Cremaschi, the other USMNT player on the conference call with Ream, was five years old at that time.
With most USMNT regulars now playing overseas, the value of the January camp has been questioned. But Ream is of the opinion that the usefulness of the camp hasn’t faded over the years.
“There’s still value in a January camp,” he said. “We talk about my first one and it felt like an opportunity to get in front of the national team coach to put on the crest, to put on the training gear and kind of gel with guys that you’re going to potentially be coming through and potentially being involved in more national team camps going forward.
“So there’s definitely value. I mean for me, I think it’s important for these guys to understand what the staff wants from them, not just here, but when they go back to their clubs. And I think this is a perfect opportunity to do that in a little bit of a different setting where there’s not the super intense pressure of the first five days to get all the tactics down and be preparing for a game.”
