CHICAGO — There was shock, maybe a bit of denial, and obviously all the anger and despair when the U.S. national team sunk to its lowest moment 20 months ago in Trinidad. The Americans would miss the World Cup. The sky was falling.
Defender Tim Ream was there that night in Couva, and he remembers all of that and more—an apprehension of what might or might not be next.
“It just felt like we might not have any direction. We didn’t know where we were going to go,” he said.
More than a year of limbo followed, meandering and then leading to Sunday night here at Soldier Field, where once again the USA suffered a dispiriting defeat.