United States men’s national team captain Tim Ream said he and his teammates were in “shock” following their poor performance in exiting the 2026 World Cup at the hands of Belgium.

The U.S. was riding a wave of optimism heading into the round-of-16 matchup after eye-catching performances in the group stage and an impressive win over Bosnia-Herzegovina in the round of 32, despite playing with 10 men for more than half an hour after the Americans’ top scorer, Folarin Balogun, was sent off.

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But Mauricio Pochettino’s side came crashing back to earth last week in a 4-1 demolition by Belgium riddled with U.S. miscues. It was the fourth time in the past five World Cups that the Americans exited at this stage; the only exception was in 2018, when they did not qualify.

“It’s disbelief,” Ream told ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” on Thursday of the reaction in the locker room afterward. “It’s trying to put together and understand what had just gone on because it was polar opposite of of the way we had played up to that point.

“I think the feeling in the room was shock and and trying to understand where and why we had the game that we did.”

The team has come in for heavy criticism following its exit, especially star attacker Christian Pulisic.

The AC Milan player was forced off with a right ankle injury in the 59th minute against Belgium and could only watch the USMNT collapse from the sideline. The injury was Pulisic’s second of the World Cup. Following a dynamic first 45 minutes against Paraguay, he battled a calf injury that forced him to miss parts of three games. He finished the tournament without scoring a goal and logged just one assist.

Ream, though, said the whole team played below its previous standards.

“You mentioned Christian there, but I don’t think anybody had their best game by any stretch,” he added. “It just seemed like everything that could go wrong was going to go wrong that night, which is a shame because we put so much work in to get to that point.”

The U.S. began the tournament on home soil with wins over Paraguay and Australia — the first time since 1930 that the American men had won back-to-back World Cup matches. And despite, the ultimate disappointment, Ream insisted the team still made a positive contribution to the growth of soccer in the U.S.

“One of the the secondary conversations that we were having as a group was how can we inspire and get more people to love this game?” Ream said. “How can we get them to fall in love with the game, be passionate about the game, get behind the team, get behind the sport even more? And what is it going to take from us as players to do that?

“And that was right. We need to put on performances and win games. And throughout the tournament we felt it grow and grow and grow and grow. And from that standpoint, I think we’re proud of the performances and of the games that we did win.”