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The United States’ Tim Ream, left, and England’s Harry Maguire fight for the ball in a World Cup game on Friday, Nov. 25, 2022, in in Al Khor, Qatar. It ended in a scoreless tie.
Tim Ream of the United States attends a news conference before the team practiced on Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022, in Doha, Qatar.
Tim Ream of the United States, right, is challenged by England’s Bukayo Saka in a World Cup match that ended in a scoreless draw on Friday, Nov. 25, 2022, in Al Khor, Qatar.
The United States’ Tim Ream, right, battles with Wales’ Kieffer Moore for the ball in a World Cup match on Monday, Nov. 21, 2022, in Doha, Qatar.
Benjamin Hochman is a sports columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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The legend began on the 4.4 acres that make up Bissell Hills Park in north St. Louis County.
“I played for Our Lady of Good Counsel,” Kevin Bielicki recalled Monday. “And he played for St. Jerome.”
“He” was Tim Ream, this Umbro shorts-wearing wunderkind.
He was 5.
So when Bielicki’s dad started a NORCO soccer club, he made sure to get Ream on his team.
“Tim had a stride at a young age that you just knew … it was something special,” said Tom Bielicki, who had a premonition to move Ream from forward to a defensive position. “He went from being a north county boy to being one of the best players in the world.”
It’s astounding if you do the quick math in your mind. Think of how many kids play soccer in America. Millions, right? And of those, 11 emerged as the starters for the 2022 U.S. national team. Tim Ream starts at center back. And he plays the position beautifully and unflappably. Oh, he’s also a stalwart defensive player in the Premier League. The St. Louis kid earned all of this due to his diligence and intelligence. And on Tuesday, he’ll play in the biggest game of his life.
If the United States defeats Iran, Ream and the Americans will advance to the knockout stage of the World Cup.
Because it’s an elimination game in the group stage, “it is a unique situation, it adds a little bit of pressure — but for us, every single game is pressure,” Ream said Monday at a news conference in Qatar. “And so, we have to go out and just embrace the moment and enjoy it, live it and not worry about what comes after — whether it’s good, bad, indifferent. We have to go out and play the way we’re capable of playing, finish our chances and enjoy the fact that it is a knockout-stage game one round early.”
Ream thrives because of his calmness during the most-pressurized situations on the pitch. We’ve seen it in the first two games. At 35, he’s the oldest player on the United States side. His game, already equipped with supreme talent, is fueled by wisdom.
“His overall personality and mentality and this consistency to be able to deal with any scenario just seems like it’s part of his superpower,” said Kevin Kalish, the men’s soccer coach at St. Louis University and a former assistant coach on Ream’s youth club team, Scott Gallagher. “His passing ability and his decision-making — his composure on the ball — is equally as impressive. The way he starts attacks is something he’s always been able to do, even as a youth player.”
Tom Bielicki coached Ream on the NORCO team when the boys were 9. Beginning at the U-13 level, Bielicki coached his son and Ream in the Scott Gallagher program. He was mesmerized — heck, remains mesmerized — by Ream’s ability to use the pass to energize an offensive attack.
“His distribution out of the backfield was impeccable, even back then,” Tom Bielicki said.
And you hear this sometimes said about elite athletes in many sports — the sound they make is just … different. Witnesses will describe a young Albert Pujols hitting a baseball or John Daly driving a golf ball. Well, Bielicki heard it from Ream’s perfectly struck kicks up field.
“He had a sound, as crazy as it may seem, that when it came off of his foot, it was like none other,” Bielicki said. “It was just so crisp. You knew it was going to be a solid pass coming off his foot.”
As the 2000s began, Ream enhanced the Scott Gallagher teams. Kalish recalled Ream and the boys practicing and perfecting their ball movement on tennis courts and even on concrete floors in a warehouse. Precision with decisions.
For high school, Ream enrolled at St. Dominic, while Kevin Bielicki became a standout at CBC. They remained club teammates.
“It was like — everybody was on the same playing field,” Kevin Bielicki said of their sophomore year. “And, all of a sudden, he went from being really good to elite. And he just surpassed everybody. …
“He’s super-intelligent. … We all knew he was going to make it. I played in college at SIUE and he played at SLU, and I used to go watch him play — he was always just so damn good. He’s just so smooth, man.”
The St. Louis soccer community is a rare ecosystem of talent and tradition. You’ve heard the stories. Every generation of American soccer is enhanced by boys and girls who grew up on St. Louis fields such as Bissell Hills Park. Ream respects it all. When he and the national team came to town in 2019, he offered seemingly a soliloquy about soccer tradition in St. Louis to a reporter. He is the beneficiary of this upbringing, but his hard work led to great success of which St. Louis now is the beneficiary.
“Tim is the perfect reflection of our city and community,” Kalish said. “He has tremendous character, he is as hard working as they come and he is a special leader and teammate. We are extremely proud to call him a Billiken and fellow St. Louisan.”
The U.S. Soccer Federation briefly displayed Iran’s national flag on social media without the emblem of the Islamic Republic, saying the move supported protesters in Iran ahead of the two nations’ World Cup match Tuesday.
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Benjamin Hochman is a sports columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
St. Louis City SC went into the free agent market to add another player with MLS experience, signing veteran defender Jake Nerwinski to a two-year contract.
Venue owners don’t expect as large of crowds as Friday’s US match against England, during the Thanksgiving weekend, but say the must-win game Tuesday will still draw many supporters.
Soccer fans across the St. Louis region rejoiced Tuesday as the U.S. beat Iran 1-0 and advanced to the World Cup’s round of 16.
The United States’ Tim Ream, left, and England’s Harry Maguire fight for the ball in a World Cup game on Friday, Nov. 25, 2022, in in Al Khor, Qatar. It ended in a scoreless tie.
Tim Ream of the United States attends a news conference before the team practiced on Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022, in Doha, Qatar.
Tim Ream of the United States, right, is challenged by England’s Bukayo Saka in a World Cup match that ended in a scoreless draw on Friday, Nov. 25, 2022, in Al Khor, Qatar.
The United States’ Tim Ream, right, battles with Wales’ Kieffer Moore for the ball in a World Cup match on Monday, Nov. 21, 2022, in Doha, Qatar.
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