By OkayGoal 
U.S. Men’s National Team captain Tim Ream believes that the Americans will need to be prepared for anything in their Round of 32 clash with Bosnia & Herzegovina on Wednesday.
Ream will likely return to Mauricio Pochettino’s starting lineup in San Francisco as FIFA World Cup knockout stage action pushes forward for the USMNT. The 38-year-old did not feature in the Americans’ final group stage match last Thursday, a 3-2 loss to Turkey in a dead rubber match for both nations.
Bosnia & Herzegovina brings a lot of similarities to that of Paraguay and Australia, two teams that the USMNT defeated in the group stage, and ones that rely heavily on their defense and counter-attacking abilities.
Ream is prepared for different tactics though from Sergej Barbarez’s squad, admitting that things may not be the same as how they played earlier in the competition.
“I don’t know that we fully expect Bosnia to just be defensive,” Ream told media at the USMNT’s training camp in Irvine, California. “I think we have to expect the unexpected as we proved against Australia. So you see similarities, but then there’s also things that we’re going to have to solve that they throw at us in situations in-game and that’s then down to us as players to figure those puzzles out.
“But yeah, there’s definitely some similarities, but we’re not going to sit there and think, ‘Okay, it’s going to be exactly the same,’ because no two games are ever the same,” he added.
Another one of the key strengths for the Bosnia & Herzegovina squad are set pieces and corner kicks. Three of their five group stage goals scored this summer have come from dead ball situations, making them one of the better teams at capitalizing on those situations.
Ermin Mahmic leads the squad with two tallies at the World Cup while Edin Dzeko, Ermedin Demirovic, and Esmir Bajraktarevic are also options to find the back of the net.
Ream knows the importance of set pieces on both ends of the field, reaffirming that the USMNT are prepared for those moments of the match.
“Set pieces defensively and attacking can decide games and we know this,” Ream said. “So again, we’ve done a lot of work just about every other training session on set pieces, both defensively and attacking wise. I’d argue that you look at our attacking set pieces as well, the last couple of games and they’ve been excellent.
“So yes, listen, we know that especially in the knockouts, one mistake on a set play can send you home,” he added. “So we’re fully focused on all aspects and all phases of the game and that’s something that we’ll continue to look at obviously.”
By the time the USMNT take the field in California, both of the other World Cup co-hosts may have sealed their spot into the Round of 16. Canada did so after a gritty 1-0 win over South Africa while Mexico will be favored to advance past Ecuador on Tuesday, especially with El Tri having a home field advantage.
The USMNT knows the pressure on them to get the job done, remaining confident in their abilities to deliver the same intensity that they played with in their group stage wins.
“So for us, for me, it’s a game we want to win,” Ream said. “It’s a game that we have to put everything into and put in a performance to the way we have in the group stage and then we see where that takes us. But in terms of pressure, there’s nothing added or nothing extra and that’s the way we’ve approached every single game.”