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Of course, with the United States qualifying automatically as one of the co-hosts of the 2026 World Cup, the next that comes up in a match might not be until 2027 or 2028.

“I probably won’t be involved,” he said. “If I am, we’ve got big, big problems.”

But here’s the thing about Tim Ream: Who’s to say he won’t be around? He just keeps on going. Many, including himself for a while, thought that the 2022 World Cup would be his last, but here’s the player who went from St. Dominic High in O’Fallon, Missouri, to ӣ����Ƶ University to Major League Soccer to the English Premier League, still starting for the national team. He turns 38 in October but has played more minutes than anyone else on the team in 2025, and will be captaining the team for the 21st time on Sunday when it faces Mexico in the championship game of the CONCACAF Gold Cup in Houston.

It’s a significant game for the U.S. team, not just because it’s the regional championship game that will be played in front of a huge crowd against their biggest rival, but it’s also the last competitive game the team will play prior to the World Cup, which is less than a year away. After this, every game will be a friendly.

Someone asked him Saturday about this being his last chance to win a Gold Cup.

“My last chance?” he replied, laughing. “Maybe. Maybe. They’ve been telling me that for a long time.”

But among the people who haven’t been certain about Ream’s future is Tim Ream. When the United States was eliminated from the most recent World Cup, on Dec. 20, 2022, in Qatar, to most everyone, it seemed like that would be the last time around for Ream. He was 35 years old, which even then made him the old-timer on a national team populated by players in their 20s. The list of players who had been on the national team at that age was short, the list of field players even shorter.

“I think if everyone goes back through they’ll say, oh, he thought he was finished,” Ream said Wednesday night after his team’s 2-1 win over Guatemala in the semifinals. “He thought he was done with the U.S. team. And to be completely honest, like I thought, all right — what was I, 35? It all runs together — and thinking, ‘OK, that was my one and only World Cup.’ But the more I thought about it. I was like, ‘Well, why does it have to be?’ Everyone else can try to retire me, but I’m still going, still playing. Why not continue on? Why not put that goal out there of getting to another one?

“So I did, and that’s where I am, and whether I get there or not, is not solely down to me, I know, but it is solely down to me as well. And then it’s just a matter of keeping pushing, keeping a strong mentality and trying to get there. It’s something that is in that moment when I left there, I mean, multiple conversations with people like, this is it, and that’s OK. I achieved a goal, and then, I reset, I set another one and here we are, less than a year out, and happy to be here and help, happy to help these guys along, and happy to continue to push myself to try to get to another one.”

His decision came only a few months after Qatar. Anthony Hudson had taken over as the interim coach of the U.S. team after Gregg Berhalter’s contract had expired in January of 2023. Ream was playing for Fulham, his longtime English club, at the time.

“Anthony Hudson came to London and said, ‘Hey, can you meet me?’” Ream said. “I met him for a coffee, and he said, ‘What do you think?’ And I was like, I mean, I’m there, if you guys want me there. And that was it. I decompressed from that World Cup for a few months, and when he came, just before the March window, he asked if I wanted to continue on and I said yeah, absolutely. I won’t turn that opportunity down. And here we are.”

Berhalter used to say that as long as Ream was playing in the Premier League, he’d have a spot with the U.S. national team, and even now that Ream has returned to America to play with Charlotte in MLS, the coaches that have followed Berhalter, whether interim or full time, like Mauricio Pochettino, have kept calling him in.

“Tim is a very experienced player,” said Chris Richards, 25 and Ream’s partner on the backline in the Gold Cup. “I’ve tried to learn a lot off of him over the last few years. And he’s just a good guy in general, a good guy to bounce ideas off and like, he’s what, 37? So he has a few more years of experience on me. Regardless, he’s a good guy just to have around.”

That leadership has been one of the reasons coaches keep bringing Ream back, and the bonding this group has done in the more than a month it’s been together, a time for everyone to really get to know Pochettino and his staff has been held up as, win or lose, one of the best things about this tournament.

Ream could joke about that Saturday — “I feel like I have 20 more kids in my family,” he said — but the reality is it’s one of the reasons he’s hung around.

“When you have that feeling,” Ream said, “of, oh, this is my national team, this is what I’m doing. I’m walking the guys on in my hometown. It’s just a pride thing. It’s just being able to continue to do it is what drives me. Being able to help the rest of the guys alone is another driver for me. I love watching these guys grow up. I love watching them right before my eyes starting to understand better, starting to create the connections more. Those two things are what keep me going, the atmosphere and helping these guys along to become better players and better people is what putting on this jersey is all about, and the pride that I have to do it will never change. It won’t change when I’m done playing and it won’t change until I’m done. Like completely done.

“I’m so happy that I’m with this group and so happy that I can help them.”