USMNT’s Tim Ream has publicly lambasted teammate Sergiño Dest For a ‘complete lack of respect’ following his red card in the CONCACAF Nations League loss to Trinidad and Tobago.
Why Was Dest Sent Off Against Trinidad And Tobago?
Having gone 1-0 up following an Antonee Robinson goal, the USMNT were heading into half-time still in the lead. Then, in the 39th minute, the ball was played to Sergiño Dest with the PSV full-back seemingly just about keeping the ball in play.
However, the referee had other ideas and blew his whistle to award Trinidad and Tobago a throw-in, causing Dest to lose it. Furious at the decision the on-loan Barcelona man picked up the ball and launched it into the crowd leading to a yellow card.
Despite being booked, Dest continued to argue his case and sarcastically blew the referee a kiss, leading to a second yellow card and an early shower.
The USMNT went on to lose the game 2-1 following goals from Reon Moore and Alvin Jones, but won the tie 4-2 on aggregate.
Sergino Dest’s USA teammates were fuming with the Barcelona player after receiving two quick-fire yellow cards 😡🇺🇸pic.twitter.com/5GyiPfIgt5
— SPORTbible (@sportbible) November 21, 2023
What Did Tim Ream Say About Dest’s Red Card?
Visibly raging at the actions of their teammate, Tim Ream and Matt Turner publicly lambasted the former Ajax man as he left the pitch, but Ream’s critique of his teammate did not stop there.
In an interview after the game alongside Fulham teammate Antonee Robinson the centre-back said: “Disappointment, but I think, overall, it’s a complete lack of respect for the guys that are playing and for the guys that are on the bench. It’s a feeling of a lack of respect for the game itself, for the referees. We knew, and we talked about it, every time we come down here, every time you’re in a CONCACAF game, that anything can happen, so we know not to give an excuse for anything like that to happen.
“So, for me, it’s just a feeling of disrespect, to be completely honest with you and that’s something that he needs to understand because it completely changes the game and then it completely changes any type of potential plan of guys coming in and subs off the bench. It throws that completely out of whack. So yeah, just disrespect overall.”
Ream continued: “I think ‘words with him’ would be putting it nicely. There were a lot of choice words at halftime, but, at the end of the day, we had to focus on the second half, so we couldn’t focus on that situation at the time. Digging in, we had 45 minutes to try to get a result and make sure that we were going to advance in the Nations League and ultimately qualify for the Copa America. There’s not too many things that I can say here publicly that we said privately.”
"Overall, it's a complete lack of respect for the guys that are playing, for the guys that are on the bench….For me, it's just a feeling of disrespect to be completely honest with you." #USMNT captain Tim Ream just not pleased with Sergino Dest for his red card.
🎥 @ussoccer pic.twitter.com/RV0LiK0hVV— Andrew Jerell Jones, Luke 1:37 (IG:twdbk3) (@sluggahjells) November 21, 2023
What Has Dest Said About His Red Card for USMNT?
Taking to Instagram in the aftermath of the game, Dest chose to take the opportunity to apologise to his teammates, saying: “I want to apologize to my Teammates, Staff, Fans and whole nation for my behaviour.
“It was unacceptable, Selfish and immature I let my team down! It’s something I have to learn from and it won’t happen again!”
Dest will now miss the USMNT’s next competitive fixture which is the CONCACAF semi-final next spring, but it remains to be seen whether his moment of madness will impact his international career moving forward.
How do you think this will affect Sergiño Dest’s USMNT career?
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