- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,128,796
- Reaction score
- 59
You must be registered for see images attach
Why Gio Reyna should make the USMNT World Cup roster: History says he will leave club struggles behind originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Ever since the drama at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Gio Reyna has been a hot-button topic amongst the USMNT fanbase and media.
The divisive conversation is understandable — it almost reflects Reyna's career, in a way. Still (somehow) just 23 years old, Reyna's mercurial journey through professional football has felt like a lifetime's worth.
The son of U.S. national team great Claudio Reyna, Gio came through the Borussia Dortmund youth system in the shadow of Christian Pulisic. In the same season that Pulisic made his highly-anticipated move to Chelsea, Reyna broke into the first team at Dortmund, and the hype train headed out of the station at full steam.
DECOURCY: Why Alejandro Zendejas should make final USMNT roster
Since then, things have stalled. At least at the club level. Reyna has never really found his place — not at Dortmund, not during a loan spell at Nottingham Forest, and not after moving to Borussia Monchengladbach where he joined this past summer in search of more playing time.
Repeated muscle injuries have taken a toll, especially the frustrating hamstring problem that wouldn't go away and destroyed his 2021/22 season.
2026 WORLD CUP HQ:Latest World Cup news | Full World Cup schedule | Buy World Cup tickets
Yet when Reyna plays for the U.S. national team, all of that seems to melt away. Repeatedly, the young attacking midfielder has linked up with his USMNT teammates and put his club struggles behind him, providing ingenuity, creative spark, and doggedness, all things missing from his tribulations in Europe.
Gio's brilliance led the U.S. to victory over Canada in the 2023 CONCACAF Nations League final, assisting both goals in a 2-0 victory before coming off injured at halftime. He scored against Mexico in the same trophy match a year later as the U.S. beat Mexico by the famous "dos a cero" score, and most recently he provided a spark in victories over Paraguay and Uruguay last November.
MORE:Predicting the USMNT 26-man roster and starting lineup for the 2026 FIFA World Cup
Even in defeat, Reyna often inspires. He was the best U.S. player on the pitch in an otherwise dreadful performance against Germany in a 3-1 friendly defeat in Hartford back in 2023, and he was equally bright while the U.S. tried desperately to save their doomed 2024 Copa America in a 1-0 defeat to Uruguay.
It is a commonly held belief that club performance should carry significant weight for national team managers when piecing together a roster at any given time, and especially for a World Cup where current form can make the difference in a competition of extremely thin margins. And why not? Players spend 90% of their careers at the club level, where they sink or swim with daily training and one or more matches a week.
Yet in some special cases, it would be foolish to ignore the past. For a player like Reyna, whatever the problem is at the club level, it vanishes while on international duty. Even considering his apparent lack of effort in Qatar four years ago, he was a teenager then, and suffered the consequences. It wouldn't be difficult for USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino to remind the son of a national team legend that he must be totally committed to see the field this time around.
MORE:Ankle injury gives Chris Richards genuine World Cup scare | More injuries
There's enough evidence to suggest that regardless of his club situation — which, for reasons none of us are privy to, has almost never been positive — Reyna can lift the U.S. when needed. He almost surely wouldn't be a regular starter this summer, but in a grueling, month-long tournament where an injection of energy off the bench can be vital, Pochettino must look at the evidence and buck conventional wisdom.
Gio Reyna has a skill set nobody else in the USMNT player pool can bring. He should be on the USMNT roster for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Continue reading...
