I think a lot of what happens with Gio and getting into the 11 depends on how we play this upcoming cycle. If he is only used as a winger and we have Pulisic locked onto one wing and insist on a direct runner on the other as is the current train of thought, he's out of luck. Personally, I don't think our attack was anywhere near good enough to just think we have figured out the way to play with this squad and that's that. I'd prefer to see some other experimentation about roles and how we attack overall and in that context, not seeing Gio as one of our top options in a few different spots would be unusual. If we go another cycle and Gio's only chance is to learn to play as a direct winger or get mop up minutes, I think that will be a pretty poor signal of what's happening with the team overall and I will expect 2026 to result in a very similar performance to 2022 with a lot of grinding and very few chances created.
Interesting... 🎙 Edin Terzic:"Gio didn't have an easy phase, he had to fight with injuries for almost 1.5 years. He has scored the winning goal twice, is incredibly good in tight spaces, and can make quick decisions. He's not at 100% yet." pic.twitter.com/lmHjLeljMx— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) January 27, 2023
Interesting quote from his coach on twitter today (can't access from work). Say's he's doing great, but still not 100%. Interesting.
lol, sorry, didn't see your post, hilarious that we posted the exact same thought. That's what it is to me as well. I guess I should walk back my Warren commission-esque conspiracy mongering from a page ago about "experiencing tightness" as a euphemism, also might explain why he was not going at 100% in practices if 2 months later he's still not 100%. Otoh, if he's not 100%, why were Dortmund nearly done building him up to a 90 minute guy in late october/early november.
Reyna went 86 or 87 minutes against Man City, but he's otherwise not played over 68 minutes since he came back from injury in the fall. Feels more like they pushed him in a big game and perhaps risked it (or maybe he felt something after pushing it that far). We've had six months of him not playing 90. There must have been some level of setbacks. In sincerely hope he gets back to complete 100%. He still has all the skill, but he hasn't seemed to have the energy from before.
He’s 20. If he gets some rest and rehab after Dortmund’s season, he’ll be fine. There’s no reason to rush hi at this point.
Point taken. and you're right, I'd forgotten it more moved like a metronome, did seem like it was climbing in general, but you can see w/the weird ups and downs in late October/early November that it wasn't entirely a straight line, I tended to assume that was based more on tactics and the fact that they had 4 games in 9 days between 11/2 and 11/11, and in that mix they had an easy CL win, and a pair of ugly beatings at the hands of Wolfsburg and BoMo as the 3rd and 4th games in that cycle. I still think I could be right, that they trimmed back his minutes simply because of how many games there were in a short time: 10/29 @ Frankfurt 11/2 @ Copenhagen 11/5 Vs Bochum 11/8 @ Wolfsburg 11/11 @ Mongladbach That's 4 games in 9 days, and 5 games in 14 days. So, kinda makes sense right? But it also makes me inclined to imagine that he had some issue in training between the arrival on the 13th and that game against Wales (I guess the scrimmage, maybe?), he said it, Berhalter said it, but the scale of the concern is what is not known. I remain flummoxed at this though. I thought Weah's issues getting right after the mutliple hamstring issues in '19-'20 were bad, but Good lord, this is now 17 months after the initial injury, what in the ---- is happening here? I guess I need to take solace in the fact that it seems like he's never been this healthy since that injury.
I think that Man City game was pretty a deliberate game, kinda game of chess type match also. There was not a lot of back and forth running if I remember correctly, at least early on. Not like the Augsburg game the other day where he scored that wonder goal. That was super frenetic back and forth, and by the end of his 20 minutes Gio looked kinda gassed to me. I’ve been watching the dude closely and at this point, and I could be wrong of course, but I’m not sure it’s his hammy that is bothering him any longer, at least since summer or maybe September. I’m not saying that it never feels tight or anything but he just looks kinda lethargic to me on the field and gasses out super easy. Just doesn’t look.fit. Maybe some of it is mental. The good news is that it seems to me like he has a bit more of that pep back in his step these last two games. Maybe not back 100% but getting there. Terzic has always seemed to rate Gio highly so there is little doubt he will be getting more time going forward. Hopefully he continue to build to full match fitness. One thing he doesn’t need right now would be another injury of any type. That would suck bad.
I think it's worth remembering we settled on that mostly due to Reyna's availability, not due to a preferred tactical choice. Weah working out as a more direct right wing was making lemonade from lemons. So a lot of what's going to happen with Reyna under any coach is going to depend on his own ability to stay healthy.
I think that is largely true and it was difficult to get Reyna more involved and try out options because of his injuries, even if I personally think not giving him some minutes as a midfielder was a mistake. But I think moving forward instead of looking back, we need to figure out if we are open to changing our attack around a bit and shouldn't be settled in thinking what we did in 2022 was the end product and shouldn't change. If we don't change anything, I wouldn't expect the end product to be significantly different and on the attacking side of things, I think some change is necessary.
No doubt. I feel the same way about two striker systems as well. We have a gap there, and we need to find a way to fix it. There's a lot of ways to win, and we should look at multiple. I just disagree with the general premise that we haven't looked at alternatives or that there aren't downsides to everything.
So Berhalter didn't lie..but Wynalda said he did...or maybe Terzic is lying! Blahahahahahahahaha Sad to see our ex-USMNT players go down this rabbit hole...it's like watching a slow motion train wreck. Great entertainment though! LOL
In the conversation... imagine him at 100% Is 20-year-old Gio Reyna the best USMNT player right now? 👀 pic.twitter.com/7MlOLizyTd— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 27, 2023
Weah scored an intentional goal and controlled his area the best in Qatar. Aaronson is not playing well. So, no.
You talk about his behavior at the WC as if he was only at 85% and hence practiced that way. That doesn't jibe with the phrase--"alarming lack of effort"--that was used to describe his play in the friendly against Al-Gharafa. I'm glad you can see now that Berhalter wasn't lying about Gio's tightness in that post-Wales press conference. I wish it hadn't required his club coach saying the same thing 5 weeks later for you to believe it was real in the first place.
For me, most talented =/= best. I think Reyna is the most talented, but what has he really accomplished at this point? He had a good game for the USMNT against Mexico in the NL final and a good sub appearance at Azteca, but that's about it in a US jersey. For Dortmund, he's scored game-winners as a sub the past two weeks and has played well in spurts in the past, which is great, but he hasn't shown that he can be a healthy and effective starter for them for any significant length of time. I'm not trying to dump on him, and I hope he can live up to his potential, but I wouldn't say he's the best player in the pool right now. At least Pulisic, Adams, and McKennie have done a lot more for club and country than Reyna has.
It's been a superb return to action for Borussia Dortmund with 9 points in 7 days and Bayern stumbling. Reyna did not play today but otherwise has earned 50 minutes of playing time and scored 2 winning goals in the 3 matches.
Reyna may have the highest ceiling but unfortunately his injuries haven't allowed him to have a long term impact yet. Crossing my fingers Dortmund is managing his minutes to keep him healthy long term. Sort of like Weah's situation a year or so ago.