Very true. I omitted Reyna when highlighting the importance of the wc in his reaction but perhaps I shouldn't have. It is very likely that Reya's behavior was magnified by hte increased disappointment of missing a wc game relative to a regular game...even a champions league game.
A lot of us played, if a guy did what he did, would we like him? Probably not? Would we appreciate the goals, the assists, and the increased probability of winning? Yep. I think someone's comment (Mahtzo?) that if this was a club it would probably be a bit of a bigger worry because you're together 24/7 for like 10 months other than international windows rings more true. W/this you only meet up every so often. Otoh, we saw France in 2010. Roy Keane and whatshisface in '02 etc. But I do think its probably fine, and to be fair, dude was 18 and 19 during 95% of the injury time period, turned 20 the month of the cup I believe. He's not exactly a grizzled vet, Ream is nearly twice his age. Some guys mature given time (otoh, Reyna appears to be de-evolving, thank you devo).
As long as he works hard and earns it the team will be fine, but they’ll probably still think of him as a weenie for quite a while. I definitely would.
The players addressed Gio’s behavior at the World Cup, but they may not have even been fully aware of what the Reynas were up to at that point. The Reynas were trying to destroy all of those guys’ World Cups and Pulisic looked visibly pissed about it…all these months later. I guarantee he’s not the only one. The potential for friction is still there. If Pulisic is giving public statements basically calling Gio’s parents “childish” and openly standing up for Berhalter, then things have not smoothed over.
You make a fantastic point that cannot be overlooked. There is no way we truly have the full picture, and each one of us should keep that in mind before making judgements. I feel like your post should be a sticky note for everyone at BigSoccer to read.
I think you explanation is entirely possible and perhaps even probable. I also think there's a chance that there's some of this at Dortmund as well, but Dortmund isn't going to go public with it and devalue their asset. (I'd also add that when Reyna went to Dortmund, he was by himself in a professional setting. But when he came to the USMNT, it was in surroundings that were a bit fuzzier. Sure, it was the full national team, but he had been there for U17s and U15s. Uncle Gregg was there as well. And people do have a tendency to revert their behavior to the surroundings -- act more childish around people and places they were more often a child. This is all psycho-conjecture -- but the fact that Reyna went to Dortmund and didn't know anyone, was probably super uncomfortable, etc., probably actually makes him be more of a professional there.)
I don't know that there wasn't some level of empathy. He didn't get sent home. He got multiple chances to change his behavior. This wasn't just being down and out of it -- he refused a fitness test. That's just ... at some point, you have to be a little accountable. And Reyna was likely in this because no one ever challenged him. I think people have a vision of just anger, but we don't know that Tim didn't sit down with him and be positive in his feedback. Most of the actual Reyna stuff was kept completely quiet until the adults went crazy. So clearly, people were empathetic enough to keep it close to the vest. But there's a fine line between empathy and enablement.
I'd like to note that there's a distinct difference in meaning between "I believe X is true" and "X is true".
Everybody who fought in the American Revolution died after the asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. Therefore, the asteroid killed everybody who fought in the American Revolution.
Posters are saying the report is biased because USSF bought and paid for it. Who the hell else was supposed to pay for it? Do you not understand how idiotic that sounds? It's like we criticize just to do it. Do any of the posters on here who are only critical ever get tired of being that way? Maybe Steve Bannon can create another nonprofit to raise funds from fans /"berhalter haters" to pay for a separate investigation.
Of course, but given the magnitude of the issue, i.e., there was an investigation, people's characters were attacked, jobs were at stake, etc., it is important to keep a clear perspective.
Has anyone mentioned what Conrad said today? That basically Pulisic parents and Reyna parents got into it a little during the cup? That's a bit alarming. Not great from the perspective that Papa Pulisic was pulling the same nonsense w/Pulisic at Chelsea to some extent but also not great that this impacted the families, and it does connect to the other reference that basically everyone was happy at the cup beyond the Reyna family. Again, I don't really give a ---- about this anymore assuming Egg is gone, but it's interesting to note that angle. I'm not arguing he wasn't behaving poorly, obviously he was. Hell, we all wondered before any of this came out why he looked completely disengaged at the celebration after the Iran game and if we were reading too much or too little into it. I also think we haven't been reasonable either though. Two things can be true at the same time here: 1.) He acted really ------. 2.) Considering everything that went down 9/21-11/22, it's not surprising that he was a mess and acting poorly either, and that it did seem like there wasn't a ton of empathy. Otoh, I'm in general just confused w/where he's been physically period. It looked like his minutes were going up throughout the fall, then the international window injury. then the minutes and workload went up again, and he was good, then the scrimmage injury, where he was also loafing? Like, does it make sense, at all? Then coach says he isnt all the way back in January or early Feb, then coach says something more analogous too he just needs to get everything together 110% in March? The whole thing is baffling, I have no idea what the genuine truth is and was about his fitness October to now and why and how? Heck after the talking down of his fitness after 4 straight DNP's, he then is a near 90 minute sub in a do or die CL match where he's the best Dortmund attacker that game. It's utterly confounding. Even on the Dortmund end.
I'm not shocked that other families weren't happy with their family, and I'm not shocked about Pulisic's feeling. Who knew the guy who was crying on the field on missing 2018 might not be happy with someone being a prima donna when he finally got there? And from the report, it was clear the Reyna's were keeping their dissatisfaction quite, so not shocked there. As for Reyna's fitness, it's pretty clear to me he tweaked something in camp at some point. He even said it. And he refused a fitness test, which no one does unless, you know, they hurt. How much that affected everything is tough to say. Was he moping before? Was he dogging because of it but lying to everyone? Who knows?
The fact that there are people attempting to equivocate here justifies to me, at least, my growing ignore list. Might I be missing out on any valuable insight and reason? From someone who would equivocate this? Unlikely...
It‘s pathetic and the individuals follow suit. Truly shameful. Embarrassingly so. Then again I don‘t post several dozen times a day, virtually every day, so that in itself speaks volumes of the individual and their value. Doesn‘t it?
Adding on this,he has had relatively limited minutes at Dortmund since the WC,and there's been no drama about it except in Yanks Abroad...
Casualty? His coaching did that. His coaching and team's results limits him to one cycle. Most coaches don't want and don't get two cycles of world national team coaching. They want an everyday club team job instead, if they can get one.
But the minutes are really odd, which makes it even weirder. I can't tell if he's training poorly but healthy, or not 100% healthy and as a result unable to train perfectly? Feels like a little of both. As I've mentioned in his thread over the past month or two, I would just love to turn the page to august and have him be healthy the entire five months in between. As for equivocation, what are we talking about here (referencing a post separate from yours). When it comes to Reyna, its really quite simple, I don't think there's an easy way to really have a fair take on him period, from any angle, there's no equivocation at all from my point of view, as it's not hard and fine on anything save for the fact that he's coming off the year from hell, the worst year of his professional life and it's not surprising he didn't handle it well you know, as a guy only 1 month out of teenagehood. I also don't begrudge his mother being as pissed as she was though I do begrudge the rest of it. Ive been straight on it the whole time, as straight as anyone can be considering all the angles. People who have been 100% on one side, or the other on this the entire time (100% against the Reynas, son and parents, or 100% against Berhalter/fed), to me, are the only people 100% full of merde. There's no way to be 100% on one side of this or the other, w/o being an idealogue w/an axe to grind, at least in my view. Every party involved handled some aspect of this poorly in my view from what I've seen other than probably his teammates from what I can tell (I had major issues w/the shame shame shame piece after he had already apologized but it sounds like it was much simpler than such nonsense, and so was, in my view fine). Of course, maybe the comment wasn't directed at me, which at this point renders my take a little silly from that misapprehension though it's still worthwhile from the standpoint that I think it needs to be said: there are no winners in this, Reyna screwed up, his parents screwed up royally, Egg botched the speech and broke the golden rule, and a disaster unfolded. Nobody looks great amongst those actors, not even the fed that allowed Claudio to bitch and moan nonstop for years on end as helicopter psycho extraordinaire (and apparently a sexist freaking pig to boot).
Heath also mentioned he heard that Pulisic was one of the guys who felt Gio's apology wasn't good enough and that he was one who was very vocal about not liking Gio's effort (but Heath also stressed the rumors part) and some... shall we say other sources that may or may not be reliable from the USMNT twitter sphere are claiming that Gio and Puli are not on the best of terms so how much is true or much ado about nothing no clue but could be a case of where there's smoke there's fire. As for Gio at Dortmund there are some assumptions I think we are past thr being careful with an injury. I just thinknitd as simple as this Bundesliga race being insanely close that thr leash to work through any issues a player may have is going to be insanely small.
The effort piece feels kind of "glass houses" to me. What if I wanted to throw at Pulisic that he basically pulled a Donovan sabbatical for a year w/the national team after the disappointment of Couva? I could be a ---- and couch it as Pulisic going off to cry, rather than help the rebuild in '17-'18 post Couva skipping full internationals while healthy that included Portugal, Ireland and French A squads and that when you add some injuries in the early fall of '18, what that accounted to was taking a full freaking year off of international duty while he licked his emotional wounds for the most part (other than the 9/18 and 10/18 matches missed due to injury). Yeah, I'd be a jerk to say that, but it's also true. Other than the 9/18 and 10/18 friendlies, he took an entire year off of international duty for, some sort of reason, but not an injury related one. It's a bit much to ----- about effort, when you gave yourself a year off of international duty during the most desperate time in the history of USMNT soccer since the 1980's. FTR, I did see the clip of them post Chelsea-Dortmund CL match, not interacting while hanging out w/like half a dozen opponents each. Not great? But hey, small sample size, maybe they said hi elsewhere. I don't know. But yeah, for now, definitely seems like a lot of bruised feelings. Hopefully they can let this ---- go and get back to the visual reality of that post Pulisic penalty celebration from June '21 kind of vibe. Reyna right next to Pulisic, celebrating like heroes instead of this miserabilist nightmare that goes on without end.
The main Pulisic takeaways are: People outside of the team should STFU. Notice he was very specific in not complaining about Gio. He is fine with Berhalter and the work done. The fed needs to name a coach soon. Seems to me like a guy who really liked the progress of the last cycle - the caveat is that his previous cycle was absolute crap, so maybe low standards? - and just wants to move forward with as little added drama as possible.
The word casualty was in quotation marks because it was the word used in the post I was responding to, but thanks for your opinion about Berhalter.