Pre-match: Nations League: Grenada & El Salvador - 3/24 + 3/27

I get that you can't stand Reyna. In fact, all of us probably notice the constant judgement (always negative)

It's almost sad.

 

Every key player in the rotation for the USMNT has their 'special' poster. And those posters will rail about boring repetitive posts from others...

 

I have no problem praising a player when they deserve it.

I’m sure that he will deserve it again at some point, but what we are seeing is indeed sad.

It’s sad that this player was encouraged and enabled by short-sighted people around him to try to destroy his own World Cup and the World Cup of his teammates. Now this player is in a holding pattern where they will either distance themselves from their teammates or begin to ingratiate themselves again.

The first display in the attempt at reconciliation was not a good one for this player. It reinforced the idea that the bad behavior is not changing. The team’s star player and leader, Christian Pulisic, appears to have little patience for this kind of thing. That leaves Gio Reyna on the outside of the core group, not really finding a way to convince his teammates that he is trustworthy.

I am on record in this forum stating that Gio Reyna was the best prospective young player the US has had. I was probably the main advocate for Gio and also for Claudio for quite some time here. If you go back and read, you will see that. However, you just cannot do this kind of thing to our team at the World Cup. It shows such a lack of character and immaturity that I began to see limitations on this player that I was unable to see before. These are severe limiting factors and they will affect the manner at which he is able to play with his teammates.

 

This is total, off-the-wall, from-a-distance speculation that I'll surely get crushed for. This is Pulisic/McKennie/Adams' team...........as well as guys in their age group (Weah, for instance). Reyna is younger, and isn't part of that group yet.

You can sort of sense that on the field. This is Pulisic's team. Its emphatic. Not only the best player on the field against Grenada by a wide margin, but also the captain. He is the guy everybody on the field is looking to.

Its like the USMNT of 2004-2010 was Donovan's team. You can't make a very long list of games of that era in which Donovan and Dempsey were great at the same time. It wasn't until Donovan started his fade, that Dempsey took over. Look at 2007. Donovan scored 9 goals in 12 games. Dempsey scored 3 in 13. It was Donovan's team. He was the star even though Dempsey had moved to the Premier League in 2007.

One gets the sense that this is Pulisic's team. Period. And yes, that might mean that Reyna doesn't have the influence with the USMNT that his talent indicates he should. Cause Pulisic is the man. And one harkens back to Pulisic's comments about the Reyna situation. Its clear that a guy like Ream has moved on.............but has Christian?

How to fit Reyna into the group will be a big task for the new USMNT coach.

Anyway, this camp is more about getting Reyna back into the group. If he's being humble in camp, and working hard for the team..................that's more than half the battle here. We were able to get him back onto the field in a low pressure situation. It was fine. Now we just have to see how to take advantage of his skills set. We didn't need it against Grenada. We could have started an orange traffic cone instead of him and still won that game.

 

By the way....................my personal favorite stat is that FC Dallas-affilated players outscored Grenada 9-1 in the series against them.

Ferreira 4
McKennie 2
Pepi 1
Zendejas 1
Arriola 1

Heck, FC Dallas' El Paso affiliate outscored them 2-1.

 

how is it possible you guys are freaking the hell out this much over one match? maybe its better to look at it more as one match and less like a clear indicator of severe distress over of the next 11 years?

i mean, we have another one tomorrow. what if he doesnt play? what if he plays well? what if he plays poorly? what if he frowns? what if he does a cartwheel?

do we have the bare minimum 47 individual potential timelines mapped out for all eventualities?

i get that we shouldnt take too much from a resounding win over a clearly overmatched team, but surely that doesnt include the fragile psyche of the modern american soccer fan and the living, breathing existential crisis that is giovanni reyna, right?

 

I have a different take on Gio and tomorrow nights game. While I think Gio was not good (he was the lowest rated US player in most rating services) I am willing to chalk that up to his trying to be overly careful as he got back into the team. So I will give him a mulligan. But one with a short leash.

I am starting him against ES. If I see a similar somewhat weak effort then I may not call him in to Nations League but instead Gold Cup. The kid got dealt a mess (and yes some of it was his own doing) by his parents and he's going to have to move past that himself and with his teammates. But you still have to show you belong on the field.

So my lineup for ES:

Turner
Dest MRob Ream ARob
McKennie Musah LDLT
Reyna Dike Pulisic

 

Nice, although Dallas probably has subdivisions with a larger population than Grenada.

 

Abiline, TX is larger than Grenada.

 

Don‘t forget the posters who can‘t let go of the coach. Those are the really special ones.

 

If you want to be overly negative he might not get passed it, or it could take a year or two.

Gio was essentially indoctrinated into a way of thinking and acting. His parents were the culprits. It‘s his parents! He loves his parents.

Who knows what the Reyna‘s have been saying behind the scenes. They have showed zero contrition and have doubled down on their attacks.

That ain‘t easy to break out of. That‘s just a fact. Wish him well, but he has to want to do it, and needs to be capapble mentally and emotionally.

Can‘t just turn that on and off.

 

The ex-coach even

 

I think the Reyna “trying to be overly careful” may actually be more in line. Do you remember his interview after the first game of the final round of wcq where he got hurt?

He talked about the bad field the poor opposition not trying to “play” and said he’d rather have to play Italy or Germany. Something like that…

I wouldn’t be surprised if he was playing cautious in a match he saw more as an opportunity for a bad outcome (injury) than anything good (score a hat trick and outside of his relatives posting on big soccer, everybody else will just shrug it off as being against Haiti)

We’re fans we’ll watch and we’ll see.

 

Circling back to see how Hudson did. Certainly a positive result - we qualified for the Gold Cup - but tomorrow night will be the true test. And those of us who have played soccer at some point in our lives - mosy of us here, I would guess - understand that getting a result v El Salvador (aka not losing) is not a foregone conclusion. We're heavy favorites to win, and certainly not to lose, but there are no guarantees.

My comparison

Turner - I would have given Steffen or Horvath a game (or a half) but I can understand playing Turner (and let him shake off some rust), assuming Turner starts the El Salvador game.

Backline - ARob, Ream and Dest were all properly rested, given the short turnaround, and especially since El Salvador scheduled extended rest (by playing Wednesday, not Friday).

I would have played MRob in the low-risk Grenada game, saving either McKenzie (my choice) or Trusty for El Salvador. We shall see. Assuming MRob slots in, all four defenders will be fresh.

Midfield - I have McKennie (57'), Musah (33') and Cardoso (15') as my starting three v El Salvador. I probably would have subbed Musah in for Mckennie right at halftime. Good that Cardoso got his feet wet.

Attack - I would have give Pepi (57') and Dike (33') exactly one half each. Pepi profitted from the extra minutes, and Dike looked (to me) as someone who might be conserving himself for the next game. Perhaps Dike is the pre-planned starter v El Salvador, and the roles will be reversed.

Pulisic (64') is a sure starter, and (again) I would have pulled him (yes, still goalless) at halftime.

The other wing/wide forward is the question mark. I would start Reyna (64'), telling him (in Berhalter's words) that he will have a limited role. Kidding, but I would tell him (and Dike/Pepi) that I expect to see 90' of energy in their 45' of play.

As an alternative, I would be happy to see Zendejas (26') start - he should feel fresh enough after relatively light duty in the first game.

We have plenty of subs, several with very fresh legs, if we need an injection of energy. Very possibly we'll have a comfortable ride, but very possibly not. In soccer, all things are possible. I hope the overconfidence sometimes suggested here among us does not creep into our players' minds.

Go team!

 

Gio drama aside, I feel good about the ES game based on historical results. We've never lost to ore even drawn ES at home in the last 25 years, IIRC. We've routed them (beaten them by 4 or more goals) four or five times. The closest game we played against them was in WCQ last year when we won by a narrow 1-0 thanks to a second half Jedi goal. That one was nervy as hell.

Some posters have indicated that wins against ES are not foregone conclusions. This is correct, but (1) we've never lost to ES in decades, home or away; and (2) the scary games you may recall where we needed a late goal to salvage a draw at ES are all in ES (e.g., the 1-1 against them earlier in this CNL or the 2-2 draw we snatched back in WCQ 2009). I haven't double checked this but I am pretty confident that going back a quarter century we are unbeaten, untied at home against ES. Not a guarantee of future outcomes, of course, but a good indicator of confidence.

Given that ES needs to win to advance, they won't outright bunker but will likely play deep and wait to hit us on the counter, which has been a strategy against which we've been vulnerable in the past, at least against good (Canada) or very good (Netherlands) teams. And while I don't think you can read much into future games from past ones, there's at least some positive evidence from the Grenada game in terms of overall fitness, sharpness. energy, etc. I'd put the odds of a win very high, with pretty healthy odds of a rout, esp if we can score early. What I fear is a repeat of last year's WCQ game where they effectively frustrate us for a while. The more they frustrate us offensively, the better for them.

 

Pepi scored twice. The header and the one to the near post by the keeper.

 

Why google when https://www.livesoccertv.com/ is so much better?

 

Odds at FanDuel are -950 for the US Win which is around 90%.

Not going to add up all the scores, but the most likley outcome according to the book at +410 is 2-0, US.

Not sure if they have some inside info here. Most likely to score...
Pepi, -110
Dike, +120
Pulisic, +125
Mihailovic, +180
McKennie, +200
Aaronson, +200

 

I agree about it being Pulisic’s team. I’d extend that to say that its the group you mentioned. There were reports that Reyna was physically confronted by Tyler Adams during the World Cup because of his trying to mess up the team. Pulisic, Adams, and McKennie all have skins on the wall and have put in time and effort. Reyna will have to prove himself. He has not earned automatic inclusion in the squad. He will need to overcome his sense of entitlement to win anyone over. With Weah locked in as a starter after a really good World Cup, its hard to see how Reyna will fit in.

 

Have we ever had an actually good player not accepted by the players? I can think of several obviously odd issues (No Hugo Perez in 90, meals over Keller in 94) but I don’t remember the players wanting anybody excluded

 

The reports actually have been that they would have taken Harkes back. Even Wynalda says it. Might not be reality, but that's what they say 20 years later anyway.

It was Sampson that Blackballed him, not the players. Arena actually did in fact call him back after 1998.

 

The players have kept the Reyna baggage in house, but it has to be more significant than has been disclosed.

 

I don't remember anything being said at the time. Closed ranks.

The Roger Bennet Podcast American Fiasco (everyone should listen to it if you are a USMNT fan!) detailed it pretty well 20 years after the fact. And everyone that spoke there said they would have taken Harkes back. Though as you say, easy to say that now.