Your logic seems quite flawed. You say he was overrated and then list a handful of the best players ever to wear the crest. Besides "ratings" by fans are opinion so your he's overrated is no better than somebody else's "great" rating. Bottom line is that if you want to knock Reyna down to some lower level then compare him to guys that don't fall on most every fans list of great US players.
i want no part of arguments ive already had 20 years ago, but that was my thought as well. oh, hes overrated meaning only the 12th best usmnt player of all time, not the 10th?
You'd take all those guys over Reyna but they don't play his position except maybe Tab (who only played 2nd division in Europe). He's a surefire first 11 with only JOB capable of taking his spot.
How often do you see "playing the ball away from pressure, thus allowing the team to maintain possession" on highlights videos? That's why you watch the whole match. I myself almost never watch highlights videos.
You lost me at Cobi Jones. I get it. You are old. And nostalgic. He played in over 160 games for the national team and scored 16 goals. Of those 16, none mattered. Maybe a 1-1 draw with Mexico. I like Jones. But he is not on the same planet as Claudia Reyna. Heck, Bruce Murray has 16 goals for the US.
Reyna was instrumental in the US beating Mexico in a World Cup match that has given us bragging rights for now decades.
As were about 7 other players. The team, man for man, played fantastically. The best team we beat in the tournament, was without Reyna. He was a good player, but damn, we have gone so far with the Reyna 2002 stuff over the years that we are near the point of disrespecting the unbelievable work of the guys who were actually involved in both of our tournament wins that year. Anyway, I would hope that his son FAR surpasses him. We need a team of players better than Claudia Reyna to make a dent at the world stage.
Reyna was one of those guys that played at an extremely high level in the top leagues in the world at a time when nobody got those games at home here in the US. People didn’t get to hang on his every touch like they do now. They heard hype about him, and then he showed up and wasn’t an offensive juggernaut...he was a cool, calm operator who moved about the field in a calculated way. The hype and the player just didn’t compute for Americans who expected him to be Pavel Nedved.
god, im getting sucked in yet again...he was boring, ok? no crazy mohawk, no ridiculous rip-a-shot-from-anywhere maniac vibes, no flowing locks. tab was a way sexier player. we all want pizza and cake and reyna was boring ass bread. awesome. grains! can i have that with a room temperature glass of water? anyone who has him outside of the best 4 cms weve had is just somebody who thinks ice cream for breakfast is ok after you turn 30. why argue with that mindset?
In any case, Claudio seems to have done for Gio what Alfie did for Haaland. https://www.espn.com/soccer/borussi...se-how-he-became-soccers-most-wanted-teenager
There are players of that era who are actually under-rated because at that time we didn't get to see their European games. You try to find actually tape of Kasey Keller in his prime in club football and its really hard. Try to find tape of Keller at Leicester and Rayo. I saw a few games of Keller in La Liga. Unbe-freakin-lievable. But there's a younger group of fans that only knows Keller from the 2006 World Cup and beyond. Keller was already 36 at the 2006 World Cup. So they know him from past his prime. Claudio Reyna in a sense has the same problem. I watched Reyna a lot for UVA. I had seen no players in my time of watching NCAA soccer that good. None. And of course that was an era when a kid like that in the US had to play NCAA soccer. For some reason, Fox Sports World went thru a time when they showed a game from Scotland every weekend. Claudio Reyna at Rangers was great. Great. And that was when playing great for Rangers meant something. I always remember the goal he scored against Parma in the Champions League (back when Parma meant something too.) But there is a whole group of younger fans that just saw Reyna in 2002 and beyond. Hello? In 2002 Claudio Reyna was about 29/30 years old. He was past his prime and on the way down. If you had watched the 19 year old Reyna...…………..at the time you would have thought "holy hell, I haven't seen this before." That's kind of what's great about being a long-time USMNT fan. There's always the "next big thing." We all remember when Ben Olsen was the golden child coming out of UVA into MLS (and he's was awfully good until his injury). Now he's the grizzled veteran coach in the league. I remember Don Garber saying when he retired that Claudio Reyna was arguably the most important player in the history of US soccer. You wouldn't say that now because of all the players that have come and gone since. But you're not crazy to say that when he retired Claudio Reyna was the most important player in the history of US soccer.
The 1995 match where Claudio took apart Mexico in a 4-0 win is worth re-watching. Imo his greatest match was against Germany in the 2002 WC.
Berhalter, Hejduk, and Sanneh also had excellent games in that one. Berhalter had what should have been the biggest clutch goal in US history and he scored it with sheer determination and athleticism.
He did serve in one of the most dangerous crosses on the night... Might not being saying much... but there it is. Pretty sure he completed all but a single pass as well... the lone miss was on a corner-counter-attack and he still got his body in a position to stop the transition. He looks calm and smooth. Loved how he got back on D to stop Neymar on a counter as well. Nothing fantastic about the performance but he looked like a Pro... which is saying a lot for a 17 year-old playing in his 2nd CL game. Kid looks legit. Too bad coronavirus had to rear it's ugly head.
Reyna suffered from an all too common ailment with the USMNT. The unbalance (especially in Soccer IQ) between him and his teammates. I’m not sure if this will post correctly but read what the Secret Footballer wrote about Claudio. He was one of those guys the opposition hated to play against. “Arguably, to this day, outside of the top clubs, teams refuse to push sides back by passing up the pitch. Certainly the lower down the divisions you go, the more likely it is that teams gain ground by playing down the channels and looking for crosses or throw-ins and corners. In the first goal Messi passed forward to Iniesta, who stopped the ball for him to run on to before moving off again. It was that simple–a little thing that makes such a huge difference to what the opposition do, and the shape of the game as a result. I first saw the American player Claudio Reyna do it against my team for Manchester City and, at first, I couldn’t work out how City were getting up the pitch so easily. I studied that game for a long time, looking for some complicated football algorithm, where, in reality, it was extremely basic.” “When Reyna got the ball, he would push it through to a deep-lying striker or an advanced midfielder in between the gap behind our midfielders and in front of our back four. The striker stopped it dead, moved away into another space, and Reyna stepped on to the ball.” “Now, would happen to the two teams at the most fundamental level? Well, Manchester City would collectively step up five yards, which squeezed the pitch, and our defence would instinctively drop off five yards. When you hear the commentator saying that a team cannot get out of their half, this is the reason it is happening. In one short pass Claudio Reyna was gaining his team a total of 10 extra yards to play with, 10 yards that were closer to our goal. In doing so, they had more men in better positions to be effective in the final third, and our team had fewer players capable of attacking them.” — The Secret Footballer's Guide to the Modern Game: Tips and Tactics from the Ultimate Insider by Anon http://a.co/fY1kDat Wow. Had no idea I could copy and paste from Kindle
When Italy scouted the US in preparation for the WC 2006 group match they were most impressed with the percentage of Reyna's passes that resulted in a numbers up situation for his team. With Claudio, it wasn't the flair but it was his recognition, decision making and execution.