Giovanni “Gio” Reyna US National Team Discussion

You’re going to have a tough time explaining how a guy who couldn’t get on the field at Nottingham Forest is better than a younger, more athletic, more versatile AC Milan regular.

But let’s leave that aside for the moment. You claim that Reyna improves the ability to “get out of our own end”. That’s not what I saw at all. He’s actually worse at that than Musah, Adams, Cardoso, etc. Reyna’s strengths are in the final third, not in intermediate passing. Show evidence of sustained intermediate ball advancement by Reyna with the USMNT, because that has never been a strength of his that I have seen.

 

He shows up against Mexico for sure, but I don’t think any of that had to do with him playing centrally.

We needed him to show up against better squads, but he just hasn’t.

 

I am basically taking the same approach with Gio as I am with Tyler. If they're healthy they're in but I'm preparing each window like they aren't available

 

The real question is how much better is the team with him on it?

And how much worse, without him?

If the difference is significant, than there might be a case for him. But I just don't see it.

I just don't see enough to bring along an often injured and out of form player onto the '26 WC roster. Could that change over the next 12-18 months? Sure, never say never.

 

The World Cup is 20 months away. Who the hell knows what his form will be like by the time of roster selection? If he's playing and playing well, he'll be in the team.

 

There is no guarantee of that.

 

you're confusing different roles. i am pretty clearly not talking about building through reyna wide when i say play him CAM. and you're ignoring his ability to get a ball about 40 out and just dribble people then hit a pass. bull that anyone else besides CP is better at that. bull.

johnny? i saw him make a pass in the box. once.

musah is just a tank. from 43 caps he has 1G 2A. are you kidding me. you think we can live off that. that's my whole point is the AMs right now once had an assist in like 1983. we're turning back into the 2018 cycle team that way. we'd finally figured out maybe have some creative mids. now you're like, have a 6 create. ha. we might score in 20 years. the whole offense becomes the front 3 and if the mids suck we struggle to get them the ball anywhere except down by the flag where attacks go to die.

adams is a 6, chalk and cheese with a 10. you're just throwing out names. the idea is name people who can do what reyna does positionally, not start telling me a starter at another position beats him out. that's not the way lineups work. adams is next to reyna. you get them both. duh.

and i am not saying reyna being told to go run to the backline and receive a pass is either a good use or what i mean. i am talking about the ability to hit an outlet and get out of our own end.

you and i both know that's primarily reyna and weah, and somewhat CP. CP has a bad tendency to just dribble off himself and lose it trying to slalom 5 guys.

no, i think you're missing my point which is when we put reyna and CP wide we lack the footspeed to get them separated, get them the outlet, and break out of our side.

and if we try to work it up the middle it's usually fugly as heck that night. are you kidding with that.

 

Reyna has no business hitting outlets unless he is doing so as part of a defensive formation tucked in from the wing. Dude has no positional sense and has trouble keeping shapes with the guys around him. So when he’s “central”, he’s running around like a headless chicken snuffing out angles. He may as well be playing 6 for the other team.

In my opinion Reyna should be given a shot to play as a second forward or withdrawn forward. That is the area of the field where he is a connector.

 

It appears that Gio may or may not have top shelf ability and the primary reason that is not clear is the one ability he sorely lacks....avail ability.

Without that particular ability any other discussion is moot. I would go so far as to say he even lacks availability for recovery, since he also consistently takes longer to heal due to "setbacks."

As to his place in the USMNT, it is a false equivalency. to compare player selection in this era to players from eras that had very few players at top flight clubs. We now have multiple players playing CL football not a bunch of guys training together because they can't get a spot on a real team. Comparing past selection decisions from a tiny player pool to a modern pool significantly larger is absurd.

As to his place at the WC in 2026. I suppose he could get healthy and become the player many think he is, and get enough club minutes to make Poch take notice, but the magic 8 ball says not likely. Poch is not beholden to the USSF goodoleboy network, and I doubt he succumbs to pressure to call up ANY player. If he doesn't think CP can help us win, CP will be sitting in Italy or watching in the stands with Alexa Melton. It would be hard for him to see how Gio can help him until he sees Gio play a run of games and be influential.

 

To me, one of the saddest things about the situation is that Gio could spend the next 1.5 years on and off the shelf, doing something useful and occasionally incredible and staying in the same conversation until he decides his tired, creaky body can't take it anymore. On the flipside, he might just as easily end up in some cow field in USL. No one knows, not even him, how his body or mind will respond when he's back on the field, if he can stay back on the field, and for how long. This series of "little" injuries has inexplicably lasted years at this point, one after another after just a few games back.

I'm a huge fan of his and hope he can realize his promise and talent, but I no longer really *think* it will happen. What happens when he actually gets a major injury? The game moves too fast and sometimes all that goes wrong with a guy's career is he just couldn't really get back on the field

 

If Reyna makes it back health-wise, I would not be surprised if he minimized international play in order to conserve his body. Concacaf is semi-rugby, semi-soccer.

 

Americans are such snowflakes when it comes to soccer. For some reason Wrexham thuggery is given a pass.

 

It's always been a two squad thing. Qualify with quite a few grinders and then bring in some skill guys for WC because the refs and everything are so different.

What did you expect since their main owner is a Canadian hoser?

 

This.

Without being available, the young man cannot make avail of whatever talent he has, or does not have.

Its too bad, but this is what it is.

 

Weird speculation about a what player or coach might or might not do 20 months from now. Reyna has had some contact injuries mixed in with some non-contact. It's not as though he's John O'brien.
Only Pulisic has been producing at Gio's rate with the National Team. We'll see whether he recovers to his previous levels.

 

Well yeah but Pulisic never had injuries in his early 20s

 

He missed 5 months with an adductor injury at Chelsea.

 

I thought it would be pretty obvious that was sarcasm given how frequently Pulisic seemed to get injured until like 18 months ago

 

I still think Gio could make it.
Gio needs a good transfer as soon as possible. There are only six USMNT camps left

 

I think he either needs to fight for his place at. Dortmund or take a loan in January. Noone is going to spend a lot of money on him given his recent injury and lack of playing time.

 

How many YEARS are we going to keep talking about Reyna "if he makes it back healthy." ??? He is who he is. He is never going to be a player you can rely on long term. His just got one of those bodies that gets injured a lot. What we have to hope is that he finds a team, gets to play a good number of minutes, and happens to hit a healthy stretch in summer 2026.

 

We will until someone better is around. So when Cavan is on the full team.

 

Cole is a fur piece away from matching Gio. Gio can play anywhere on the pitch and has always been a "natural" (the only one I see for USA, frankly). I'm eagerly awaiting more reps for Cole at Dortmund. That will be the acid test.

 

He doesn't need a transfer. BVB are in such disarray that if he can get healthy he'll have plenty of chances to prove himself. He just needs to get healthy.

 

One can never fully understand what is going on in a player’s mind, but I can tell you what I would probably be thinking about if I was in Reyna’s shoes….

I would be terrified to go all in on a challenge or exert myself fully in a match - because deep down I would fear that the next injury would be the last, and would be either the end of my career or would cause me to have to play in MLS/USL and leave the top leagues of Europe. Perhaps this is on Reyna’s mind each day in training or on match days? Who knows.

Again, I am always rooting for him, and I think our biggest hope at this point has to be 1) he goes to a club quickly that has to rely on him, whether that be MLS, or the mid-to-lower-table teams of Holland, Germany, Italy, etc. and 2) as he continues to age, that he settles into his body and the injuries may subside and become less frequent. But on that latter point, I must confess I know nothing of kinesiology or physiotherapy.