Giovanni “Gio” Reyna US National Team Discussion

Or, you could look at it as:

"Pulisic has actually done things in his career,
Reyna has done jack and shyte without Haaland and Bellingham in his career,
Kochen hasn't done anything in his career,
Cavan hasn't done anything in his career."


Like it or not, Reyna's playing resume looks horribly shabby st this point. MLS could just be the right fit for him, because as noted, he's done jack and shyte without All World team mates to carry him.

 

I suggest that Haaland and Bellingham move to MLS, someone alert X and their respective football associations.

 

I think the thing is most of these guys will have other options in Europe. The reason MLS becomes attractive is once you go to a big club very few other places are willing to match your salary if you move down in Europe. But MLS would for a bigger name American player. And most people don’t typically like leaving money on the table.

 

For some reason I thought we were only counting Bundesliga minutes. Guess I don’t read good. That Champions League 28 is gonna get him over the line.

 

5 goals in 12 World Cup matches is ok I guess.

 

We'll just agree to disagree. I would agree no question IF he were to start getting consistent minutes at Dortmund.

 

I'm sure a MLS team would outbid most European teams to get an American player like Reyna. It's not like MLS owners are strapped for cash. Any small operating loss is more than covered by increased valuations.

Not a good move for his career at the moment though.

 

Landon is frankly the reason we expect to see more from the USMNT. If not for him, we would not have progressed the way we did between 2002 and 2012. I always suspect when someone is critical of the guy, they simply didn’t experience that time period first hand.

 

That's just silly, jingoistic bull----.

Our greatest accomplishment of the Donovan WC era was winning a WC R16 game against a local rival we owned for much of the 1990s and aughts, earning a ticket to the WC QF's. That's it. We've got a run to the finals of the Confed Cup that only we care about, and that's a wrap. It's absurd to say that when you have a litany of Brazilian, Italian, French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Argentine megastuds etc who've taken their teams to the title and/or won regional confedration championships against infinitely tougher competition than 2000-2007 era El Tri.

I love Donovan, I have him as the best US international ever, I don't think Dempsey's close, even though Dempsey was tougher, and awesome, but I still realize that's an insane statement, assist record or not. Pele's Brazil, Cryuff's Netherlands, Beckenbauer's Germany, Maradona and Messi's Argentina, Ronaldo's Brazil, Xavi and Iniesta's Spain, Maldini's Italy, Zidane's Spain, and I'm literally just writing names like that down while grading tests and listening to Spiderverse playing in the other room doing no research or leg work whatsoever. I could probably think of a good 150 more if I spent some time and research which I won't be doing. Come on.

 

What’s a USMNT game where Gio was awful?

 

I think that club play is incredibly predictive… when I am doing the predictions.

 

I don't see why we can't have another Donovan like guy who's a key national team contributor while playing mainly in MLS during his career. Doesn't have to be Reyna. Doesn't have to be anyone for that matter, but as time goes on I wouldn't be surprised if MLS eventually woos a top American in his prime. You can't be too surprised or shocked when soccer, the most global sport, sometimes sees that reflected in player movement.

Also in a couple more decades the Club World Cup might be a bigger deal and a top club in what is today considered a clearly lesser league might not be seen as such a massive drop in standard. Like we've already seen Pulisic benefit from going to Milan to be a bigger fish in a slightly smaller pond compared to Chelsea and the EPL. U.S. fans are eating up the PSV moves by Yanks. Heck, we love Pochettino but he could be coaching week in week out in a top five Euro league right now instead of playing two against Jamaica and calling it a year.

 

Pulisic took a very large pay cut going from Chelsea to Milan.

 

A bit strong don't you think?

He was an excellent player at international level, but of all time and for any country?

 

It’s a demonstrable fact. Sorry that hurts you so much.

 

No. Messi is literally about to tie his record. It is demonstrated with facts.

 

Copa America.

Dude was supposed to be the offensive focal point and straight fell off the map and disappeared.

 

Better (at least at the time) than Messi Ronaldo Zlatan Rooney etc etc
But not good enough to actually take him to the next World Cup

LD was the first men's player to have over 50 international goals and assists? Since joined by I think Neymar and Messi?

 

Stat padding vs CONCACAF fodder.

 

Maybe, but if players and managers around the world thought MLS was a net positive on a pathway to playing in big games, the league would have attracted more talent (in their prime) after Landon paved the way.

Everyone has a situation and I can’t think of many young guys that stepped down to MLS in order to get unstuck…where it worked. What am I missing?

 

He also was a key contributor to a team that made the Quarterfinals of a World Cup, a team that nearly won a Confederations Cup, knocking off Spain's historic run in the process, and racked up numerous trophies over his career. Dude is legit.

 

MLS attracts plenty of younger talented players from around the world. It’s because they pay well and the checks show up on time (which isn’t true in a lot of leagues).

Plenty of players who are in bad situations abroad have come back to MLS to find better playing situations. Zach Steffen has done this twice and the first time it was a precursor to his move to Man City. Two notable factors are it wasn’t till a few years ago that MLS was a selling league. The other issue is once you get past a certain age you are likely making too much money in MLS and teams abroad aren’t going to be willing to pay much of a transfer fee.

MLS is a perfectly fine league. It’s not as good a league as the Bundesliga but you’re better off looking at individual players and their quality versus just the league they play in. And plenty of MLS players have played well for the USMNT in World Cups.

 

One other thing about Pulisic is being the face of the program he’s got a lot more opportunities for endorsements and other related outside income to make up the gap in terms of the pay cut he did have to take. I don’t think that’s the case for anyone else on the team in a comparable fashion.

 

I don’t agree with that characterization for any of those 3 specific games.

I think there also was a lot of talk about how the new, deeper role (that debuted in the NL final) that shifted Gio’s burden from attack to progression and whether that was wise.

 

It would be inconvenient to characterize his role as an offensive hub in that manner because then there is no one else to blame for his underwhelming performance.

His role was described as a “free” attacking role, not a “deeper” role. Meaning, someone allowed him to headlesschicken the formation. But when Gio headlesschickens, he doesn’t find an appropriate strategic attacking position to wait in until the formation and the ball circulation of his teammates finds him. Instead of patiently waiting for an opportunity to get involved, he wanders around the back line trying to take the ball off of the center backs (so he can back-pass to the…center backs), vacating his attacking position.

I guarantee you that there is not a single person at either the national team or his club team that wants Gio Reyna wandering around the back line. They want him in the attacking third. Tactically, he’s a mess.