The transition from 2022 to 2023 for the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) can only be described as a self-inflicted catastrophe, to put it nicely. Instead of discussing coaching decisions and preparation for 2026, the USMNT narrative is being dominated by a story all too representative of the toxic side of American youth soccer in the form of Gio Reyna (mostly his parents Claudio and Danielle) vs former USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter.
What Happened?
In case you were fortunate enough to miss it, everything began during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Throughout the four games the US played in the tournament, there was a noticeable lack of Gio Reyna, who had proven himself integral for his club Borussia Dortmund in the German top flight as well as in the qualification and preparation matches leading up to Qatar.
Nothing was officially reported until after the US were knocked out by the Netherlands in the round of 16, but suspicions had arisen of a rift between Berhalter and Gio, purely based on the fact that there didn’t seem to be any other reason for his lack of involvement. It wasn’t long before those suspicions were confirmed.
On December 11th, Berhalter spoke to Charter Works about leadership, where he detailed a situation where an unnamed player had not met his expectations both on and off the field. This was dealt with by having said player apologize to the entire squad, followed by each other player in the squad airing their grievances one by one to drive home the disappointment.
Suspicions surrounding the Reyna and Berhalter rift were peaking at this point. That’s when Gio decided to chime in.
The next day, Gio released a statement on Instagram, confirming the situation Berhalter described as well as relaying his disappointment that this storyline has continued, given the initial understanding that this would be taken care of completely “in house”.
For a while, it seemed like this would be the end of it. A bit of turbulence between a star player and a coach soon out of contract, all to hopefully be written off as an unfortunate manifestation of the decent but disappointing outing in Qatar.
In comes 2023.
Three days into the new year Berhalter released a statement on Twitter, bringing to light a story about him getting physical with his wife Rosalind in 1991, and claiming that this story was being used by an individual to “take him down” within the United States Soccer Foundation (USSF) structure.
The following day, reports suggested that Gio’s father, former USMNT captain and current Austin City FC General Manager Claudio Reyna, sent the information to US Soccer officials. Soon after, Claudio and his wife, former USWNT midfielder Danielle Egan Reyna, released a statement confirming her involvement in bringing up the story while dispelling the reports of intent to threaten Berhalter.
This spat between former colleagues has resulted in two things so far: the USSF launching an investigation into the Berhalter situation, and former Colorado Rapids head coach Anthony Hudson being named interim head coach for the USMNT in lieu of Berhalter’s contract expiring.
My Take
This is hands down one of, if not THE most embarrassing thing the USMNT has ever done, far surpassing the failed qualifications for World Cup 2018 and two Olympic games over the past decade. It puts on display the worst within the US Soccer landscape from those directly at the top, and is honestly far too frivolous a situation to happen compared to the potential consequences.
Ironically, out of all involved in this, Gio Reyna individually comes out looking the best. After starring for Dortmund and quickly becoming a fan favorite among USMNT fans, his disappointment in being told he’d be used in limited fashion on the world’s biggest stage is more than valid.
Though we don’t know the details of what needed straightening out, it seems that he was pulled out of that funk during the tournament and that there were no more residual problems. The way in which we know that is the first embarrassment of this whole debacle, which was Berhalter discussing this in quite a bit of detail eight days after being knocked out of the World Cup.
Gio’s response was firm and fair, and made a great point that regardless of the context in discussing leadership, the situation is far too fresh and intimate to have aired out and dragged on. Berhalter overstepped in both the handling of the situation and the outcome, creating a massive distraction out of what should’ve been a simple lesson in professionalism.
The Reyna parents snowball this whole thing from bad to worse, practically exemplifying that high school parent that emails the Athletic Director asking for the coach to be fired because their kid isn’t getting enough playing time. The stark difference is that the stakes here could not be any higher, and though their ultimate goal may have been reached, it may come at far too great a cost.
I just want to know what the Reyna family dinner was like that Thursday night. Plenty of beef to go around, I’m sure.
So, What Now?
This comes at a horrific time for the USMNT, who are entering the most important World Cup cycle in the team’s history. By 2026, they’ll have a squad that ideally is prepared to take on the rest of the world on home soil and elevate the US in the global context of the men’s game. When that day comes, we will all be looking back at this situation. Whether that be with laughter or disdain is solely dependent on the decisions that are made now.
Immediate-to-long term consequences fall on Berhalter and Gio respectively, with the latter being potentially dealt the worst hand of the lot. Regardless of what comes out of the USSF investigation, there is no way Berhalter can be given the head coaching job again. Any continuation of this tenure would be accompanied with this dark gray cloud, and that lack of focus is not affordable for the next three and a half years.
On the other hand, Gio’s career is in the balance. His future involvement with the USMNT is in serious doubt, as well as with any other potential club, because ultimately no one can trust that his parents won’t do something like this again. It drags down what looks to be a very promising career, unless someone takes that leap of faith and invests in Gio individually.
The actions of Danielle and Claudio may have driven the final nail in the Berhalter coffin, but may have also dug Gio’s grave. At best, they pretended to care about an instance of domestic violence that they had full awareness of at the time. At worst, they attempted to blackmail Gregg Berhalter out of a job he wasn’t even guaranteed to continue in the first place, at the expense of their son’s career, which is what they were claiming to defend.
Either way, the legacies of these names formerly revered in American soccer history are now some of its greatest blemishes. There’s a lot at stake, for no reason at all, and it sucks to know this situation is going to suck for a while. Maybe all the “adults” in this situation can take a page out of the Tyler Adams book of maturity moving forward.
Here is the actual video of @tyler_adams14 beautiful, humble response to a journalist at his press conference before the @USMNT vs. Iran match.
cc: @usmntonly @MenInBlazers pic.twitter.com/kTZbEpuZm1
— Ryan OLeary (@BR0leary) November 28, 2022
