The long and grueling wait for Gio Reyna came to an end on Saturday as the U.S. men’s national team attacker made his return to competitive action for Borussia Dortmund.
Reyna made his first appearance of the new Bundesliga season and his first overall since April 8, playing the final 28 minutes in a 3-2 home defeat to Werder Bremen. The 19-year-old had missed most of the 2021-22 campaign through multiple hamstring injuries, but made his return to Edin Terzic’s side.
Dortmund claimed a 1-0 advantage before halftime thanks to Julian Brandt’s goal in stoppage time. Raphael Guerreiro doubled the hosts lead at Signal Iduna Park, extending Dortmund’s advantage to 2-0 in the 77th minute.
However, Werder Bremen fought its way back to score three unanswered goals in the final six minutes of the match to claim a 3-2 victory. Lee Buchanan, Niklas Schmidt, and Oliver Burke all celebrated goals as Werder Bremen earned its first league win of the new campaign.
Reyna won his only duel in the match, completed one dribble, created once chance, and made two recoveries from his attacking position. It was a positive return for Reyna, who now aims for consistent playing time ahead of September international duty with the USMNT.
Borussia Dortmund next travels to Hertha Berlin on Aug. 27 before hosting Hoffenheim on Sept. 2.
My take away from that match was if Werner had been the manager instead of Kohfeldt, Sargent would still be in the Bundesliga. We suffered trying to watch Bremen under Kohfeldt, no ideas, no energy, no connection. Bremen really deserved the victory they outplayed BvB for most of the match and were unlucky to be down 2-0 in the 88th to begin with.
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I agree with others that Reyna was lacking in his defensive help but the backline for Dortmund was awful. 6s and 7s is an understatement particularly after Hummels left.
I watched the game. I’ve seen Gio play plenty of times and he’s good. Unfortunately today he looked a bit lazy (for lack of a better term) defensively. It annoyed me and hopefully it didn’t annoy the coach. He was at fault for the second goal during the Bremen comeback. I pass was played towards Gio and he went down easily trying to win a foul. It wasn’t called. Then he lazily tracked back on defense. You could almost read Gio’s mind as he recognized that the opposing player in front of him was dangerous and he should run back and cover him, but he didn’t because he didn’t want to give the extra energy to sprint back. And sure enough that’s the player that scored the goal right in front of Gio. Shades of Timmy Chandler with the USMNT not wanting to hustle back on D after bombing forward. Let’s hope the manager doesn’t notice that on tape.
Saw the same stuff out of him you did and commented on it on another thread. His defensive work rate does not thrill me and he was by a mile the laziest player on the field for Dortmund. He showed his quality when he got on the ball but durn, kid. Get some hustle and stick in. You were in for all of 30 minutes and playing for the first time in months, did you have something better to do?
Did he something better to do? Not get re injured. I have seen Gio work hard defensively prior to all of the injury issues. Also he is working back to match fit. Also it’s a mental thing to get over. The last two times he pushed it for Dortmund he came out injured. He is working back in slowly.
“Let’s hope the manager doesn’t notice that on tape.”
The manager didn’t need any tape. I’m sure he and his entire medical staff were watching Gio like a stalker.
If I am the manager the #1 thing I’m telling Gio is “ease into it and don’t get hurt again.” What’s encouraging is that the manager did not have pull him early.
Gio basically flushed last season down the toilet because he kept trying to come back and kept getting hurt again.
Did you expect that he was going to throw his body all around the field and do a wind sprint every chance he got?
With hamstring issues and on his mind and the Word Cup right around the corner? His confidence in his body is shit and needs to be rebuilt.
Walking off at the end under his own power is a major win right now.
“If I am the manager the #1 thing I’m telling Gio is “ease into it and don’t get hurt again.”
That’s not how it works in sports and I bet that’s not what the manager said. After an injury a player rests and rehabs. When he is deemed healthy enough for physical activity the player starts ramping up the activity. All this happens in training. By the time you actually see a player playing again in actual games it is because he has been deemed to be fully fit and completely back from his injury.
Anyways we are talking about completely different things here. Obviously it’s good to see Gio back and playing, but we aren’t talking about physical limitations here, we are talking about hustle. If a teammate had played a through ball to him in the offensive zone with a chance to score I guarantee that Gio would have sprinted after that ball full tilt.
This is just one game, first game back. He didn’t look good today is all I’m saying. Did not show a good work rate. That needs to improve or else he will stay on the bench.
“All this happens in training. By the time you actually see a player playing again in actual games it is because he has been deemed to be fully fit and completely back from his injury.”
That’s the standard line but it’s not true.
If it were, BVB would not have waited until the final 28 minutes to play him.
If he were “fully fit” they would have started him because he needs the competitive minutes to knock the rust off. He just missed an entire season.
Instead they are easing him in slowly because they are not 100% confident about his physical fitness.
And, more important, neither is he.
His hamstring might be as healed and strong as it is ever to likely be. He physically might be 100%. But his mind might not quite believe it yet.
This game was part of a process where Gio is starting to rebuild his confidence in his own body.
“If a teammate had played a through ball to him in the offensive zone with a chance to score I guarantee that Gio would have sprinted after that ball full tilt.”
You can’t prove that can you?
I hope he can get back to playing regularly. When he is in form he is such a dynamic player, making good things happen for his team, both club and national.