Borussia Dortmund has called on Gio Reyna off the bench in each of its past two Bundesliga matches and the U.S. men’s national team attacker has proceeded to deliver on both occasions.
Reyna scored a 93rd minute winner on Wednesday as Edin Terzic’s squad defeated Mainz 2-1 away from home. The impactful substitute performance from Reyna was the second over the past four days as Reyna also scored the winner in a 4-3 triumph against Augsburg on Sunday.
Both teams traded early goals as majority of the match was played with a 1-1 scoreline. Jae-Sung Lee’s second minute opener propelled Mainz in front, but Borussia Dortmund struck back as Julian Ryerson equalizer for the visitors.
Reyna came onto the field in the 62nd minute and was lively from the get-go. He won four of eight duels, drew two fouls, and made two recoveries. His most important contribution though came in the 93rd minute off a Borussia Dortmund corner kick.
Sebastien Haller’s flicked header in the box allowed Reyna to slam home the pass for his fourth Bundesliga goal of the season.
“When I came on, I wanted to make a difference,” Reyna said. “It hasn’t always been nice to watch. We haven’t performed well away recently. But we gave everything until the end. We made several important changes, worked hard and now things are moving in the right direction.”
Borussia Dortmund is up to fourth place in the Bundesliga table and will next visit eighth place Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday.
Quaker, he was subbed in at the 70th minute on the weekend and the 60th minute this game. Maybe he came in too early against Holland. Doh!!
Right. Gio is only guaranteed to score if he plays between 20-30 minutes off the bench in the second half … how could GGG not see that?! Duh!!!!
sounds cute except don’t look too close at how much pulisic and weah play for their club teams then. this is the problem with fanboys these days, cherry picked arguments not equally applied to everyone, that wouldn’t look any better for 99% of this team. how many big club guys we got playing 90 every week? maybe turner? but more to the point i’ve been arguing some or all of these guys should step down a notch and get playing time.
perhaps consider it’s a side effect of their ambition and not an indicator of their quality. most of these teams have players we would consider stars coming off the bench. part of why the teams do what they do.
It was proven that Pulisic’s fitness level allowed him to play 90 minutes at the WC including the last game coming off injury. Did you have access to the US training sessions to see that Reyna was 90 minutes fit or the Dortmund training sessions now? From what I saw, it looked like he tired in the 45 minutes against Holland. Dortmund still 2 months after the WC isn’t starting him. They either think he isn’t one of their top attacking players, think he isn’t 90 minutes fit, or being a selling club are worried he will get injured again with lots of minutes. Maybe there is some other reason but those seem like the most likely. I am pretty sure he was a regular starter for Dortmund before the ES injury. Do you consider yourself a Gio fanboy?
Good effort on the back post run and slick finish. Keep it going!
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Even so, spare me the counterfactuals to the effect that Gio was in this form in November, and that the US would have gone farther if he had played 90 minutes instead of 52.
Gio last went 90 minutes on March 20. # of times he’s gone over 70 since then? 1.
he had goals 10/22 and 11/5 in games he started but i hate to mess with your narrative. and before that he was hurt, not playing bad.