Gio Reyna’s production as a Borussia Dortmund substitute continued Saturday with the U.S. men’s national team attacker helping ice the Black and Yellow’s home win.
Reyna scored his seventh Bundesliga goal and fifth as a substitute this season in Borussia Dortmund’s 5-2 victory over Borussia Moenchengladbach. It was Reyna’s first goal for Edin Terzic’s squad since April 15.
The 20-year-old came off the bench in the 69th minute with Dortmund holding a 4-0 advantage over their rivals. Gladbach pulled two goals back through Remy Bensebaini and Lars Stindl, but Reyna would have the final say before the final whistle after being the guilty party to concede Bensebaini’s spot kick earlier in the half.
Raphael Guerrero’s long-range shot was saved by Jan Olschowsky before Reyna pounced on his own rebound to ice the final score at 5-2.
He won two duels, completed all 11 of his passes, and registered three shots in total off the bench.
Borussia Dortmund’s win keeps it one point behind league-leaders Bayern Munich with two matches to play. Up next for Dortmund is a trip to Augsburg on May 21 before concluding the season at Signal Iduna Park against Mainz.
Apparently Napoli has reached out to Jesus Ferrieras reps inquiring about buying him. So maybe that’s the American they are looking at. Very interesting. Transfer fee would be around the 12 million dollar range.
That one doesn’t make much sense to me and I’m a Ferreira fan. Certainly they couldn’t go for Oshimen to Ferreira. So either they are interested as a winger or it’s just an agent trying to drum up real interest. Pulisic has been rumored with Napoli off and on for years that would make the most sense.
Or Napolis scouting department see something in him nobody else is seeing. Osimhen hadn’t really lit it up prior to going to Napoli. If it does indeed happen it will be interesting to see where they utilize him.
2tone, I’ve watched at least 50 Ferreira matches over the last two and a half seasons. I know I don’t know as much as the Napoli scouting department, but I’m 99.9% sure they aren’t planning on replacing Osimhen with just Ferreira. That’s not a slight on Ferreira, there are not a lot of guys out there that could step in and lead the line at Napoli.
Hey you never know. Jesus Ferreira is on course for another 18 + goal season. Personally I don’t think he has been utilized that well with the USMNT. Sometimes players figure it out in better talented teams. Ferreira may just surprise all of us.
Napoli must need a mascot badly.
Feels like he’s leaving in the summer so Dortmund has moved on. 5g in 220 min since WC? I know they have guys who have been playing well but a goal every 45 mins. A goal every 93 mins in Bundesliga this season. Something is going on; injury, transfer, drama.
the missing question in US Soccer right now is “why?” how are we trying to play? how are we trying to score goals? how are we trying to defend for 90? how does an executive or coach hire fit the overall concept, what is a player out there to do, and how does player x work with player y? for all the euro-imitation i think we have regressed in terms of understanding how to grind results, score goals, and win games. to me this is some fanboy all star team with aspirational tactics that don’t actually make the team better. they need to sit down and figure out how they intend to score or stop teams, and selection decisions need to fit that.
what US fans need to learn — which weah and others should already have taught — is when their “rate” is this good we shouldn’t care about their club situation (other than as gossip or a footnote), and we should even be looking at how we can tweak our tactics to put them in similar spots.
Your idea of grinding results is giving the other team most of the ball and hoping a CB makes a mistake and we put one past in the 81st minute to secure a draw. We now know how you discovered an unknown teen named Gio that rose from utter obscurity to join a little known club in Germany’s industrial northwest. A club roster full of journeyman who led by the humble American teen saw their way to the top 5 of Germany for the first time in … well since the year before he came. If Gio is as great as you say and he may just well be, there is no reason that he should have to bunker in with 8 or 9 behind the ball and grind out a result. Our roster is better than anyone else in the region and better than 90% of the NTs in the world we don’t need to play like your youth team and loft long balls hoping we can out athlete the other team like it’s 1997. The next manager will have some tough decisions to make because some fan fav athletes will need to be left off if we are actually going to possess the ball and look to play through teams instead of over or around them. I think Berhalter’s biggest mistake was constantly trying to arrange the team around the MMA midfield until we were in a system that really didn’t fit the front three or the back so we could benefit the middle three. However then we didn’t have any backups that could do what MMA does so they were worn out by the knockouts. Gio when fit (physically and mentally) should always be in the US roster few if any disagree with that. But everyday he sits on the bench he gives the next guy up a chance to improve and move past him.
For me the MMA midfield should not be the go to midfield. Don’t think they compliment each other that well. McKennie being utilized as the attacking midfielder doesn’t suit his strengths. I think it can be utilized in certain situations, but we need a more creative attacker as the third guy i.e. Reyna, M. Tillman, possibly Paxten Aaronson in the future. And to be a little blunt Musah has kind of regressed a bit this season. We are building more and more talented depth. Having guys on the bench where see almost no drop off in talent will win you WC’s.
JR,
This has been true since maybe the 2010 World Cup if not earlier.
The USMNT has outgrown CONCACAF. But the same team, the same style that works best in CONCACAF does not really make the USMNT a a serious World Cup contender. Yet CONCACAF is what the USMNT spends most of it’s precious practice time getting ready for.
And everyone wonders why we have trouble outside CONCACAF?
CONCACAF is the SPL of the international game. The USMNT is Celtic to Mexico’s Rangers. But notice how both Celtic or Rangers get demolished by so-so Euro competition when they try their luck there?
It’s like NCAA men’s football . The only serious Conference is the SEC because they play the best teams which is why those guys are the only ones who win the championship. They salivate when they have to play an Ohio State. You can look it up.
People who take pride in winning the Nations League or the Gold Cup are just fooling themselves.
MMA might have been our best midfield trio but they are , at the World Cup level, just modestly talented.
Someone, somewhere thought Gregg’s humble and limited abilities as a national team coach would be offset by this immensely talented Golden Generation that he was going to be swamped with. Gregg built a good team culture but you need more than that. He needed better players and more of them.
They rose to the occasion and did very well in Qatar all things considered but the players were not as good as advertised and , once the game started, the manager was in over his head.
If they want to make noise in 2026. they will need BOTH a very legit manager coupled with at least 6-7 new higher level players than what we had before.
I for one am tired of moral victories. I’m tired of hearing ” we did well for an American team.” And even that is inaccurate.
It should be “we did well for a CONCACAF team,” because that is what we are.
How does that sound?
If the USMNT show up with the same level of management and with the same roster in 2026, unless all 26 guys. are significantly improved we’re going to look a lot like Leeds does right about now.
V: I’m not even sure it will take 6 or 7. I think if we had one guy in MF that is more multidimensional it would be enough to move the bar. If Musah or Adams could make that connecting pass or McKennie improved his focus. The MF not being able to play the ball thru the middle makes us so much easier to defend, we’re one dimensional. Also wouldn’t hurt if our FBs could combine and defend. That one feels more likely. And of course a striker that can consistently finish. So 3 guys even with Peter Vermes gets us to the quarterfinals.
JR,
You’re very optimistic.
I’m not saying MMA can’t, because the WC is about players playing over their heads for a few games.
But you’re assuming that MMA will bring their A games when it looks like only Musah is trending upwards while Tyler and Weston are trending down.
I can see Weston and Tyler not starting or even being on the roster by 2026. And our primary source of dynamic offensive creativity, Christian and Diva Shitbag Gio face uncertain futures at the moment. And Timo is being turned into Phonso Davis 2.0. How is that going to go?
I want to make the semis with a chance to not embarrass ourselves. And I want to make sure we advance further than JK’s South Korea.
I’ll stay with 6-7, one of whom should be Gio doing what he’s doing now for Dortmund. Gregg could have used that version of Gio.
You’re forgetting:
1. We didn’t really get anyone hurt in Qatar. No Jozy hamstring or Clint broken nose in the first game.
2. Except for Shaq Moore , just about everyone we used played about as well as they could . That does not always happen.
3. We had a good draw. All the games were hard and close but Iran and Wales were beatable and that’s all you can ask for.
The lack of depth meant Gregg had to ride his horses and put them away wet and we know what that means.
This team needs another gear, a difference maker either in terms of a different formation or a player or two .
V: the loss of Sargent in Qatar was impactful, maybe Gregg starts Ferreira anyway but I don’t think so. Luca was technically healthy but not truly available which added to the minutes on the MF legs. If Wes had come in healthy would he have run out of gas? I’m not seeing any game changers that look ready in the next few years so people are going to have to develop. Don’t get me wrong the U17s and U20s are good, but I don’t see a generational talent Pulisic or Dempsey that will be ready by 2026. I’m sure 2tone will come up with some names.
Bellingham gets sold Reyna fits right into the Attacking midfield spot. Rues has been benched too.
But Napoli could come calling. Owner stated they would like to pursuit getting an American player. Both Pulisic and Reyna could be in contention.
Yes, this is very possible.
“Bellingham gets sold Reyna fits right into the Attacking midfield spot.”
Not that simple. Bellingham, a more rounded player, does a lot more than what Gio has been doing. If anything, Gio looked like he was being groomed to replace Marco someday.
2tone, I agree with Vacqui here. Bellingham has the freedom to get forward and often does but he still has box to box responsibilities. Brandt would be more the like for like for Gio.
Vacqui is right.
Prior to the injury, (and I forgot who said it at the time) but it was mentioned that they saw Gio as a long term replacement for Marco Reus. Who knows where he stands now, but that was the sentiment at the time.