Gio Reyna’s lack of playing time at Nottingham Forest didn’t stand in the way of him delivering an impactful substitute performance for the U.S. men’s national team on Thursday.
Reyna came off the bench and registered two assists in the USMNT’s 3-1 extra time comeback victory over Jamaica in CONCACAF Nations League semifinals. The 21-year-old earned SBI Man of the Match honors after impressing in his 75-minute outing at AT&T Stadium.
Reyna didn’t start Thursday’s match but had a major say in the final result. His through ball pass in the 96th minute allowed fellow substitute Haji Wright to boost the USMNT in front 2-1.
It marked Reyna’s first USMNT assist since November international duty against Trinidad & Tobago.
After helping the USMNT grab the lead, Reyna’s second assist sealed the result for Gregg Berhalter’s squad. His flicked pass in to the Jamaica box was stroked home by Wright for a 3-1 USMNT advantage with 11 minutes to play.
Reyna completed 90% of his passes, led all players in chances created (four), completed three tackles, and won five duels.
The USMNT would hang on to seal a third-straight trip to the Nations League Final.
Reyna edged out Haji Wright, Weston McKennie, and Miles Robinson for Man of the Match honors.
What did you think of Reyna’s performance? Do you see him starting in Sunday’s Final?
Share your thoughts below.
So Reyna has his moments where he plays soft, slow to recover and mark a guy, and will play for a foul. However, his two assists he hard into 50/50 balls and delivered quality dangerous passes.
hilarious arguments about who is the MOTM
anyway, Wright scored the brace, hardly simple finishes, in fact, the exact finishes needed that no one else could supply…how many times did we strike it right to Blake, after nice passes to set up the shots? Many is the answer. Gio, Balo, Pepe, CP, BA, Malik…ALL of them did it!!! right to Blake
not Haji. yes, Gio played well too
I don’t know about basing MOTM on a player’s best moment. I want to see one of those “every touch” videos, because I swear Reyna gave the ball away the first 20 times he touched it. I was done with him until he put one dangerous pass through, and then of course he does it again. and again. Can’t live with him, can’t sell him.
” I swear Reyna gave the ball away the first 20 times he touched it. I was done with him until he put one dangerous pass through, and then of course he does it again. and again.”
You don’t pay a guy like Gio to be a high percentage, game manager type, safe passer. You don’t pay him to be Captain Backpass.
You pay him to make cut throat killer passes and that sometimes requires some missed passes.
That’s the beauty of being an attacking player. You can go 2 for 30 but if one of those two passes is an assist, then you’re good.
Dude, this is dripping (saturated) w/ hyperbole … dude had a 90% passing rate. 😔
As for Reyna, I thought the reason he was so impactful was that the US was playing 2-touch soccer and a slow version of that, as in receive the ball, then look around and make a pass. Reyna immediately played 1-touch and that just sped everything up (Tillman did that a bit in the 1st half, but not as frequently or a well.) After things got faster, and maybe after after Jamaica got a bit tired, Reyna was afforded more time to hold the ball. Still both his assists came from a bit of chaotic play that happened too fast for Jamaica to respond. If I were GB, I would spend some time forcing 1-touch play from everyone to speed things up.
As for Wright, his goals were hardly tap-ins, in each case, he received a 50-50 ball in tight space, avoided the defender and despite the pressure still hit the goal.
Without either Wright or Reyna, the game probably wqould have gone to PKs. (
Also, a shout out to Turner who denied what could have been a game tying goal in extra time.
What an enigma this kid is. I’m going to guess his issue with club coaches is the style in which he plays. He is **so** nonchalant. He walks around a la Messi with no urgency. With the Nats he turns it on like Messi and makes game changing plays. This doesn’t happen at Dortmund and it’s not appreciated by his teammates however with he US rolls with it and trusts him. Coaches can’t be thrilled with lackadaisical style either. He’s earned that right with the nationals but at club level he still has to prove himself.
Man Of The Match:
CLEARLY Haji Wright
1) Was only called in because someone dropped out
2) Came off the Bench
3) Made the right runs to receive the right pass
4) Delivered two goals that got the USMNT through
5) Scored two goals that were not tap in’s and showed form
“An assist is not classed or counted without the ball FIRST striking the back of the net”. Congrats kids
People like to rip his first touch. I’d say it was his first touch that was what made the first goal. Sure Gio plays a sweet outside of the foot nicely weighted pass…right into a 50/50 (ok maybe 60/40). It was Haji’s first touch with his right, pulling the ball away from the defender, creating space for him to then fire the shot far post with his weaker left foot. He had A LOT of work to do after the Gio pass and was calm and cool about it.
Of course if Miles doesn’t head in the stoppage time corner off Burke. Haji ends with like 10 touches and 1 shot off target.
I guess we can see just how much better a #10 Malik is than Gio.
Calm down they are both talented. Pulisic one times his shot in the first half Tillman has an assist. No reason to come on and start stoking a fire. Both will be vital to the USMNT for many years.
Wasn’t it Balo that passed to Pulisic on the break?
“Both will be vital to the USMNT for many years.”
Gio already IS.
He just did what Pulisic usually does, make the difference.
Malik might be someday.
I’m talking about actual reality.
You’re talking about potential. Like Parcells said ” Potential means you ain’t done it yet.” And may not.
Gio is younger than Malik but he’s more experienced. For whatever reason, whether it’s his parents, growing up in and around the highest levels of soccer all his life, whatever it is, he’s not afraid nor is he nervous. It maybe makes him an arrogant diva shit bag that y’all hate.
But it also makes him dangerous.
And that’s something you can’t say about too many USMNT players right now.
I don’t really know why these club managers don’t use him more but I don’t really care. I could give fuck all about Championship Forest or BVB. He’s the USMNT’s knife in the gut right now.
It will be different when they play the big boys but with CONCACAF Forest and BVB are effectively keeping Gio fresh for the USMNT.
Vac, I think you got your answer to a previous post; the team is probably worse than you thought because they definately needed both Reyna and Adams to win that game. Yay for Aaronson; the best he has played for US since before the WC.
It was their first game back after a while and more often than not, over the years, the USMNT, not always but often enough that I usually expect it, look shitty in these kind of “warm up” games.
I expect them to be much more coherent vs. Mexico. Those Jamaican “stars” should be ashamed of themselves. They deprived a very good coach of some weapons he could have used to upset the USMNT.
Usually I think players who make assists don’t get enough credit, so I shouldn’t complain about Reyna getting the nod. However, how do you ignore a guy who scores a brace in a little more than half a game? I thought it was crazy to leave Wright off the initial roster, even though he has been the hottest striker in the pool. Now he wins the game with 2 goals and doesn’t get MOM. What does he need to do to get recognition?
Josh Sargent has 10 goals since Jan 1 (the most of any player in English football leagues) and Haji has 8. They are both on great scoring runs. Thankfully he was able to carry it over.
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Those finishes from Haji were terrific, but those passes were world class, especially the first one. I do kind of agree should at least be joint “men of the match”
Gary,
Who matters more to the particular play?
Brady who passes to Gronk?
Or Gronk who actually catches the pass and stays or gets into the end zone?
When you can answer that definitively, then you’ll have your answer.