CHESTER, Pa. — Out of all 11 players in Mauricio Pochettino’s starting lineup on Saturday, the one that truly needed an impactful performance did just that in a big way.
Gio Reyna delivered his first U.S. men’s national team goal in 20 months in a 2-1 home friendly victory over Paraguay. Reyna also played a key part in Folarin Balogun’s second-half goal, a tally that recaptured the lead for the final time for the USMNT.
After only making one international appearance to date this year, Reyna entered camp with a lot to prove under the Argentine head coach. Teammates praised Reyna’s growth and maturity as a player over the last eight months, but fans wanted to see the 23-year-old doing what he does best on Saturday night; be impactful in the final third.
75 minutes played, one goal, and one key cross later, Reyna looks back to being his old self again.
“I knew it was an opportunity for me to show that I belong here,” Reyna said postmatch in a mixed zone with reporters. “He [Pochettino] has been great with me all week, working with him, and yeah, just trying to give me the freedom and the confidence to sort of be myself. So I can’t thank him enough, obviously, for the start and just for the relationship that we’ve really built this camp.
“In the end, it’s performances like this that can help everybody here,” Reyna added. “I want to have, more importantly, seven or eight good months in the rest of the season with Gladbach, and then I believe if I keep performing like I did tonight, and then I’ll have a good chance to make the team and have an impact there too.”
Reyna has only made six appearances on loan with Borussia Moenchengladbach this season, but looks to be trending upward after missing the early part of the Bundesliga campaign due to fitness issues. Joining up with USMNT teammate Joe Scally has certainly added to Reyna’s comfortableness at Gladbach, while three-straight wins for the club will certainly boost spirits in the locker room.
Reyna’s lack of playing time abroad has certainly hurt his chances with the USMNT during Pochettino’s time as head coach. However, a Man of the Match performance against a gritty Paraguay side will only boost his chances of featuring again on Tuesday against Uruguay in the USMNT’s 2025 finale.
Reyna’s USMNT teammates had a lot of good things to say about the attacking midfielder in the build-up to Saturday’s match and that praise grew even more after he excelled in his first start of the year.
“He always shows up for the national team,” said USMNT midfielder Brenden Aaronson, who was one of the first to celebrate Reyna’s goal with him at Subaru Park. “Gio’s one of my best friends in football. We grew up playing against each other for a long time. I know the kind of player he is, and I’m just really happy for him.
“He deserves it,” Aaronson added about Reyna. “He’s been through a lot with injuries, with all this stuff, but whenever he plays for the national team, he’s always there, and it’s awesome to see.”
Looked like his old self for the most part. He’s not a dynamic presser like some of our other players but he did well enough within the team press. But his touches in buildups are just special, that’s what he can bring, and it often seems like the thing the USMNT lacks and most needs. Crossing fingers he can stay healthy and build fitness, he was clearly out of gas after 75′. Can he get to a 90′ player? Because if so, he not only makes the team but pushes to start. No idea whether to play him or not tomorrow. Hopefully those in the know make the right call.
i see the bandwagon is heavy again.
basically underlines club form can be a bunch of nonsense. he can barely get off the bench for 10′ for a mediocre B1 club but had a goal and a setup when he got his chance. people follow the form roller coaster up and down. i get “is he hurt” but otherwise talent is talent. he was in an awkward club situation to get a new shot but given it he made most of the people on here look silly.
i do agree with the sentiment reyna should be packed in bubble wrap for game 2. it always seems to be game 2 is the problem health wise. or that pushing the minutes twice when right now he normally gets like 10′ sub cameos has risks.
you have your proof of concept.
It’s not even club form, it’s what did you do last night. Watch, whomever does well against Uruguay will be the new toast of the town. Then whomever scores for their club the next. Gio’s physical health of course but also his mental health is the key to his success. Despite Berhalter welcoming him back over two years ago everybody including Gio got questions this week about his maturity, Gio, Poch, Ream, pretty much anyone that answered questions to the media. People need to move on.
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As far as physically he went 75 for BM then 10 the next but had to sit two weeks with thigh problems. He’s now played 5 weekends in a row. Hopefully BM can get their manager situation figured out quickly and Gio can continue to build to consistent fitness and belief in his body again.
i think you’re conflating some different aspects. i think seeing the field regularly, for even a short stint, is good for confidence and remembering situational details. i don’t think it fixes fitness or sharpness. to me game fitness is getting more minutes. to me game sharpness is actually earned in practice, by executing the skill right on a daily basis.
along those lines, when we had a college coach who i thought overtrained us, i would take the friday practice, so to speak, and turn it into a sharpness session. you’re already either fit or not. playing too hard the day before saps freshness and batteries. but you want to be dialed in technically. hit accurate passes and shots, shape your body right, etc. i am church of iverson. do it on game day. the rest is noise.
to me the risk on reyna is he’s physically used to 10-30′ and 75′ twice in a few days would be a lot. and we for some reason like to do this with important players like adams. and then shortly after they reinjure something and maybe miss the next window.
i know american fans are obsessed with friendly results but to me this window looked like it was really supposed to be a last chance tryout camp. in which case normally what happens when someone shows very well in a tryout, is they get yanked off the field and put in bubble wrap. you don’t want your stars hurt in tryouts. you get proof of concept. you take them off and put a nice checkmark by their name.
i mean if you think how minutes are normally handled when someone is preseason, you get progressed. you play some friendly. you get about 30-45′. they send another shift on. they build them up. maybe 60′ next time. maybe even a few games like that. they are only playing 90′ after a while. maybe the last of 5-6 preseason games.
treat reyna like that. play the long game. we have a bad tendency to instead chase fairly meaningless interim results. friendlies. gold cup. here, tyler, go play 75 hard minutes. and then tyler will be hurt soon after and out 2 windows.
Everyone is on the “Gio bandwagon”, just after one game.
Jude Bellingham – “The cream always rises to the top,” the Real Madrid star commented on Reyna’s Instagram post in which the American midfielder celebrated his masterful performance with the Stars and Stripes.
It’s too early to call but it is refreshing to see Reyna utilizing the limited opportunities he had…..getting a goal and orchestrating the pass that resulted in a goal. This is what Poch needed to do to properly evaluate Reyna’s value on this team (especially without Pulisic and Tillman). Mexico struggled to get things going against Uruguay……SO THROW HIM IN THERE AGAIN and see how he does against a stronger opponent.
I highlight a lot of negative things Reyna, but I can honestly say the kid did very well against Paraguay…..especially with all the pressure on his shoulders to, not only make the team, but to also come up with moments of brilliance…..
Paraguay beat Uruguay 2-0 in June at home and drew 0-0 away Sept. 2024. They had the same record in qualifying as Paraguay and a worse record than Ecuador. At Copa Uruguay created basically nothing from the run of play with Nunez and Valverde, without the clear offside not being enforced has 0.75 xG to the USA’s 0.49. Doesn’t mean we won’t lay an egg, but Uruguay isn’t what they were even last summer.
“Paraguay beat Uruguay 2-0 in June at home”….Yes, but Uruguay was CLEARLY THE STRONGER TEAM.
—————–Paraguay—–Uruguay
Possession:—–29%——–71%
Total Shots:—–12———–5
SOT:—————-5————1
Big Chances:—–1————0
Pass %————-52%——-82%
Uruguay had 71% of the possession that game WITH ONLY 1 SHOT ON GOAL!
Paraguay had 2 big chances in the game (with 29% possession) compared to Uruguay’s 0.
Paraguay committed 19 fouls that game compared to Uruguay’s 9…..so it looks like we have weathered the more physical team.
But this is the stats against Mexico
—————–Mexico—–Uruguay
Possession:—–52%——–48%
Total Shots:—–10———–3
SOT:—————-3————2
Big Chances:—–1————0
So this game is going to be interesting but definitely no walk in the park
He surprised me with how willing he was to put in the dirty work. He’s never going to be a Doberman like Aaronson or Luna when it comes to closing down and pressing, but he was still visibly working at it and it’s no accident that his almost-assist (it should have been credited) came off a tackle-created turnover. Instead of waiting to be served as was too often his old wont, he went and found the ball and made something happen.
I still doubt he’ll be available consistently, but then, Malik Tillman isn’t available consistently either, so between the two of them the odds we have at least one healthy, impactful #10 improve dramatically…so I don’t hate it he clearly made the most of his opportunity. I was doubtful he would get near the final World Cup roster.
Poch really does have a gift for motivating and getting the best version of players. A neutral observer could have been forgiven for not noticing we didn’t have Christian Pulisic, Malik Tillman, Tim Weah, Jedi Robinson, Chris Richardson, Alejandro Zendejas, Weston McKennie, Yunus Musah, or Tyler Adams available. Take those nine guys off the roster during the Berhalter era and Paraguay would have whumped us like we stole something.
And I’ve mentioned this before, but the hierarchy has been completely shattered. Every guy out there knows if he doesn’t get it done, Poch will shrug and bring in somebody who will, and that an MLS guy who is getting it done will absolutely get the nod over a Champions League starter if Poch thinks the MLS guy is better for the USMNT. It’s been multiple games now…and you look out on the field and it’s not instantly obvious who’s MLS and who’s a Top-5 European-league guy anymore…at all. Which actually says a whole lot about both MLS and Pochettino’s man-management.
I was almost as happy with what I was seeing out of Miles Robinson, BTW. We have quality attacking players with or without Reyna. We do not have centerback depth…and the thing that jumped off the field at me was how commanding Robinson was in the sweeper role and how much better his distribution out of the back was. Robinson always had recovery speed and was physically dominant, but the rest of his game has very much progressed and it showed. He might be a little old for the jump, but the Miles Robinson I was watching yesterday could absolutely cut it in a Top-5 league in Europe.
I think if Ream starts in the back (and nearly certainly will), we’d need someone as fast and athletic as Robinson on the back line also. While Ream excels in other areas, he doesn’t have that acceleration and breakout speed. More than once we’ve seen Robinson track down players who got by the last line of defense.
If I remember right, Robinson turned down offers from Europe as a free agent because FC Cincinnnati made the best offer.
PN: that was the story from MRob’s people. Miles’ said himself interest from PSV never got to that point. So yes he “turned down offers” from European clubs, but if they were clubs that were reportedly offering 1/3 of FCC’s offer they were fairly small clubs.
“and you look out on the field and it’s not instantly obvious who’s MLS and who’s a Top-5 European-league guy anymore…at all.”
That is because of the lineups that the USMNT has faced. In this window, along with the last two windows, they have not played a full strength / first team opponent. When we do, those MLS players…Roldan aside…will be exposed.
If we have to rely on Arsten, Luna, or Freeman, for significant minutes at the World Cup, we’re toast.
The team played well vs Paraguay. That said, Paraguay has qualified for the 2026 World Cup because of the expanded format. If the upcoming World Cup were as 32 team field, Paraguay would be watching from home.
The real question is, how will the MLS players do vs first team Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Uruguay, or Brazil?
I’m not confident in Arfsten, Luna, or Freeman, vs any of those full strength teams. Are you?
You play who is in front of you though. Yeah, Japan didn’t start some of their best but the subbed them on at half and we played even better. Yes, Ecuador was missing a couple guys and so is Uruguay but the US is missing about half their roster. Paraguay wouldn’t have qualified previously but they aren’t bums most of them play for top clubs in Brazil and Argentina. Almiron and Enciso were starters in EPL, D. Gomez is the starter for Brighton. If we have to play the WC with last nights roster am I confident, heck no, but take 10 top guys off anyone’s roster and their fans aren’t confident. Our best player in each line (Pulisic, Adams, and Richards) were all out and we still looked somewhat cohesive. Let’s see how they look against the pressure of Uruguay because the three you named struggled against Mexico’s pressure. Uruguay is missing a lot of firepower but their defense and midfield are near full strength, but no Rochet.
Johnnyrazor,
“because the three you named struggled against Mexico’s pressure.”
Exactly my point, and Mexico in their current iteration suck. What do you think, that Arfsten, Freeman, and Luna, will all of a sudden blossom into global talent against a full strength Argentina, Spain, Colombia, France, Brazil, or Portugal, in the knockout rounds of a World Cup?
You can wait and see how they do against Uruguay, I’ve watched plenty of game tape on them…both with the USMNT and their respective club teams…and I reiterate, if the USMNT has to rely on them for significant minutes, we are toast.
We can agree to disagree on this, as I don’t rate them, and you see something in them, such that you even go to the extent of making excuses for them…”you can’t judge them on one game”…”they have played a lot of games this season for the USMNT and their respective clubs”…etc., etc., etc.
This game is not about these three players nor any individual players. The game vs Uruguay is all about tactics. It may be a chess match, such that it ends up being a “boring” game, but it will be interesting to see how Bielsa looks to attack the USMNT and if he / Uruguay have success in doing so.
You seem to be misunderstanding my feelings on Luna, Freeman, and Max. They’re fine as backups, which is what they are. Max started because Jedi and Weah aren’t available. There’s a chance neither will be available next June in which case I’m marginally more comfortable with him than Bello, Lund, Wiley or Tolkin. Do I want Freeman starting, heck no, Dest all the way. Honestly would I pick Scally over Freeman at RWB today for the WC probably just because I know where Joe’s weaknesses are. But I’d probably again take Weston or Tim out there over either. The only role I see for Luna is as a super sub last 10 minutes just to cause havoc if we’re desperate but I put him behind Pulisic, healthy Gio, Tillman, Weah or Weston if they’re not a WB, maybe in line with Aaronson and Zendajas. Honestly I don’t envy Poch and staff, yes roster spots 1-16 probably just about pick themselves, but spots 17-35 all have significant flaws in their games and it’s just figuring out which flaws you can live with. It will be interesting all three will have offers from Europe this winter, but will they go.
“SO THROW HIM IN THERE AGAIN and see how he does against a stronger opponent.”
“stronger”?
The last time they played ( June 5, 2025) Paraguay beat Uruguay 2-0.
The other night Mexico and Uruguay had a 0-0 steel cage death where a soccer game threatened to break out but never did.
We all have a good idea of Gio’s what still compromised physical condition is. Gio proved his point. I see no need for anything more than cameo minutes for Gio, if at all.
The guy who needs to boost his confidence after a long time out is Pepi who had the most ghastly, humiliating miss of a sitter we’ve seen in a very long time.
Really hope he becomes a key player for Gladbach.
Correction: Reyna moved to Gladbach on a permanent deal not a loan.
Things are coming together nicely for Gio and the team. We all knew his potential if he could stay healthy and got some opportunities. He was completely gassed when he came off so it’ll be interesting how much he plays vs Uruguay. Hopefully this translates to more playing time with his club.
Reyna reeeeaallly surprised me tonight. Mostly due to the lack of soccer he has played over the last three years. So glad to see him perform and do.so for the amount of minutes he did last night. For me it was unexpected and I’m genuinely stoked by this development!
Also, I like the attitude in his comments. Let’s go!!!
Betinho
You shouldn’t be so surprised. Gio has ,for the most part, played very well for the USMNT. Always.
That’s probably because the USMNT has no one else who can do what he does best.
It’s just that his availability has often been in question for x amount of reasons. And he’s no good if he’s not on the field.
Whenever you look at the USMNT and you think “something is missing” Gio is usually a big part of the answer.
They can win without him but he makes it a lot easier on everyone.
He’s a player who is there for the other players not the fans.