Gio Reyna said the tension that resulted in a feud between his family and that of then-U.S. men’s national team head coach Gregg Berhalter following the 2022 World Cup stemmed from frustration over playing time, but he will not “take all the blame” for the months-long saga that followed.
Reyna was named to Berhalter’s roster in November of that year despite battling a muscle strain he sustained two months earlier, an issue that lingered over his playing time at the tournament. He went on to play just 52 minutes during the USMNT’s run to the round of 16, at one point disagreeing with the head coach’s assessment of his fitness. Shortly after the U.S.’ elimination, Berhalter said a player was nearly kicked off the World Cup squad for “not meeting expectations on and off the field,” news later trickling out that the player in question was Reyna.
“At the end of the day, I was just upset that, you know, I wasn’t really playing. I was playing at Dortmund,” Reyna said in a recent interview with the Associated Press as he reflected on the incident. “I thought that I wanted to play at the World Cup and ultimately in the end, I didn’t do that, and that’s really what it stemmed from.”
Berhalter’s comments, which were at a leadership summit in New York, kicked off a feud between his family and Reyna’s despite decades of friendship, as well as an independent investigation commissioned by U.S. Soccer. It was eventually revealed that after seeing Berhalter’s comments go public, Reyna’s mother, former women’s national team player Danielle, informed the federation of a domestic violence incident from 1991 involving Berhalter and his wife Rosalind. The coach went on to publicly acknowledge the incident and revealed that he sought counseling to address his behavior shortly after it happened. Berhalter was eventually cleared of wrongdoing and was eventually re-hired as the USMNT coach following the expiration of his previous contract.
Recalling the episode, Reyna said he would “maybe” go about things differently in hindsight but said the blame should not be placed squarely on him and his family.
“Maybe in certain ways, but I’m not just going to sort of sit here and take all the blame for something that was made out to be completely my fault, which I believe it wasn’t, and also my family’s, too,” he said.
Nearly three years removed from the debacle, Reyna said he would rather not discuss it anymore.
“I guess the frustration and the disappointment was just wanting to play and help my country,” he said. “It’s so far removed now and so far in the past, I don’t even really want to talk about it any more.”
Reyna has spent much of his career since battling injuries or failing to receive adequate playing time at the club level, his last 90 minute match in a league game coming in March 2022. He did play for Berhalter a handful of times upon the head coach’s USMNT return in September 2023, but has played just once for Berhalter’s successor Mauricio Pochettino. Reyna said his summertime move from Borussia Dortmund to Borussia Monchengladbach was influenced by his desire to make Pochettino’s World Cup roster in eight months’ time.
“I think Pochettino was very clear with saying, ‘You need to play, perform and then if you do that then you have a good chance to come in again,'” Reyna said. “It’s all on me now.”
