Doug McIntyre
Soccer Journalist
Gio Reyna is back with the U.S. men’s national team for the first time since Gregg Berhalter was rehired as coach.
Reyna, 20, was named Thursday to Berhalter’s 23-man roster for friendlies this month against four-time World Cup champion Germany and African power Ghana despite having not appeared in a match for Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund this season.
Reyna, who is recovering from a leg fracture he suffered in June playing for his country in the 2-0 win over Canada in the CONCACAF Nations League final, has been on the bench for Dortmund’s last few games, including Wednesday’s scoreless Champions League group stage match against AC Milan. His last action for club or country came on June 18.
Milan’s Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah are also included on the Americans’ October roster, as are Juventus duo Weston McKennie and Tim Weah. Those five regulars are among 13 holdovers from the 26-player roster Berhalter took to last year’s World Cup in Qatar.
Here is the full roster.
Goalkeepers: Ethan Horvath, Nottingham Forest (England); Matt Turner, Nottingham Forest
Defenders: Cameron Carter-Vickers, Celtic (Scotland); Sergiño Dest, PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands); DeJuan Jones, New England Revolution; Kristoffer Lund, Palermo (Italy); Tim Ream, Fulham (England); Chris Richards, Crystal Palace (England); Miles Robinson, Atlanta United; Joe Scally, Borussia Mönchengladbach (Germany)
Midfielders: Johnny Cardoso, International (Brazil); Luca de la Torre, Celta Vigo (Spain); Lennard Maloney, Heidenheim (Germany); McKennie; Musah; Queen; Malik Tillman, PSV
Forwards: Brenden Aaronson, Union Berlin (Germany); Folarin Balogun, Monaco (France); Kevin Paredes, Wolfsburg (Germany); Ricardo Pepi, PSV; Pulisic; Weah
Pepi, who was not selected for the 2022 World Cup, returns having scored six goals in six international games this year. The lone new call-up is defensive midfielder Maloney, who has impressed in the Bundesliga early in the new campaign. The U.S. needs cover in that position with World Cup captain Tyler Adams out indefinitely because of a hamstring injury.
But the big story is the return of Reyna, who was at the center of a saga that began during the World Cup, when the youngster was nearly sent home because of a poor attitude. Reyna eventually apologized to his teammates and the issue was settled. But it spilled into public view when Berhalter, in what was supposed to be an off-the-record discussion at a conference in New York days after the U.S. was eliminated by the Netherlands in the round of 16, revealed that he nearly sent a player home from Qatar. That player was later identified as Reyna.
Reyna’s parents, former U.S. national-teamers Claudio and Danielle Reyna, retaliated against Berhalter by reporting to then U.S. Soccer sporting director Earnie Stewart a decades old domestic violence incident involving Berhalter and his now wife, an independent investigation later concluded.
Following that investigation, Berhalter, whose previous contract expired after the 2022 World Cup, was retired in June by Matt Crocker, who succeeded Stewart in the sporting director role.
Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.
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