United States midfielder Giovanni Reina was sent home from the World Cup in Qatar after a lack of effort in training and a pre-tournament match against Qatar’s Al Gharafa SC, ESPN sources said on Sunday.
The 20-year-old Reyna did not start a single game for the USA team in Qatar, playing the entire second half of their last game – a 3-1 loss to the Netherlands in the Round of 16. Sources added that Reyna apologized. the entire team for its lack.
The announcement came after US manager Gregg Berhalter spoke at the HOW Society’s Ethical Leadership Summit in New York on Tuesday. His comments were later published in Charterworks’ newsletter, where he said the US had “a player who didn’t live up to expectations on and off the field. One of 26 players, so he stood out. As a staff, we sat down together” and discussed for hours what to do with this player. . We were ready to book a flight home, it was too extreme.”
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Berhalter continued: “We’ll talk to him again and part of the conversation was about how we’re going to carry ourselves from here. It’s not going to happen. But the other thing we told him is you have to apologize in front of the group, but say why you’re apologizing. must. , I apologize.’ I prepared the leadership team by saying, “OK, this kid is going to apologize to you as a group, for the whole team.”
MLSSoccer.com was the first to identify the player as Reyna, The Athletic reported that Reyna was nearly sent home and his performance in practice affected his playing time.
Reached by text, Berhalter told ESPN: “It didn’t matter who it was. The bottom line was that the group had very clear standards and was willing to communicate when they weren’t meeting the standards. Sometimes that communication leads to positive change and a clear path forward.”
Berhalter later added that the presentation should be beyond writing.
Reina’s playing time, or lack of it, has been the subject of intense scrutiny throughout the tournament. He missed the field against Wales, Jordan Morris being the last substitute used by Berhalter in the 1-1 draw. Berhalter then said he felt Morris’ “speed and power” could give the team something, and later mentioned Reina’s “little stiffness” he experienced after last Thursday’s game against Al-Gharafa.
Reina has struggled with injuries over the past 14 months, including a hamstring strain, but he told the media after the Wales game that he was “100 per cent”.
“I feel great. I feel great,” Reyna said. “I feel good. [Berhalter] he is under no obligation to tell me why he did or did not let me in.’
Not long after that, Reyna confronted his coaches and teammates and eventually apologized.
“What’s fantastic about it is that after he apologized, one by one they stood up and said, ‘Listen, it wasn’t good enough, you didn’t live up to our expectations as a team, and we want to see. change,” Berhalter said in his speech. “They really took ownership of the process. Since that day, there have been no issues with this player.”
In an exchange with the Los Angeles Times on Twitter Spaces, former USA player Eric Wynalda raised the temperature on Reina’s playing time ahead of the England game. He later said on Sirius XM radio that Berhalter lied to the media and asked Reyna to lie as well.
Wynalda later walked back some of his comments.
Reina played 7 minutes in the 0-0 draw against England and was an unused substitute in the 1-0 win over Iran.
