CHESTER, Penn. – If Gio Reyna wants to get to the 2026 World Cup, then he took a step in the right direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Making his first start under U.S. men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino and just his second for club or country since March, the 23-year-old attacking midfielder made the most of his night against Paraguay on a chilly night at Subaru Park.<\/p>\n
It was an encouraging sign for a USMNT squad playing in its second-to-last match of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here are my takeaways:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0(Photo by Mark Smith\/ISI Photos\/USSF\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n With just 146 minutes played for German club Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach this season, the 23-year-old attacking midfielder was a surprise inclusion on Pochettino\u2019s roster this month. Still, nobody questions the talent of a player who was rightly considered among the most promising youngsters in the global game five years ago. But Reyna has been dogged by injuries since then, derailing his development.<\/p>\n Still, with attacking regulars such as forwards Christian Pulisic, Malik Tillman and Tim Weah left behind with their European clubs this month having just recovered from injuries, Pochettino turned to Reyna for a creative spark despite his lack of playing time overseas. And the former Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain manager was rewarded almost immediately, when the rangy playmaker nodded home wingback Max Arfsten\u2019s service from the doorstep to give the hosts the early advantage. It was Arfsten\u2019s team-leading fifth assist of this calendar year.<\/p>\n It\u2019s doubtful that the goal alone will vault Reyna onto Pochettino\u2019s final 26-man roster for next summer’s roster. He\u2019ll have to play more \u2014 much more \u2014 in the Bundesliga in the four months before the USMNT next convenes in late March. But it certainly doesn\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n (Photo by Ira L. Black\/USSF\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Given how many regulars are missing this month, this was an impressive victory. Along with the aforementioned playmaking trio (Pulisic, Tillman and Weah), the U.S. were missing midfield stalwart Tyler Adams, center-back Chris Richards and right-back Antonee “Jedi” Robinson.<\/p>\n Paraguay’s response initially snuffed out the good vibes from Reyna’s goal, but striker Folarin Balogun’s continued fine form provided a spark. With his second-half goal, Balogun put the hosts ahead for good with less than 20 minutes of regular time remaining. It was the third straight start in which the Monaco man found the net.<\/p>\n It’s why this result was the latest sign that things are slowly but surely moving in the right direction as 2026 draws closer. Saturday\u2019s triumph gives the U.S. its first winning streak since the Gold Cup over the summer. Add in the September win over Japan, and the Americans are now unbeaten in four with three victories and one draw.\u00a0<\/p>\n (Photo by John Dorton\/ISI Photos\/USSF\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY CHESTER, Penn. – If Gio Reyna wants to get to the 2026 World Cup, then he took a step in the right direction.\u00a0 Making his first start under U.S. men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino and just his second for club or country since March, the 23-year-old attacking midfielder made the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}