Gio Reyna was just 19 years old when he boarded a plane from Germany to Doha just before the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. He was expecting to play a major role on a United States squad filled with fellow youngsters who were talking the biggest stage in sports for the first time in their careers.<\/p>\n
Because the national team\u2019s previous generation had failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup \u2014 the Americans’ first miss in more than three decades \u2014 just only player on the squad, veteran defender DeAndre Yedlin, had ever played in global soccer\u2019s quadrennial showpiece. The USA survived the group stage, tying trophy favorites England and beating Iran, before being outclassed by the Netherlands in the round of 16.<\/p>\n
Reyna, famously, barely played. Almost four injury-plagued years later, the now 23-year-old is desperate to get to another World Cup, this one on home soil. And he\u2019s armed with lessons from the past.<\/p>\n
“I think just individually and collectively, we were all very, very young and maybe a little bit inexperienced at the time,” Reyna said Tuesday from Germany on a video conference with reporters hosted by Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach, his club. “And then in the end, it sort of just happened that we came up against a Holland team that was a little bit more experienced, a little bit better, a little bit more savvy with the game, and in the end, it was almost too much for us.”<\/p>\n
“Obviously, it’s an amazing experience,” he continued. “I learned so much from that.”<\/p>\n
(Photo by Markus Gilliar – GES Sportfoto\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Unlike last time around, Reyna isn\u2019t a lock to make the 26-man American roster this time around. But he\u2019s making a late push. The New York native and son of two-time U.S. World Cup captain Claudio Reyna (and former women\u2019s national teamer Danielle Egan) scored his first goal of the Bundesliga campaign last weekend. Perhaps more important, he logged 32 minutes off the bench \u2014 the most he\u2019s played in any match since December.<\/p>\n Reyna was sidelined by a muscle ailment midway through the season. But he is approaching full fitness now \u2014 up from the 85 percent he said he was in November after scoring for the U.S. in an exhibition win over Paraguay. The tournament co-hosts will face the same opponent in its World Cup curtain-raiser in Los Angeles on June 12.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I don’t know if any player is really ever 100-percent \u2014 there’s always knocks and things that come up at this point in the season,” Reyna told me on Tuesday. “But yeah, I feel ready to play sort of 90 minutes, and feel that I can give my max at this moment in time. So I guess you could say 100 percent. I feel very, very fit. I feel very sharp. And all I really want to do is show it on the pitch.”<\/p>\n Pochettino, the former Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain manager, will name the U.S. World Cup roster on May 26.<\/p>\n “I have a great relationship with Mauricio,” Reyna said of the Argentine, who used him off the bench in a pair of World Cup tune-ups in late March. “When we’re in camp, he’s very invested, very communicative, very open and honest with what he wants to see from the team and from players individually.”<\/p>\n (Photo by Andrew J. Clark\/ISI Photos\/USSF\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n It\u2019s not the only thing. After making just two cameos as a substitute in 2022, Reyna would relish a bigger role at this World Cup, too. Despite his lack of playing time at club level since Qatar, he\u2019s been a consistent performer for his country, helping the U.S. win Concacaf Nations League titles in 2021, 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n “Of course I\u2019d want to play more in this upcoming tournament,” Reyna said. “But at the same time, you learn that you’re just trying to do whatever you can to help the team.<\/p>\n “It’s just about the collective,” Reyna added. “It\u2019s about the team doing whatever we can to do something special for our country.”<\/p>\n USA ROSTER PROJECTION: <\/u><\/strong>DOES REYNA MAKE THE CUT?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Gio Reyna was just 19 years old when he boarded a plane from Germany to Doha just before the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. He was expecting to play a major role on a United States squad filled with fellow youngsters who were talking the biggest stage in sports for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3871","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\/3871","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=3871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}