Why was the communication ineffective with Tyler? He played great and didn't get hurt. Afterwards, he said it was the right decision. Seemed like it worked perfect. I have no idea why people advocate for lying to players or believe that telling an immature kid he's not playing right before a game would elicit a better response or less distracting to the team. Do you think Gio would just not figure out he wasn't playing?
Tyler did not display a next man up attitude…and he’s a cultural tone setter. That’s not perfect. Or maybe it is for soccer.
I have no problem saying Gio's pouting and refusing to take a fitness test were extremely problematic. But I also think telling a key player ahead of a potentially long tournament that they are only slated to play a very limited role is poor player management. Very poor.
Ok! The context of the conversation is as important as whatever was said--and we don't even know WHEN in the timeline of events it happened. We don't have any knowledge of what the conversation was other than the language that Reyna (or his camp--I don't remember how that came out) used. I could speculate all day on how the conversation happened, but I don't know anything other than Reyna saying Berhalter told him he'd have a "limited role". That's not enough to make an assessment about whether or not Berhalter made a good decision in his conversation with Reyna.
I think it is great player management instead of just blindsiding a guy when the lineups drop each game. The anticipation is what gets ya. I guess if we pretend that Gregg was just doing a blanket ruling Gio out in the future and not tying it to training staff advice on what the recovery looks like (and then backtracking for the first knockout round) then it’s bad. But he’d have to have a child like intelligence level to not understand basic things like injuries heal over time. So if we assume moronic incompetence it’s bad. If we assume normal intelligence from someone with his experience then I can’t see how you are correct.
i'm not assuming anything about his intelligence...but i don't assume intelligent people are incapable of doing dumb thangs
Less than 2 months after the WC ended @Bob Morocco reported these things here, stating he had some inside sources. Make of that what you will. Personally, I tend to believe him.
Here is Danielle Reyna's quote: "I told Earnie that I thought it was especially unfair that Gio, who had apologized for acting immaturely about his playing time, was still being dragged through the mud when Gregg had asked for and received forgiveness for doing something so much worse at the same age." Notice that Danielle does not deny anything that was made public. The only person to deny fitness issues was Gio at the World Cup.
So, basically, one player showed up and was still performing at rehab protocol to avoid re-injury and this was turned into "the Reyna's are responsible for everything that went wrong at the World Cup 2022". Bottom line: There's 23 players, there's dozens of support staff and assistants. There's one (1) USMNT Manager for a reason. It's odd to see how many people on BS admit that they are so bad at management that they wouldn't know how to deal with a player who won't take a fitness test.
Unlike others I make no claims about being there or having information from those who were there. But there is an open question as to whether Reyna was told he would play a very limited role before or after he refused a fitness test. Heck from my perspective as someone with no inside information i don't know for sure whether either of those things happen. I believe they did. But I don't know for sure. And I don't know for sure the sequence or what else happened in between. But I don't mind saying that Reyna's refusal to do a fitness test is highly problematic.
Gio had missed over 150 days through injury in the year leading up to the World Cup, then showed up with a tight hamstring. Not only were there questions about his fitness but because of the injuries he'd failed to establish a starting place in the NT. Maybe Gregg said something in a way that upset him but he was 20 years-old and has potentially another 4 World Cups to play a starring role in.
I think there's also a question about whether Gregg used those exact words, given that Reyna never claimed he was directly quoting him. It could just be that after his discussion with Gregg, Reyna understood his role would be very limited compared to his expectations going into the camp, or compared to the way he had been used prior to that point (basically starting every single USMNT game he was healthy and fully fit for).
I think he'd started two games in the previous 16 months and was subbed at half-time in both. How high could his expectations have been?
For the record here are Dortmund's 7 matches in the runup to the WC: October 22 v Stuttgard: Reyna starts and scores a goal. Goes 66 minutes. Oct 25 v Manchester City: Starts and goes 87 minutes. Oct 29 v Eintracht Frankfurt: 34 minutes as a sub. Nov 2 v Copenhagen: Starts and goes 63 minutes. Nov 5 v Bochum: Starts and goes 67 minutes. Scores on penalty. Nov 8 v Wolfsburg: 33 minutes as a sub. Nov 11 v Gladbach: Starts and goes 45 minutes If my math is correct that 5 starts and 2 longish substitute appearances. Not a single match as unused sub. Not a single match as did not make bench for whatever reason. Maybe he was hurt and not fit. Who knows. I will have to defer to the people in the know.
Looking forward instead of backwards, Gio is on a team fighting to avoid the "Championship" while the team he jilted/ghosted/abandoned/etc is fighting for "Champions League". Any predictions?