It was once most certainly by no means reasonable to be expecting the connection between U.S. males’s nationwide group lecturer Gregg Berhalter and younger megastar Gio Reyna to be very best instantly given the drama that has engulfed the pair since terminating time’s International Cup in Qatar.

However the means of repairing no matter injury was once accomplished may just advance a ways towards figuring out how smartly the U.S. does on the 2026 International Cup on house ground, and it needed to get started someplace. That enterprise started in earnest terminating past, when Berhalter and Reyna in spite of everything hooked up, over Zoom, for the primary year because the former was once rehired because the nationwide group boss in June.

“It was, first off, [a] positive conversation,” Berhalter stated Thursday all the way through a video convention with newshounds in a while upcoming he named Reyna to the American citizens’ 23-player roster for friendlies this past in opposition to Germany and Ghana. “For us, it’s about aligning on how we’re moving forward. And I think we did that.”

Berhalter declined to get into specifics about what precisely the 2 males mentioned, announcing that the substance in their dialog would stay personal. However he did recognize that the chat was once simply step one towards getting again at the identical web page with Reyna, who he’s recognized on a private stage lengthy earlier than the participant blast onto the USMNT scene 3 years in the past on the affectionate past of 17: Berhalter and Reyna’s father, Claudio, the place highschool and after nationwide group teammates and their households changed into related — their other halves had been faculty roommates — earlier than an unsightly falling out between the 2 clans exploded into people view following the International Cup.

“I think it will take time,” Berhalter stated. “There’s a difference between a Zoom call and being in-person, but I think that both intentions are positive. And the idea is that we work together for the team to be successful. And I think we’re both prepared to do that. So, I think that although it may take some time, we’re both aligned with what we want to accomplish.”

How a lot Reyna, 20, can support the U.S. squad this past extra to be distinguishable. One of the crucial brightest younger abilities in program historical past, Reyna starred because the U.S. gained the CONCACAF International locations League name in June underneath period in-between lecturer B.J. Callaghan. However upcoming putting in each U.S. objectives within the ultimate in opposition to Canada, he was once pressured out of the eventual 2-0 win with was once what after aspiring to be a damaged leg. 

Reyna hasn’t performed a tiny for his nation or membership facet Borussia Dortmund since, regardless that he lately returned to complete coaching with the German titan and has served as an new change within the Dark and Yellow’s terminating 3 video games, together with Wednesday’s scoreless attach with AC Milan within the UEFA Champions League team degree.

The target, in keeping with Berhalter, is to “build him up, build his minutes up that he goes back to Dortmund in a better place, and using him on the field in a way that he can return to Dortmund ready to go,” Berhalter stated. “We’re gonna be creative with the minutes. We want to certainly get him on the field.”

The place precisely at the garden is any other burning query. With heart-and-soul defensive midfielder Tyler Adams sidelined for the International locations League semis and finals, Reyna in demand a central attacking position in entrance of the deeper mendacity Weston McKennie and Yunus Musah. Adams would’ve been incorporated on this camp, Berhalter open Thursday, had he now not suffered a setback upcoming reputedly getting better from the hamstring trauma he firstly sustained terminating March.

Nonetheless, even with Adams unavailable, Berhalter wouldn’t not include deploying Reyna at the wing, the similar spot he crammed all through the 2022 International Cup cycle, life additionally giving him the liberty to roam within.

“In terms of Gio, we see him being able to play three positions: center midfielder, attacking midfielder and winger,” the lecturer stated. “We use wingers in different ways. Sometimes the wingers are wide against the line and sometimes they’re in between the [opponents’ positional] lines.=

“We see him as extra between the strains winger,” Berhalter said of Reyna. “The ones 3 positions, he can be used in.”

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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