Though Gio Reyna’s recovery from injury has prevented him from joining the U.S. men’s national team for its upcoming camp, coach Gregg Berhalter said he hopes to be able to bring Reyna along in October for friendlies against Germany and Ghana, and that he expects to speak with him ahead of that camp.
“Those are conversations that I look forward to and it’s just understanding sensitivities around it,” Berhalter said. “I mean, he’s a young player, I think for everyone involved it’s been a lot for the last six months. And we just want to do it in the best possible way to put him in position to help the team in a way that we know he can. And unfortunately, he was ruled out for this camp, but I look forward to continuing to monitor his progress at Dortmund and hopefully getting him back into camp in October.”
Reyna was one of several players held out of this camp due to injury or fitness concerns as they work back from injury. Reyna has not played since picking up a calf injury in the CONCACAF Nations League final on June 18 and only started full-team training with Borussia Dortmund this week.
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In a Wednesday press conference, Berhalter was asked if he felt he needed to explain to the team why he made comments at a leadership conference about issues within the locker room during the World Cup. In those comments, which were expected to be off the record under Chatham House rules and were an answer to a question after his presentation, Berhalter spoke about how he nearly sent a player home from the World Cup, but that the team culture overcame the issues at the tournament. The Athletic later reported the player in question was Reyna and detailed the issues with Reyna’s effort in training ahead of the opening game against Wales.
Berhalter said he “immediately” communicated with team members after his comments were published by the Charter newsletter.
“I sent a note to each and every one, every player and apologized for this getting out in the way that it did,” Berhalter said. “It was never about names, it’s more about an example of our strong team culture, and I felt that if it hurt one player, then it’s worth apologizing to the entire group. And that’s what I did.”
Berhalter seemed to imply that the federation has been in touch with Reyna since Berhalter’s appointment — Reyna was a part of the team that played in the CONCACAF Nations League final shortly after Berhalter was officially reintroduced as manager of the team — and that Reyna has been “responding” but that they are being measured in when the coach and player sit down to talk.
“For us, it’s understanding the sensitivity around the issues, understanding the right time, in the right way,” Berhalter said. “We’re committed to every single player in this player pool. And for us, it’s about how do we maximize communication with them and target it in a way that we’re getting the most out of each and every player. So for this, it’s just being a little bit more thoughtful, a little bit more sensitive to the past. And I look forward to having conversations with him. I look forward to watching his progress and hopefully him getting back on the field, and then for us hopefully being able to include him in the October camp against two good opponents.”
Berhalter touched on several topics ahead of his first camp back with the national team for September friendlies against Uzbekistan in St. Louis on Sept. 9 and Oman in St. Paul, Minnesota on Sept. 12. Berhalter noted that the two countries rank ninth and tenth in the Asian Football Confederation and could be opponents in the 2026 World Cup, for which eight AFC teams will qualify.
Berhalter also spoke about Lionel Messi’s impact on MLS and the busy transfer window involving Christian Pulisic, Folarin Balogun, and several other USMNT players.
Here are some other topics Berhalter covered on Wednesday:
Working with Matt Crocker
Berhalter was named manager of the national team in between the Nations League semifinals and final in June, but he did not coach the Nations League final nor in the Gold Cup after that. Instead, he has been working with new U.S. soccer sporting director Matt Crocker to establish a staff and a “strategic plan” within the program and federation working toward the 2026 World Cup.
“We spent three days together and really dissected every area of the USMNT, whether it’s scheduling, player pool, programs they want to implement,” Berhalter said. “Basically working on creating a strategic plan on working back from what we want to achieve, and then saying, ‘OK, here are some buckets that we’re gonna look to exploit and let’s think of programs in each of these buckets and let’s work on how we’re going to be successful in all these areas.’ So it was a really good time and I think productive, especially when now I can start and we can start unveiling this to the staff and to the players.”
Asked about approaching a second cycle with the team, Berhalter said there is a freshness that the national team allows that’s different from the “boredom” that can occur with club soccer just because the team isn’t together all the time.
He said the focus has been on building off the foundation of the 2022 cycle.
“There’s been a lot of good work in building our identity both on and off the field,” Berhalter said. “And we want to continue that. … We want to basically acknowledge that, ‘OK, there’s been good work, but now we can take it to a different level. And here’s how we’re going to take it to a different level.’ And part of that is a player ownership model where they have more ownership in what’s happening. They are already empowered, and the leadership council has been very effective in communicating the voice of the team, but really we’re guides here and we all — the player pool, the staff — we all want the same thing, to be successful in 2026. That’s what we’re trying to achieve. And it’s just working together to do that.”
Formation changes?
Toward the end of the last cycle, Berhalter’s U.S. teams functioned mostly in a 4-3-3 formation that looked to emphasize the strengths of its midfield. In Qatar, it was a system clearly built around a midfield trio of Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie and Yunus Musah.
Under the two interim managers, Hudson and Callaghan, that formation started to shift some, and in the Nations League it was Reyna who stood out as a No. 10 in front of two defensive midfielders. But notably, that roster was missing Adams (and, in the final, McKennie).
On Wednesday, Berhalter was asked if he was looking to use wingbacks or if he had given thought to moving out of the 4-3-3.
“I have always thought that this team could play in a system with wing backs,” Berhalter said. “Especially Antonee Robinson is a guy that could definitely do that. Lund can do that as well. On the right side, you see there’s players that have the ability to do that. For us, I think it’s more about just the general philosophy of how we want to play and what we’re trying to do. We want to be aggressive. We want to be high-pressing. We want to be able to control the ball, and I won’t really get caught up on the formation.”
Berhalter said the time between international windows allows the team to plan for opponents and adjust tactically for those teams.
“Ideally, I’d like to go into the next World Cup having a back-three system and a back-four system in place,” Berhalter said. “And we’ll see how that develops over these next couple of years. But I think the biggest difference has been what we’ve been able to do in midfield, with the dynamic players that we have in midfield. When you have guys like Tyler and Weston and Yunus, it’s a tremendous engine that we are able to take advantage of.”
Balance with the 2024 Olympic team
Berhalter said that the U.S. is close to announcing an Olympic team coach, who will come from outside the U.S. senior team staff. With the men’s Olympic soccer tournament functioning as U-23 competition, the U.S. Olympic team could feature significant overlap with the senior team — nine players on this September roster are eligible. The Olympic team will have camps in September and October, but clubs are not obligated to release their players for Olympic duty.
“We know how important that international experience is in terms of building a successful group and we expect to be working hand in hand with the Olympic group, especially when we’re talking about rosters because there is a lot of overlap in the rosters,” Berhalter said. “So really trying to figure out okay, what does game time look like in the senior team versus the Olympic team and trying to coordinate those efforts.”
New coaches and absentees
Berhalter announced his coaching staff would include his longtime assistant and former interim manager B.J. Callaghan, who guided the U.S. to the Nations League title, as well as U.S. under-20 coach Mike Varas. Berhalter said the team also hired Borussia Monchengladbach goalkeeper coach Fabian Otte and was finalizing a deal to hire Isaac Guerrero, who worked with Barcelona and Venezia.
Berhalter also noted that several players were not included due to injury, including Tyler Adams, Reyna, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Zack Steffen, Taylor Booth, Walker Zimmerman, Sean Johnson, Josh Sargent, DeJuan Jones and Erik Palmer-Brown.
(Photo: John Todd/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
