USMNT Drama

For 99% of all humans, this event is the only thing they will ever know about Gio Reyna. He will be remembered as the spoiled brat whose mommy sabotaged a coach's career over a disagreement in playing time. Her interference will follow him for his professional career, regardless of his future accomplishments on the field. Coaches will take care before engaging with him. Teammates will make jokes behind his back. Teams will think twice before signing him. Sponsors will look for more marketable players.
 
For 99% of all humans, this event is the only thing they will ever know about Gio Reyna. He will be remembered as the spoiled brat whose mommy sabotaged a coach's career over a disagreement in playing time. Her interference will follow him for his professional career, regardless of his future accomplishments on the field. Coaches will take care before engaging with him. Teammates will make jokes behind his back. Teams will think twice before signing him. Sponsors will look for more marketable players.
I have run across toxic parents at all levels from rec to college, so it is not surprising that it manifests in professional and MNT ranks. In all cases to which I had some visibility, the parent was doing what he/she thought was best for the child, but it didn't always work out that way.
 
Gio losses in this scenario.
His parents have ensured that the whole world knows about this.
There are millions of people who would have never known why he didn't play, or didn't know who Gio was.
Now they know Gio as the 20 year old German first league professional whose parents got involved bc he was benched over his lack of effort.
Gio is going to have a rough time in the locker room after this one.

And the Reyna's just upped the game for all the bat crazy parents out there who think they have some control the DOCs and coaches.
US Soccer already has enough problems but one area of concern is coach/club and refs interactions with parents. This doesn't help at all.
 
Well we don’t know what went on behind the scenes. No reason for me to defend Berhalter as a Coach but he did well at putting together a good team. Whether or not he did the best that could have been done with it is up for debate.

But nothing he did justifies the actions of the Reyna’s.
probably not but it's human to have emotions run high when your child is nationally embarrassed by a person in power. Gregg has prolonged the drama and created more public awareness of it. In the long run, Gio will not be harmed by it because he's young and young athletes have time to prove themselves on the field.

Gregg did put together a good team, thanks to Jurgen Klinsman's push for American players to train and play in Europe along with the DA system.
 
probably not but it's human to have emotions run high when your child is nationally embarrassed by a person in power. Gregg has prolonged the drama and created more public awareness of it. In the long run, Gio will not be harmed by it because he's young and young athletes have time to prove themselves on the field.

Gregg did put together a good team, thanks to Jurgen Klinsman's push for American players to train and play in Europe along with the DA system.
I thought the DA system was dead and buried, but apparently its supporters are not.
 
I thought the DA system was dead and buried, but apparently its supporters are not.
The DA system is now dead, but in the context of the current USMNT, those players would most likely have been a product of the DA system if they developed here and/or playing in Europe, which most of them now do.
 
The DA system is now dead, but in the context of the current USMNT, those players would most likely have been a product of the DA system if they developed here and/or playing in Europe, which most of them now do.
"Most likely"? If the DA had lived up to its forming declarations, we would have been highly competitive in the 2018 WC. How did that work out?
 
A reflection on our society as it exists today!
Exactly. High School Soccer. We are a small fish school in a big ocean, we have played a number of schools in the top 50 in So Cal. Don't use much of a bench and have been able to tie and win a couple we shouldn't have. A mom has went all the way up to district because her kid isn't playing enough. We were playing one of the top 5 teams in the nation, tied 1-1 at half, I hear her talking loudly to her kid we should be subbing like the other school is. The other school has 20 ECNL/ECRL players on the roster, and a 100+ player soccer program. we have 4-5. Her kid isn't good enough to be playing against these schools. Doesn't even play club anymore so doesn't even get better. I'm going to end up getting a call to help defend the coaching staff.
 
Just curious.
How does this 'dirty laundry' compare to the events of Mourinho and Dele Alli.
Dele is no more or less a professional than Gio, the diffence is Mourinho calls Dele by name and boys are called out for the similar issues.

I do think Greg's speaking engagement was probably a bit too fresh off the WC to use this as a speaking example.
But, when coaches are asked to speak at events its usually about coaching/leadership calls so i don't buy into the idea that this event was going to be buried and sealed.
 
Sad to see, the skeletons and management of US soccer on the Men's sides continues to be a problem.

Soccer parents gone wild: behind the stunning Reyna-Berhalter family feud

Not only are we lacking on coaching and consistently in the program but now we have more continued backroom deals that the USMNT is infamous for.

Airing all this out publicly is really sad for the program as is parents acting out for a adult is just crazy entitlement.

Hopefully this is the start of a new direction eventually, instead of selecting the same players repeatedly due to connections in several cases how about we expand the pool and actually have the players play and train together on a more regular basis opposed to the hazard last minute way we tend to throw together teams.
 
"Most likely"? If the DA had lived up to its forming declarations, we would have been highly competitive in the 2018 WC. How did that work out?
"most likely" as I didn't look at the development path of every player on the world cup roster, and some predate the DA. The "declaration" was surely an aspiration that is now starting to bear fruit. The DA started in 2007/8 I believe, so for a player to come through that from U14, that would make them 28 now, assuming 14 then. The avg age of the US squad in the world cup was 25.
 
Exactly. High School Soccer. We are a small fish school in a big ocean, we have played a number of schools in the top 50 in So Cal. Don't use much of a bench and have been able to tie and win a couple we shouldn't have. A mom has went all the way up to district because her kid isn't playing enough. We were playing one of the top 5 teams in the nation, tied 1-1 at half, I hear her talking loudly to her kid we should be subbing like the other school is. The other school has 20 ECNL/ECRL players on the roster, and a 100+ player soccer program. we have 4-5. Her kid isn't good enough to be playing against these schools. Doesn't even play club anymore so doesn't even get better. I'm going to end up getting a call to help defend the coaching staff.
Yah, something similar happened at a neighboring HS . Circumstances were different but the underlying principle of the parent getting involved is the same. The AD, Principal and Superintendent came together and excused the kid from participating on the HS team. The kid in question is a top level player but the parent is NUTS so the kid has to pay for the parent overstepping.
 
"most likely" as I didn't look at the development path of every player on the world cup roster, and some predate the DA. The "declaration" was surely an aspiration that is now starting to bear fruit. The DA started in 2007/8 I believe, so for a player to come through that from U14, that would make them 28 now, assuming 14 then. The avg age of the US squad in the world cup was 25.
Among the promises delivered by the USSF in its kickoff of DA is that we would be competitive on a world basis in 10 years. 10 years later in 2018 USMNT failed to make the WC selection for the first time since 1986. It seems to me that the money spent on the DA program would have been better directed at funding a program to send promising young players overseas (not just Europe) to train in programs with proven records of player development. Instead of that, the DA program disrupted club, high school, and college programs for no real gain except for those influential big clubs that were chosen to be DA participants.
 
Among the promises delivered by the USSF in its kickoff of DA is that we would be competitive on a world basis in 10 years. 10 years later in 2018 USMNT failed to make the WC selection for the first time since 1986. It seems to me that the money spent on the DA program would have been better directed at funding a program to send promising young players overseas (not just Europe) to train in programs with proven records of player development. Instead of that, the DA program disrupted club, high school, and college programs for no real gain except for those influential big clubs that were chosen to be DA participants.
I think the money should be used to improve sports education in K-8 public schools.
My district does not have any sports programs in K-8. More than 50% of the children in school never experience sports beyond playing handballs during recess. Sad for a country this rich....and I live in a quite wealthy area.
 
Among the promises delivered by the USSF in its kickoff of DA is that we would be competitive on a world basis in 10 years. 10 years later in 2018 USMNT failed to make the WC selection for the first time since 1986. It seems to me that the money spent on the DA program would have been better directed at funding a program to send promising young players overseas (not just Europe) to train in programs with proven records of player development. Instead of that, the DA program disrupted club, high school, and college programs for no real gain except for those influential big clubs that were chosen to be DA participants.
The promise of 10 years was extremely optimistic. It takes a few years for the program to kick off and begin to generate the attraction from the population before it can truly kickoff. I do believe it created the MLS Next program, which is now replacing the DA system for boys. On the girl's side, it's still ECNL and the improvements will not be made until the European countries start beating our national team on a consistent basis.
 
I think the money should be used to improve sports education in K-8 public schools.
My district does not have any sports programs in K-8. More than 50% of the children in school never experience sports beyond playing handballs during recess. Sad for a country this rich....and I live in a quite wealthy area.
There wasn't enough money in the DA program to cover that for the whole country.
 
Among the promises delivered by the USSF in its kickoff of DA is that we would be competitive on a world basis in 10 years. 10 years later in 2018 USMNT failed to make the WC selection for the first time since 1986. It seems to me that the money spent on the DA program would have been better directed at funding a program to send promising young players overseas (not just Europe) to train in programs with proven records of player development. Instead of that, the DA program disrupted club, high school, and college programs for no real gain except for those influential big clubs that were chosen to be DA participants.
That kind of ignores the rest of the world and what they are doing, i.e. US soccer could never promise a specific outcome in a specific time period. The current situation is that US players are playing in the top European leagues at far greater numbers than ever previously and that is now filtering into the USMNT. The USMNT has a real potential to have a deep run in the WC in 2026, but and it is a very large BUT, the rest of the world isn't sitting on their laurels, so they may crash and burn just as easily.

Case in point would be Italy, a renowned powerhouse who are the reigning European champions but they couldn't even qualify for this WC.

The fruits of the DA are being borne, and if MLS Next is as successful, then the USMNT will be very competitive going forward with the potential for deep runs at the WC. There are zero guarantees though.
 
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