ATLANTA — United States attacker Giovanni Reyna said he’s “fortunate” and “always honored” to be in the squad for the Americans after a spell in which he’s received little playing time with his club.
The 23-year-old Reyna, who plays for Borussia Monchengladbach in the Bundesliga, is bidding to make his second World Cup roster after being named to the U.S. side in 2022.
Recent seasons, though, have seen him struggle with form and injury. In the current campaign, a streak of four-straight starts before the winter break appeared to have Reyna on the right path. He made two substitute appearances when the season resumed, but a muscle injury he picked up at the end of January sidelined him for a brief spell, and since recovering he’s been unable to get back in the Gladbach lineup.
Since the start of the calendar year, Reyna has logged just 26 minutes over two appearances, the last of which came on Jan. 17 against Hamburg.
That lack of playing time made Reyna a surprise inclusion to the current roster for friendlies against Belgium on Saturday and then Portugal three days later as Mauricio Pochettino’s side gets ready to host this summer’s World Cup along with Mexico and Canada.
“[I ] think it’s always easier when you’re playing week-in and week-out. My case is not like that,” Reyna said during a Zoom call with reporters. “[I’m] fortunate and of course, always honored and happy to be back in with the coach’s trust. But yeah, if the opportunity comes up, I still feel very prepared to make an impact this camp on the field.”
Reyna did perform well during the November international window, scoring the opener in a 2-1 win over Paraguay, and then contributing an assist off the bench in the 5-1 triumph over Uruguay. The fact that Pochettino continues to show faith in Reyna isn’t lost on the player, who said he and the manager have a “great relationship.”
“I guess you could say it was sort of one of his more difficult decisions, or, I guess controversial decisions to maybe bring me in,” Reyna said about Pochettino. “[I] can’t appreciate it enough. Love this team, love this staff, love this group of people, so just always honored to be here. And yeah, of course, same time, I feel prepared, regardless of the playing time situation at club.
“So if the chance comes up in the next two games, I have confidence in myself and the team that I can do some good things and make good impact.”
Reyna added, that he and the entire group have grown from the experience of playing at the 2022 World Cup, though Reyna’s behavior during the tournament was such that he was nearly sent home by then-manager Gregg Berhalter. The episode sparked a feud between the families who had been long-time friends, but Gio Reyna has long since moved on, and was even named the MVP of the 2023-24 Concacaf Nations League.
“I think, obviously being a part of the group in the last four years, sort of seeing how everybody’s grown individually, collectively, here at the national team, we’ve made big strides,” Reyna said. “I think we’ve taken a lot of things from the last World Cup, even though it did happen four years ago, sort of learned a lot about ourselves, and really felt like we had to grow up in that World Cup as a lot of us were in our early 20s or late teens.
“So we hope to bring this with us and have a better showing if, obviously, we all get the chance in summer.”
The U.S. begins Group D play on June 12 against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
