US midfielder Giovanni Reyna almost flew home from the World Cup

United States Midfielder Giovanni Reyna Sources told ESPN on Sunday that he is about to fly home from the World Cup in Qatar due to a lack of effort in training and a pre-tournament brawl against Qatari club Al-Gharafa.

Reina, 20, didn’t start a single match for the United States in Qatar, but played the entire second half of their final match – a 3-1 loss to the Netherlands in the round of 16. The sources added that Rina apologized to the team. The entire team for their lack of effort.

The revelation came after US director Greg Berhalter spoke at the Cave Society Institute Summit on Ethical Leadership in New York on Tuesday. His comments were later published in a newsletter by charterworksOne of 26 players, so he stood out. As a crew, we sat together for hours discussing what we were going to do with that player. We were ready to book a plane ticket home, and that is how serious it is.”

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Berhalter went on to say, “What it said was, we’re going to have another conversation with him, and part of the conversation was how we’re going to act from now on. There will be no more wrongdoing. But the other thing we said to him is, you’re going to have to apologize to the group, but you’re going to have to She has to explain why you’re apologizing. You’ll have to dig deeper than just ‘Guys, I’m sorry.’ And you set up the drive group with this. I said, “Well, this guy is going to apologize to you as a group, to the whole team.”

MLSSoccer.com He was the first to find out that the player was Rina, with the athlete Reporting that Reyna is about to be sent home, her performance in training is the reason her playing time is affected.

Reached via text message, Berhalter issued the following statement to ESPN: “It really didn’t matter who it was. The important thing is that the group had very clear standards and they were willing to communicate if the standards weren’t met. Sometimes that communication leads to positive change and a clear path.” straight ahead “.

Berhalter later added that the presentation was supposed to be off-release.

Reyna’s playing time – or not – was the subject of intense scrutiny throughout the tournament. He failed to take the field against Wales, with Jordan Morris The last substitute Berhalter would use in the 1-1 draw. Afterwards, Berhalter said he felt Maurice’s “speed and strength” could give the team something, and later referred to the “little bit of malaise” Reina experienced after last Thursday’s altercation with Al-Gharafa.

Reyna has struggled with sporadic injuries over the past 14 months, including a hamstring strain, but he told the assembled media after the Wales game that he was “100 percent”.

“I feel really good. I feel great,” said Rina. “I feel fine. [Berhalter] He doesn’t have to tell me why he didn’t put me down or why he does.”

Soon after, Rina was confronted by her coaches and teammates and eventually apologized.

“What was great about this whole thing was that after he apologized, one by one they stood up and said, ‘Listen, it wasn’t good enough, you weren’t meeting our expectations of one of your teammates and we want to see a change,'” Berhalter said during his speech.” They really took ownership of this process. From that day onwards there were no problems with this player.”

The heat rose around Reina’s playing time ahead of the England game when former US international Eric Wynalda said in an exchange on Twitter Spaces with the Los Angeles Times that there was “internal strife”. He later said on his Sirius XM radio show that Berhalter lied to the media and told Rina to lie too.

Wynalda later retracted some of his comments.

Reina played seven minutes in the 0-0 draw against England and was an unused substitute in the 1-0 win over Iran.