Claudio Reyna seems delighted with the USMNT’s Berhalter report

It’s so perfect it hurts that US Soccer recently got in trouble, mostly because the parent of a player messes with their kid’s playing time and threatens anyone within shouting distance about it. But it looks like US Soccer has been dealing with Claudio Reyna stuff for a long time. How very American.

That was the main bullet point official publication of the report commissioned by US Soccer and conducted by Alston & Bird LLP, which was released this afternoon. Most of the things we already knew – that Gio Reyna was acting like a real badass in practice, so coach Gregg Berhalter and his teammates warned him, and he didn’t play much in the World Cup, angering the Reynas, who in turn wrote him off to US Soccer, in retaliation for a 30-year because of a domestic violence incident a while ago that ate the cat that ate the rat in the house that Alexi Lalas built..or something like that.

However, there were a few nuggets that at least colored what was already in the public domain. The first is that Claudio has been harassing and threatening various US Soccer officials since his U-17s because of Gio’s use and play. As far back as 2016, Reyna the Elder has been lashing out at everything from travel arrangements, which she apparently thought her son should be better than any other player, to refereeing decisions against her son.

1. By way of background, witnesses in the investigation described Mr. Reyna regularly contacting US Soccer officials and staff around 2016 or the end of 2022 with the purpose of relaying certain complaints and comments regarding US Soccer’s treatment of soccer. his children, most notably his son, USMNT player Gio Reyna. Witnesses reported that Mr. Reyna’s past actions included attempts to influence US Soccer officials and staff’s decisions regarding their children, from travel discussions to influencing refereeing decisions.

The way Reynas handled himself at the World Cup — especially in the first game — contributed to last December’s events. The players’ friends and family were transported together to the Wales game, with the Berhalter and Reyna families sharing the same bus for the trip. While the trip to the stadium was uneventful, the fireworks started after the game and Gio’s mother refused to travel back to the hotel on the same bus as Rosalind Berhalter. It’s important to note that the Berhalters and the Reynas had been friends for 30 years (!), and suddenly after a game, they were at a point where the Reynas refused to get back on the same bus as Mrs. Berhalter. They say 90 minutes can change lives, but come on man…

[Redacted] he further explained that as the people started walking toward the buses, Ms. Reyna said, “I’m not getting back on that bus”; [Redacted] expressed confusion; and Mrs. Reyna replied, “I don’t think you understand. I’m not getting back on that bus.

The report conveys that both Gregg and Rosalind Berhalter were completely open and honest in their interviews about the 1992 incident and Gregg’s grief and attempts to make amends. The findings are far less kind to Reyna, with Danielle changing her story from one interview to the next about when she spoke to Ernie Stewart and what and when she threatened Berhalter. Danielle has claimed in interviews that she will never go public with her knowledge of the Berhalter domestic violence incident, but has considered telling several people privately which… what?

We were less than impressed with the Reynas’ cooperation during the investigation. After several attempts to schedule an interview, we had two brief phone conversations with Mrs. Reyna on December 29th and were unable to have a conversation with her—or any conversation with Mr. Reyna—after that.

The report also refutes Reynas’ argument that the 1992 incident was only brought up after Berhalter was caught talking about Gio’s damn good training behavior at the post-World Cup conference. The report documents that Danielle began mentioning what she knew about Berhalter after the Wales game, without mentioning him specifically. He makes it clear that this was pretty much retribution for their son’s playing time, while possibly muddying the waters for Berhalter to get another contract with US Soccer after his first one expired in December.

At no point in the report, unlike their son, do the Reynases do any of what their son actually did in practice, and Berhalter appears to have taken a bullet for their son during the competition. even if it slipped up later at that conference (although he did not mention Gio by name). Berhalter tried to cover for Gio when asked in Qatar that he insisted his poor health was the reason he hadn’t played much. Many other managers would have been happy to throw Gio Reyna to the press to exonerate himself, while Berhalter would have covered that Reyna the family was only happy if they continued to mime.

It’s all chaos, but it looks like he’s exonerating Berhalter now. One wonders if that’s enough for US Soccer to rehire him as a manager, though that decision has been thrown at the sporting director… a position they have yet to fill and aren’t very close to. But that’s soccer in America, where it’s always someone else’s job, and more importantly, someone else’s fault.