USA Beats Iran 1-0… But Why Does Gregg Berhalter Hate Gio Reyna?
The United States Men’s National Team has earned their way to the round of 16 to face off with the Netherlands. Needing to secure a win against Iran in their final Group B game, Team USA had a fairly dominant first half, getting numerous scoring chances in the first 38 minutes but the game was still tied 0-0. Everything changed when Weston McKennie sent a beautiful deep cross to Sergiño Dest, who headed the ball across the net to a crashing Christian Pulisic that he finished to put the USA up 1-0. Pulisic was injured on the play and was understandably replaced by Brendon Aaronson at halftime, but much of what Gregg Berhalter decided to do in the 2nd half made no sense at all.
Playing an incredibly passive and arguably coward-like style of play in the 2nd half, Berhalter evidently told his team to pack it in and just play a bunker defense to try to secure the 1-0 win. Not only this, but Berhalter made multiple questionable substitutions, both of which shunned Bundesliga starters from seeing the field. For some reason Borussia Dortmund’s young star, Gio Reyna, continues to be on Berhalter’s bad side and both Haji Wright (who has been horrible in this World cup), as well as Kellyn Acosta (a 27-year-old MLS player) were substitutes in the 2nd half over Reyna. To make things even worse, Gio Reyna is regarded as one of the top 5 USA players on this World Cup roster but has seen just 12 total minutes of play after three games. While not confirmed, there have even been some rumors/allegations that Gregg Berhalter lied and said Gio Reyna was injured and asked Reyna to go along with it despite Reyna stating that he is 100% good to go.
Joe Scally and Jordan Pefok Should Also be Playing Minutes for this Team
Another Bundesliga player, Joe Scally, has also been repeatedly left out of the Group B games despite being an incredibly promising RB who has started 15 games for Mönchengladbach this season. Gregg Berhalter caused USA soccer fans around the world to shake their heads as he yet again went to Shaq Moore (who many experts agreed should not have made this roster) against Iran. Much like in the England game, Shaq Moore ruined promising attacks and his poor passes were intercepted and led to dangerous counterattacks from Iran. USA soccer legend, Clint Dempsey, joked following the game that Shaq Moore “had more mistakes where he put his hand up to say ‘my bad’ than actual passes completed”. Scally would have clearly been a better option in this game as well as in the previous two matches, but Berhalter seems much more content to play average MLS defenders in DeAndre Yedlin and Shaq Moore.
To top off Gregg Berhalter’s clear refusal to play Bundesliga players, is still the fact that Jordan Pefok did not make this roster. Pefok would have been arguably the USA’s best pure finisher for the strikers and there is no doubt he would have been able to contribute more than what Haji Wright and Jesus Ferreria have done thus-far. With Josh Sargent injuring his knee against Iran and Haji Wright looking borderline incompetent on the field, Berhalter may sadly turn to yet another MLS player who has struggled on the world stage in Jesus Ferreira. Jordan Pefok got off to a hot start for Union Berlin in the Bundesliga with 3 goals and 3 assists in his first 6 games and plays much tougher competition than any of the strikers who made the 26-man team. While he did cool off after that, not having him as an option on this World Cup roster is another huge mistake by Gregg Berhalter and yet another slap in the face to the Bundesliga.
Team USA plays the Netherlands Saturday morning 10am eastern time and will be massive underdogs to the very stout Dutch team. If Gio Reyna and Joe Scally are snubbed yet again on Saturday, fans very well might see a red, white, and blue loss and Gregg Berhalter’s last game coaching the national team.
