CHESTER, Pa. — Gio Reyna, with one club start in eight months and “80, 85 percent” of his fitness, ambled around a soccer field here on Saturday night and elevated the U.S. men’s national team.
He scored one goal and created another in a 2-1 win over Paraguay, a friendly that could be forgotten – or could be remembered as the game that relaunched Reyna’s USMNT career.
His “capacity to read the game, and find the free space,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said postgame, “was a nightmare for Paraguay.”
And it’s why Reyna, warts and all, could still spark the USMNT at the 2026 World Cup.
“If he can now get a run of games,” defender and captain Tim Ream said, “sky’s the limit for him.”
He has not had a true run of games in eons. He has not started more than two consecutively for a club, any club, since August of 2021, the month before his first devastating hamstring injury. He has spent the four years since battling wounds and hounded by controversy. “He’s been through a lot,” teammate and friend Brenden Aaronson said Saturday. “With injuries, with all this stuff.”
“But whenever he plays for the national team, he’s always there,” Aaronson continued.
And on Saturday night, Reyna reminded everyone of just that.
Gio Reyna scores his first USMNT goal since March 2024 💥 pic.twitter.com/ejy6XrZrt2
— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 15, 2025
He was far from perfect. He didn’t really sprint. He was slow to press Paraguayan center back Júnior Alonso in the ninth minute; Alonso pinged a ball over the top to Miguel Almirón, who crossed to Alex Arce for an equalizer. “It was a goal,” Pochettino said, “that we should not concede.”
But Reyna, as he so often does, also did things that nobody else in the U.S. player pool can do.
Some were simple things. A first touch on the half-turn and a clean pass. A point and a shout, directing traffic off the ball, seeing avenues into the final third that others don’t see. A slide into space that Paraguay wasn’t occupying. A pause, standing over the ball, calming the game and scanning the field, the type of action that makes teammate Christian Pulisic “feel a lot more relaxed.”
Some of the things, though, were eye-catching. There was an exchange with Aaronson at the edge of the penalty area. There was the intelligent movement and carry into the box that led to Folarin Balogun’s winner. There was a 30th minute pass — one touch, seemingly blind, splitting multiple defenders, out to Sergiño Dest in a crossing position — that turned heads on the field and in the stands.
There were even a couple elbows into the ribs of Paraguayan players. “He’s played with an intensity tonight,” Ream said. “And he’s been aggressive and not let the game kind of float in and out.
“And I think when he does that, his quality is just so unbelievable.”
That’s why some teammates rave about him — because there is talent to rave about, but also because they want to help bring it out of Reyna. As two dozen USMNT players lapped the field after the game, clapping to fans, Ream put his arm around the 23-year-old, congratulated him, and told him “how important it was for him to be back here and to feel good about being here.”
“And he just needs to continue on in that way,” Ream continued. “There’s going to be ups and downs. There’s always going to be in your career, in life, there’s going to be hiccups. And it’s how you ride those, how you can move past those. And if you can ride those and then come out and put in a performance like that, you’re gonna have a lot more good days than bad.”
The national team has, at times, been a refuge for Reyna. And he, even amid club struggles, has been a rescuer of the national team. After starting zero games for Dortmund in March, April and May of 2023, he starred for the USMNT that June at the Concacaf Nations League finals. After starting zero games for Dortmund in December, January, February and March of 2024, he again lifted the USMNT to a Nations League title. Two former coaches, B.J. Callaghan and Gregg Berhalter, both realized that for all Reyna’s flaws and troubles, he is a special player.
That’s why Pochettino considered Reyna a “special situation” and brought him into this November training camp.
On Saturday, Reyna “showed why he started,” Pochettino said. The head coach added that Reyna “needs to improve, because he needs to play more in his club.” But even if he doesn’t, he showed he can make an impact.
He can. It’s not that he will at the World Cup next summer, but he could. He could be a wild card in the starting 11. He could be a game-changing substitute. He could play a role.
For the past several months, there was a worry that Reyna’s body and confidence had deteriorated to the point that he could no longer do what he did in June 2023 or March 2024. On Saturday, at least temporarily, he laughed off any concern.
He frequently smiled as he spoke with reporters outside the U.S. locker room, his hair unkempt, his arms crossed, a golden watch peeking out from underneath the sleeve of his jacket.
Gio Reyna scored just four minutes into his return to the USMNT (Drew Hallowell / Getty Images)
“I’m just happy to be back,” he said. “I felt great tonight.”
His 75 minutes were the most he’s played in an official match since December 2024. He reiterated multiple times that his current club, Borussia Mönchangladbach, has him “on a really good plan” that is building him back toward full fitness. He even disputed the premise that things are “not going well at Gladbach right now” — “I think they’re going very well,” he said.
And he almost seemed relieved. Relieved that he’d been granted this chance to remind the world of his ability, a chance that was never guaranteed.
“I knew it was an opportunity for me to show that I belong here,” Reyna said. He needed only four minutes to shout, with a headed goal, that he does belong.
Then he wheeled away toward the corner flag. Joe Scally, his best friend, was 10 yards behind him beaming. Aaronson corralled him, pointed to him, and told anyone who’d listen that Reyna “always shows up for the national team.” Reyna himself pointed to his chest — to the U.S. Soccer badge? Or to himself? — and then seemed to say to a fieldside camera: “I told you. I told you.”
When asked after the game by The Athletic what he said, Reyna responded: “I don’t know.”
Then, a couple seconds later, he grinned and clarified: “I do know, but I don’t know.”
Aaronson, who was next to him, also smiled and recalled: “I think he was just saying, ‘Yeah, I’m here.’”
