The United States Men’s National Team named 24 players to participate in the upcoming CONCACAF Nations League, including forward Gio Reyna.
The USMNT is set to play March 24 at Grenada and March 27 against El Salvador at Orlando, Fla. The Nations League is used to determine the top teams in CONCACAF, while serving as a qualifier for the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The inclusion of Reyna, who plays for Borussia Dortmund in Germany, comes two days after his parents Claudio and Danielle Reyna were implicated for inappropriate “conduct and communications” with the U.S. Soccer Federation in an attempt to influence their son’s playing time with the national team.
Claudio Reyna played 112 games for the USMNT from 1994-2006. He was the sporting director at Austin FC but resigned from that post in January.
The other forwards named to the U.S. Nations League team are Taylor Booth, Daryl Dike, Ricardo Pepi, Christian Pulisic, Tim Weah and Alex Zendejas. It will be Zendejas’ first appearance with the USMNT after he declared his commitment Tuesday over an opportunity to play with Mexico.
Midfielders include Brenden Aaronson, Johnny Cardoso, Luca De La Torre, Weston McKennie, Yunus Musah and Alan Sonora. Not included in that group is Tyler Adams, who had a standout World Cup this past winter but came away with a hamstring injury in training this week with his club team Leeds United in England.
Defenders include Sergino Dest, Mark McKenzie, Tim Ream, Bryan Reynolds, Antonee Robinson, Miles Robinson, Joe Scally and Auston Trusty. Miles Robinson, of Atlanta United, returns to the team after an Achilles injury forced him to miss the World Cup.
Matt Turner, Ethan Horvath and Zack Steffen are the goalkeepers.
Interim head coach Anthony Hudson is poised to lead the team. He took over for Gregg Berhalter, who led the USMNT into the knockout round of the World Cup, but his contact expired at the end of the year and his hopes of returning have been clouded by a rift with the Reyna family.
–Field Level Media
