Breaking the USMNT mold: Gio Reyna’s selection contradicts Mauricio Pochettino’s stated criteria - but could deliver major upside

For Reyna, this represents a chance at reviving a career that was on the verge of collapse. His time at Dortmund was marked by immense highs but mostly games missed due to injury. He played under six different managers at the famous club. Only two really gave him a chance. He is 23, yet has already been written off. His most recent transfer move - from Dortmund to Monchengladbach - was the kind that most make in the twilight of their careers. There is an alternate universe here in which Reyna is currently gearing up to play for Bayern Munich or nearing a deal to sign for Man City. Sure, soccer development is rarely that linear, but his natural quality certainly puts him in those conversations. 

Reyna's issues have always been the intangibles. He is injured a lot. He was reportedly a bad teammate who nearly got kicked out of the 2022 camp in Qatar. These things should not, by any means, be overlooked. But the implicit argument here is that the USMNT are practicing a certain amount of forgiveness. In exchange, Reyna simply has to seize this chance. He is not performing for his club, playing just 150 minutes so far this season. He hasn't provided a goal contribution for his country since October 2023. This is the platform being handed to him in a near-perfect way, with a couple of friendlies against teams where the U.S. are well matched, coming at a weird lull in the World Cup cycle where results don't matter all that much. 

This could be the start of the redemption arc.

Let's call it the Pochettino doctrine. The assertion from the manager, from pretty much Day 1, has been that he does not reward talent alone. He demands outright commitment, outright effort. He rewards players who do the hard graft - at pretty much any level within reason. He likes runners and fighters. He does not really care who you are, or what your pedigree was under the previous manager. Pochettino wants fight, he wants spirit. At times, results have been collateral. But Pochettino is a culture guy trying to get his team to buy in. 

And there have been times when he has been handed opportunities to flex his muscles a little bit. Christian Pulisic's reluctance to play at the Gold Cup, for example, was met with indignation. Pulisic said he didn't want to wear the national team jersey at the tournament, but he was willing to play in the friendlies before. Pochettino told him he could have neither. Pulisic was dragged for months. Pochettino responded by going on a now-iconic rant in which he asserted his authority as a coach, and claimed, rather poetically, that he was "not a mannequin."

That came nine months into his tenure, but rather set the tone for it all. Pochettino doesn't care if you are the best player in the nation's history. You cannot simply choose when you want to play for the team. It's something that has continued in other selection decisions. Yunus Musah, for one, is good enough to play for the U.S. But he has not played at club level and has therefore been omitted. Weston McKennie, for some time, was left out without a direct reason. These are starters, not just relegated to the bench, but forced to watch from home.

But Pochettino insisted at a press conference last week that Reyna is a special case. 

"There’s no doubt that he’s a special player,” Pochettino said. "That is why we need to be open, and to provide."

Reyna, he said, runs counter to the policy. For this singular 23-year-old who has a patchy history with the national team, Pochettino is willing to put his neck on the line. It's puzzling, and an admittedly curious hill to die on. But it might also just make perfect sense. Reyna, at his fluid, creative, probing best, is the most effective player in the pool not named Pulisic. 

The attacking midfielder has a sort of maverick quality that is truly rare in modern soccer. The U.S. has plenty of good offensive options, but almost all of them are known quantities. Pulisic is always going to dribble, run, score, and assist. Folarin Balogun is a reliable striker who, given enough chances, will be effective in front of goal.

Reyna isn't as reliable. But he has magic in his feet in a way that the rest of the U.S. team simply doesn't. What Reyna does have is a spark, a twinkle in his toes and a glimmer in his eye. Reyna could be a 4 out of 10. But he could also be a 10. And in international soccer, in those dreary drudges of games where there are no spaces to work with, then Reyna can thrive. 

Pochettino, then, is gambling here. This seems a selection for next summer as much as next week. He doesn't need 90 minutes of Reyna perfection every game. But he could certainly do with 25 of sparkling excellence, once every few days for a month in June 2026.

"Gio is a young guy who is talented," Pochettino said in an interview with Fox Sports. "We cannot say that this guy or another needs to disappear because he didn't behave. We always need to give the chance. But at the same time, they need to show what we expect from them.

And there's certainly a path to that. Starting Reyna would be an immense risk here. He hasn't played a full 90 minutes for Borussia Monchengladbach since moving to the German club from Borussia Dortmund last summer. He isn't fit enough to make it through a full fixture. What Reyna can offer, in the immediate term, is valuable bench minutes. His remit should be to come on and make a difference in glimpses. 

But that's a hard thing to quantify. Sure, football is measured in goals and assists. Stats are more accessible than they have ever been. Reyna could leave the pitch with zero goal contributions but enough advanced stats metrics to make the Twitter tacticos call for a Ballon d'Or shout. Pochettino likely has his own expectations, his own barometers. Some of that, to be sure, will be in numbers. But a lot might also be vibes and tactical fit.

At this point, Pochettino is effectively proofreading. He knows his best formation and probably most of his starting XI. What he likely wants to figure out is the four to five players who can supplement it. You get five substitutes in soccer. Who are the seven guys whom he trusts enough to work into the side when the stakes are at their highest? That, right now, is what Reyna is playing for. 

Of course, part of the problem here is that Reyna will also be judged in the court of public opinion. The side effect of Reyna's maverick quality and residual hurt from his checkered past, means that he is judged far more harshly than most. He is a polarizing figure among fans, a rare love-hate guy who plays for their own team. There will be eyeballs on his every touch on the pitch, cameras on his every move in training. The USMNT has not put Reyna forward in pre-match media sessions, in what was likely a safe PR decision. 

And then, there's the Pochettino side. The Argentine is overwriting his whole doctrine here. Sure, he can point to injuries to Malik Tillman and Pulisic, or the absence of Yunus Musah or Weston McKennie. But the player pool is deep enough so that he did not have to call up Reyna. The manager is, in effect, putting his neck on the line for a historically controversial character. 

It must be acknowledged that Pochettino has previous experience managing star personalities. He coached both Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. He worked under the pressure cooker of PSG. He oversaw a Chelsea team under immense media scrutiny in a period of "buy-everyone-now" transition. One lad from New Jersey who is rumored to be a little bit of a sulker isn't the worst thing he's ever dealt with. Managers, too, are inherently egotistical characters. There is probably a little bit of Pochettino that might want to prove he can deal with Reyna. 

The reality is, though, he simply has to. Reyna, Pochettino insists, is a special case who can, in effect, talk his way into the team. Now, he has to prove that he is good enough to play his way into it.