Former USMNT player who retracted Berhalter vs Gio Reyna scoop during WC now says ‘I told you so!’

Once the USMNT was eliminated in the round of 16 at the Qatar World Cup, head coach Gregg Berhalter attended the HOW Institute for Society’s Summit on Moral Leadership in New York last Tuesday and revealed a shocking detail.

He confessed that he was about to send a player home mid-tournament who “was not meeting expectations”. But why did Berhalter decide to speak on this sensitive issue? Well, his comments were supposed to be strictly “off the record”, but they were unveiled in a newsletter this week.

It was Gio Reyna who Berhalter wanted to send home

The player in question has now been confirmed by several outlets as being Gio Reyna, the 20 year-old son of former USMNT great Claudio Reyna.

Now, former coach and USMNT standout Eric Wynalda has boasted about an exclusive during the group stage of the 2022 World Cup which caught massive flack from US fans. The heat was so intense that he apologized and retracted what he had said completely: Ï wish I could take it back.”

Wynalda’s exclusive that angered USMNT fans

In a Twitter Spaces session hosted by the LA Times, Wynalda had claimed that Gio Reyna refused to lie about an injury at Berhalter’s request.

He stated that he had been consoling Reyna’s father about the drama involving his son: “I don’t know how much I should comment on that but I have been trying to console Gio’s father Claudio for the last couple of hours, and well, the last couple of days with everything going on.”

Did Berhalter lie about the Reyna situation in Qatar?

Berhalter was actually asked about it during a press conference at the World Cup, and his response now seems dishonest given recent reports: “That’s just not who I am. That’s not what I represent. So if you have to take my word or Eric’s word, feel free. But I know what happened. That’s not what I represent.”

With the US out of the World Cup and Berhalter’s slip-up at the New York conference, Eric Wynalda trolled a fan who tweeted: “I’m gonna be so gd annoyed if it turns out Eric Wynalda was right in the end.” To which the former US international replied: “Apology accepted.”