U.S. men’s national team head coach Gregg Berhalter has admitted that he has “work to do” to repair his relationship with Gio Reyna.
After six months away from the team following the expiry of his contract and an extensive process of interviews, Berhalter has returned as USMNT head coach.
The end of Berhalter’s time in charge was marred by a scandal that began with him unwittingly revealing that he nearly sent Reyna home from the World Cup in Qatar.
Reyna responded to Berhalter’s comments by admitting he let his “emotions get the best of me” at the World Cup, but also expressing his dismay that the coach’s words made their way into the public sphere.
Reyna’s parents Claudio and Danielle would then kick off a painful and public imbroglio by telling U.S. Soccer leadership the details of a 1992 incident of domestic violence between Berhalter and his future wife.
Speaking at his introductory press conference on Friday, Berhalter admitted that he will have to fix his relationship with the Borussia Dortmund attacker.
“I’d certainly acknowledge there’s work to do,” Berhalter said.
“Gio is an important player to this team. He’s an extremely talented individual. And I have the obligation and the commitment to coach him like I coach every other player, and I want to get the best out of him.
“We know that if we can unlock his talents, he’s going to be a game-changer for this program. So there’s work to do and part of it is working together with Matt [Crocker, U.S. Soccer sporting director] and trying to rebuild the relationship that we know will be important moving forward.”
Crocker said he put all of the USMNT coaching candidates through stress tests around communication and leadership, and he came away convinced that Berhalter would be able to fix the Reyna situation.
“We went through the whole process of stresses in those areas,” Crocker said. “And it came out clear that Gregg was an individual that had a huge amount of of leadership skills and competencies.”
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