It sounds like Reyna may not be back in training for a little while yet
It sounds like Gio Reyna may not be back on the training pitch for Borussia Dortmund for a little while yet.
The club’s head coach Edin Terzić offered updates on Reyna and several other injured players after Wednesday’s 7-0 preseason-opening win over fifth-tier Westfalia Rhynern.
When asked about Karim Adeyemi, Youssoufa Moukoko and Felix Nmecha, Terzić told Dortmund’s official website: “Five players are not yet completely fit.
“The aforementioned trio are joined by Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Gio Reyna, who unfortunately got injured with their national teams.”
Reyna was injured last month in the CONCACAF Nations League final, a game in which he provided both assists as the U.S. defeated Canada 2-0.
Nearly a month later there still haven’t been many updates on Reyna’s injury, but Terzić did not include the USMNT star in a list of players he was hoping to see in training next week.
“The lads are on a good path,” the coach added. “Four of them will be on the training pitch tomorrow and then we hope to have them all fit by the end of preseason at the latest. In Karim, Youssoufa and Felix’s case, we hope that they will already be able to participate fully in team training next week.”
Dortmund is set to continue its preseason in the United States later this month, as it has matches scheduled against Premier League giants Manchester United and Chelsea, as well as USL Championship side San Diego Loyal.
The 22-year-old will go from the Championship to the Champions League
Brenden Aaronson has joined Union Berlin on loan from Leeds until the end of the 2023-24 season.
Sky Germany reported that the deal does not include a purchase option.
Aaronson departs one year after joining Leeds from Red Bull Salzburg in a $30 million transfer. He was heavily involved in his first Premier League season, appearing in 36 of the club’s 38 league games while starting 28 times.
The 22-year-old started the season strong but struggled as the campaign wore on, finishing with just one goal and three assists as Leeds was ultimately relegated from the Premier League.
He will now get a fresh start in the Bundesliga with Union, which surprisingly finished fourth last season to qualify for the Champions League.
“Union’s path and the success of the last few years did not go unnoticed in either the USA, Austria or England,” Aaronson told the club’s website.
“Somehow, you always heard something about them. A year ago, I wouldn’t have believed that I would be here and able to play in the Champions League with Union. I’m looking forward to the year ahead with joy and confidence and want to help us have another successful season.”
First he took Philadelphia and then he took Salzburg. Then he took Elland Road… And now he takes Berlin Welcome to the club, Brenden. You're gonna love it here. Eisern!!!
— 1. FC Union Berlin (English) (@fcunion_en) July 9, 2023
Aaronson will join his sometimes USMNT teammate Jordan Pefok at Union, and will also reunite in the Bundesliga with his younger brother Paxten, who plays for Eintracht Frankfurt.
“Brenden’s commitment has made us very happy, he is a type of player we don’t have who will be good for our attacking game. Despite his young age, he already has a lot of international experience and will complement our squad at a high level,” said Oliver Ruhnert, Union’s managing director of men’s professional football.
Aaronson has 32 caps for the USMNT, appearing in all four of the team’s 2022 World Cup matches off the bench.
Reyna did his part, but his side still suffered a devastating final-day outcome
Gio Reyna has posted a note of apology to Borussia Dortmund fans after his side threw away a golden opportunity to win the Bundesliga title on the final day of the season.
Needing only a win against mid-table Mainz to seal the championship, Dortmund was held to a 2-2 draw. At the same time, Jamal Musiala’s 89th-minute winner for Bayern Munich at Köln snatched the title away in dramatic fashion.
Reyna played his part in Dortmund’s comeback from a two-goal deficit, assisting both of his team’s second-half goals after coming on as a substitute. But ultimately, Dortmund fell short in front of a packed Signal-Iduna Park ready to celebrate a first league title in 11 years.
On Tuesday, Reyna apologized to his side’s supporters on social media, trying to keep up some semblance of positivity after a devastating end to the season.
“It was in our hands and we let something we worked so hard for, slip away,” he wrote on Instagram. “Remember that setbacks are a part of life, and even though it may be tough right now, it’s important to keep pushing forward and learn from the experience. Sorry to the fans and city of Dortmund but we can’t thank you enough for the incredible support shown throughout all the ups and downs.”
Despite making just one league start after the World Cup break, Reyna finished the campaign with a career-best seven Bundesliga goals.
The unreal end of the 2022-23 Bundesliga season saw Bayern Munich claim the title thanks to an 89th minute winner and a legendary choke job from Borussia Dortmund.
Somewhere in the mix of Bayern’s inevitability and Dortmund’s ability to squander a good situation, there was a perfect recipe for one group and one group only: those who post with honor.
After a collapse like Dortmund’s — all they had to do was win a home game! — and Jamal Musiala’s dramatic late goal, the soccer world’s meme-makers got to work. The inveterate Twitter addicts started typing, and the stats nerds pulled up their relevant spreadsheets.
Bayern Munich has won the Bundesliga, but for once it required a dramatic, tension-packed final day rather than their typical march to the inevitable.
Borussia Dortmund kicked off the last day of the season with a two-point lead, meaning that a win over Mainz at an absolutely jam-packed Signal Iduna Park would finally, at long last, end Bayern’s 10-year reign. Hordes of fans showed up in yellow and black ready for a party.
Instead, they got a disastrous collapse, as Dortmund fell 2-0 down in the game’s early minutes. Bayern would pounce with an 89th minute winner to claim the Bundesliga in the most excruciating fashion.
With both games kicking off simultaneously, Kingsley Coman authored the first significant shift in the tension, producing a splendid finish after Bayern broke forward with authority in the eighth minute.
In that moment, Bayern took the lead on goal difference atop the table.
That part of the story wasn’t particularly shocking. Most probably expected a Bayern win over a Köln side that wasn’t fighting for a place in Europe or to avoid relegation.
It’s what happened next at Dortmund that pushed this game into “directed by Ari Aster” territory.
A 15th minute corner at the near post found a falling Andreas Hanche-Olsen, whose glancing no-look header somehow got over the line. Dortmund had fallen behind against mid-table Mainz, meaning that Bayern was now one point clear atop the table.
Still, down 1-0 at home? That’s salvageable, right? Within three minutes, Dortmund had a penalty kick given after a VAR check. Sébastien Haller, who returned mid-season after beating cancer, would step to the spot and equalize, right?
Right?
Nope. Finn Dahmen dove left and saved the spot kick, leaving the Yellow Wall with a creeping feeling of dread.
In the 24th minute, that inkling became full-blown horror, with Gregor Kobel getting a full hand to Karim Onisiwo’s header only for it to bobble over the line. In a game that was supposed to be a coronation, Dortmund were 2-0 behind.
Halftime came and went with Bayern in pole position, but Dortmund finally showed a pulse in the 69th minute. Who else but Gio Reyna, once again playing the super-sub role, would be involved? The U.S. men’s national team attacker made a difference yet again, playing a series of passes with Raphaël Guerreiro before the latter fired home.
Still, as long as Bayern was in the lead, Dortmund needed two goals, and a quick check over at the RheinEnergieStadion found the score still 1-0. Things were starting to get weird over there, though, as a Köln attack was broken up by sprinklers activating during play.
Maybe that was an indicator of what was to come, as Köln were given an 81st minute penalty after Serge Gnabry was spotted by VAR handling the ball just barely inside the box.
Dejan Ljubicic made no mistake, and suddenly Dortmund — in spite of itself — moved back into first place.
All the drama shifted to Köln, where Bayern were scrambling around in panic mode. Leon Goretzka, sent on in the 71st minute, was hauled off as Thomas Tuchel’s final, desperate throw of the dice saw Mathys Tel and Jamal Musiala sent into the fray.
The latter would end up making all the difference, with Gnabry making up for his handball by setting Musiala up for a stunning shot on the turn. In the 89th minute of the final game of the season, Bayern were back on top.
The news landed in Dortmund like a ton of bricks. Full time arrived at the RheinEnergieStadion, with Dortmund needing two stoppage-time goals at home to win it all. BVB predictably sent everyone forward, and when the five minutes of stoppage time dragged into a sixth, Niklas Süle would give them the tiniest glimmer of hope on a deflected shot after more good work from Reyna.
Could they win the title in the kind of drama in the most unreal way possible? Süle’s goal meant that both Dortmund and Bayern had 71 points, with the Bavarians ahead only on goal difference. A winner at this point would be possibly the greatest goal in German club soccer history.
Referee Marco Fritz was in a generous mood, tacking on some extra stoppage time, and Dortmund had several chances to hoof the ball into the box and hope for a miracle, while exhausted Mainz players kept finding just enough in their legs to scramble the ball away.
Finally, with an eighth minute of stoppage time beginning, Fritz ended it. Bayern could party with traveling supporters in Köln, while the scene at Dortmund was pure devastation.
The 19-year-old made just three senior appearances for the club during his loan
Justin Che will return to FC Dallas after Hoffenheim confirmed it has declined its purchase option on the U.S. Under-20 defender.
“Justin and Eduardo [Quaresma] are talented guys with great character who have both repeatedly shown promise,” Hoffenheim sporting director Alexander Rosen told the club’s website.
“However, we agree with the players that they need regular playing time at this stage of their careers to develop continuously. We can’t guarantee them that with us.”
The 19-year-old came up through the FC Dallas academy before he joined Bayern Munich on a brief loan in 2021. After returning to Dallas, where he made 15 MLS appearances in the 2021 season, Che joined Hoffenheim in January 2022 on a year-and-a-half loan.
The defender mostly featured for Hoffenheim’s reserves during his time with the German club, making just three senior appearances over a season and a half.
After he was promoted to Hoffenheim’s senior team permanently in January, Che suffered a muscle injury in February that would spell the end of his time with the club.
The USMNT attacker leads the Bundesliga in goals per 90 minutes
Borussia Dortmund manager Edin Terzić has said Gio Reyna’s consistent goalscoring off the bench is giving him the proverbial problem every coach wants to have.
Reyna has started just one game since the World Cup but has scored in five of his 10 substitute appearances since the Bundesliga restarted in January.
The 20-year-old scored again in Saturday’s 5-2 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach, taking his average to 1.06 goals per 90 minutes — best in the Bundesliga among players with more than 500 minutes.
Dortmund, which is just one point behind first-place Bayern with two games to go, has won 13 of 17 games since the World Cup. With attackers like Donyell Malen, Julian Brandt, Karim Adeyemi and others firing on all cylinders, Reyna’s lack of minutes has more to do with the successes of others rather than his own failures.
Speaking after the win over Gladbach, Terzić said that the USMNT attacker continues to push the players ahead of him.
“Gio in particular is not making it easy for me to always only be bringing him on [from the bench],” the coach said. “He pushes the others every day. We want to have that performance mindset in the team. Karim and Donny know that they need to keep stepping on the gas.”
Overall, Reyna has scored a career-high seven Bundesliga goals this season, despite starting just four games in the league.
Varas said Frankfurt decided the 19-year-old was too important to be released
U.S. U-20 head coach Mikey Varas said he was disappointed but also proud of Paxten Aaronson after Eintracht Frankfurt refused to release the attacker for the U-20 World Cup.
Aaronson has become a key bench option for Frankfurt after joining in January, having appeared in four straight Bundesliga matches.
The 19-year-old’s development has seen his club side deem him too valuable to release for the U-20 World Cup, which does not take place within the FIFA calendar and therefore doesn’t require teams to let players go.
Aaronson was one of several players held back by their clubs, including Chicago fire midfielder Brian Gutiérrez and goalkeeper Chris Brady, as well as LA Galaxy defender Jalen Neal.
Losing Aaronson, the top scorer and player of the tournament in last summer’s CONCACAF U-20 Championship, is a major blow for the U.S. but Varas opted to look at the positives after the ex-Philadelphia Union player was omitted from his 21-man roster.
“In terms of Frankfurt, we had ongoing discussions not just with Frankfurt, but with every club across MLS and internationally,” Varas said on a conference call. “We tried to find the best solutions to cooperate. Unfortunately for us and for Paxten, it wasn’t able to be but at the same time, we’re really proud that Paxten has become such an important part of Frankfurt’s team that they don’t feel that they can release him.”
Even though Varas is clearly aiming to go as far as possible in the World Cup, he emphasized that as a youth national team head coach, player development had to be his top priority.
“We’re disappointed that some players weren’t released but at the same time, our number one priority here is individual player development,” Varas said. “So we’re also proud of the fact that these players have become so important during the cycle that they’re no longer viewed as releasable for this type of tournament.”
It’s been nearly two years since the most recent of the defender’s 45 caps
John Brooks is not ready to give up on the U.S. national team just yet.
Once a fixture for the USMNT, the defender has not been called up since the fall of 2021. Last summer, then-head coach Gregg Berhalter explained that Brooks did not fit the team’s game model.
After an ill-fated move to Benfica, Brooks has found his feet again in Germany with Hoffenheim. The 30-year-old has started all but two of the club’s Bundesliga matches since joining in January, and has helped the club climb out of the relegation zone.
Speaking to Hoffenheim’s website, Brooks recalled how decided to represent the U.S., his father’s homeland, ahead of Germany, where he was born and raised.
“At the time I was very interested in American culture and wanted to get to know it better,” he said. “I always spoke English with my father and went to an English-speaking school, but apart from that I had a German life. For me, traveling with the national team was also a chance to learn more about my father’s origins.”
Brooks ended up making the 2014 World Cup roster as a 21-year-old. His World Cup debut turned into one of the greatest moments of his career, as he came off the bench and scored a dramatic 86th-minute winner in the team’s opener against Ghana.
“Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps. You can’t even put it into words,” he said. “Somehow the guy from the flank found my head. I’ll never forget that moment.”
On his celebration he added: “I didn’t know what to do after that. I was stunned and just overjoyed.”
(AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)
Brooks may not have fit Berhalter’s game model, but the potential of a new USMNT coach coming could offer the defender a route back to the national team.
Berhalter is still a candidate for the position, which is being filled on an interim basis by Anthony Hudson. After a tumultuous period following the World Cup, however, new sporting director Matt Crocker could opt to turn the page on the Berhalter era.
Nearly two years after the most recent of his 45 caps, Brooks is still hopeful he’ll get another shot with the USMNT.
“I think if I perform well here I can still be an option for the national team. I’m not that old yet,” he said with a laugh.
“Last year it was Erling, the year before it was Jadon”
Edin Terzić seems to be embracing the inevitable.
The Borussia Dortmund head coach has been around the club for some time; first as a scout, then an assistant coach, interim manager and finally, his current position which he assumed ahead of this season.
Terzić has therefore seen plenty of players rise to prominence at the club before being sold on for a massive fee.
Jude Bellingham seems to be the next in line, with Marca reporting this week that Real Madrid’s move for the England international midfielder is almost done.
Los Blancos will reportedly pay between €100 million and €120 million for Bellingham.
Ahead of his title-chasing side’s game against Wolfsburg on Sunday, Terzić addressed the speculation around the 19-year-old. While he didn’t confirm anything had been done, the coach did mention two other ex-Dortmund stars who have left in recent years.
“Now the news comes from Spain, before that it came from England, before that it even came from France at one point,” the coach said at a press conference. “Last year it was Erling [Haaland], the year before it was Jadon [Sancho]. We’ve had a lot of experience with that over the last few years.
“Jude comes here every day and gives everything to become German champion at the end of the season. I haven’t even heard from him that he’s involved with any club. We are much more concerned with how we can make him and the team better. That’s the only topic I currently have with him. The rest are topics that have no place in the dressing room or in the manager’s office. All we are concerned with now is making sure we have something really nice to holds in our hands at the end of the season.”
