28JUL

Reyna dropped from USMNT squad projections

1 min read

09:39UTC

Gio Reyna has not returned to the Borussia Monchengladbach bench following a muscle injury. Multiple projections now drop him from Pochettino's 26-man squad.

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Key takeaway

Reyna's Monchengladbach bench return before 26 May is the last data point Pochettino's staff will have on him.

Gio Reyna has not returned to the Borussia Monchengladbach bench following a muscle injury, and multiple projections now drop him from the USMNT's 26-man squad ahead of Mauricio Pochettino's 26 May announcement .

Reyna's situation is the clearest live example of the five unresolved selection problems ESPN detailed on 13 April. His club minutes have been the throughline of every US World Cup squad conversation since his 2022 break with Gregg Berhalter, and a muscle injury that keeps him off the matchday 18 at Borussia-Park is the sort of data Pochettino's staff cannot contradict with a mid-April friendly because there is no mid-April friendly. The next USMNT window is 31 May against Senegal in Charlotte, the day after the 26-man squad is submitted.

That sequencing is what moves a fitness question into a selection one. The Senegal fixture cannot audition a borderline player into the squad; it can only confirm or contradict the list already sent to FIFA. Reyna's return to a Bundesliga bench in the next ten days is therefore the last data point Pochettino's staff will receive on him before the cutoff, which makes every Monchengladbach team sheet between now and the squad submission a public selection signal he cannot influence from Los Angeles.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Gio Reyna is a 22-year-old American footballer who plays for Borussia Mönchengladbach in Germany's Bundesliga. He has suffered recurring muscle injuries and has played only five minutes of club football since January 2026. The USMNT head coach, Mauricio Pochettino, must name a 26-player squad on 26 May for the home World Cup. Reyna was previously considered one of the US team's most technically gifted players. Multiple projection models and sports media outlets now list him as likely to miss the squad entirely. With no competitive matches available before the 26 May announcement and only two friendly windows in late May and early June, Pochettino has almost no data on which to base an inclusion decision.

Sources:SBI Soccer

Mentions:FIFA →Senegal →World Cup →USMNT →Los Angeles →Germany →Gregg Berhalter →Gio Reyna →Borussia Mönchengladbach →Mauricio Pochettino →

First Reported In

Update #8 · Three clocks running against kickoff

SBI Soccer· 19 Apr 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

Pochettino sets 26 May USMNT squad call with five gaps

Pochettino's five unresolved selection problems, confirmed this week, include Reyna's fitness, making his absence from the Borussia Mönchengladbach bench a direct selection pressure.

Occurred 13 Apr 2026

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This Event

Reyna dropped from USMNT squad projections

The USMNT's most talented creator is trending out of the home tournament as the 26 May squad cutoff narrows, with no competitive window left for a selection audition.

Led to

US name 26, leave their shape blank

Reyna's benching at Mönchengladbach was the open question Pochettino resolved by including him in the final 26.

Occurred 26 May 2026

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USA settle a back four vs Senegal

Reyna had been dropped from USMNT projections after failing to return to the Mönchengladbach bench; the Senegal start reversed that assessment.

Occurred 31 May 2026

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Different Perspectives

French Football Federation

The FFF called an 11:00 CEST press conference for 28 July, at its Paris headquarters, following an extraordinary executive committee meeting, at which Zinedine Zidane is expected to be presented as head coach succeeding Didier Deschamps. As of this writing no communique confirms the appointment, contract length or start date.

Morocco

Morocco is pushing for the 2030 final at its Grand Stade Hassan II in Casablanca, a planned 115,000-seat venue that would be the world's largest football stadium on completion. The venue is contested by a Spanish petition for the Santiago Bernabeu, and FIFA has fixed neither the venue nor the tournament's proposed 64-team format.

FIFA

FIFA's first tournament report, published 27 July, itemises nearly 300,000 accredited personnel, 73,700 security staff and 300,000 square metres of custom-grown turf, with no revenue or cost figure attached. As a Swiss association answering to its own Congress rather than a treasury, FIFA has followed the same operational-before-financial sequence it used after Qatar 2022.

Javier Tebas / La Liga

La Liga president Javier Tebas said on 21 July that FIFA's system is rotten from the root and that Gianni Infantino's time as president has, in his words, concluded. Tebas has no vote in FIFA's process, so days after the IOC declined jurisdiction over a separate ethics complaint, he used the only instrument he has.

Mexico City government

Head of government Clara Brugada presented a closing report on 22 July crediting the tournament with 44 billion pesos of economic activity, 2,000-plus accelerated public works and 100,000 formal jobs in June alone. The city has not published the method behind that figure, and three other Mexican bodies count the same five weeks differently.

Town of Foxborough

Foxborough answered Kraft Group's June lawsuit on 7 July with a 61-page counterclaim, calling the stadium's owners 'a collection of multibillion-dollar corporations' trying to shift its $7.8 million security bill onto taxpayers. The town says its licensing power and its billing power run through the same board, and it wants the court to award its own costs too.