USMNT: Despite injury, Gio Reyna made progress
After being named in the Borussia Dortmund starting XI for the first time, USMNT prospect Gio Reyna picked up an injury in warm-ups and missed the match. Despite this, he still made progress.
The meteoric rise of Gio Reyna has been sensational — and entirely outrageous. The young prospect only arrived at Borussia Dortmund in the summer. He was brought to the club in the hope that he could be special, but in reality it was a hopeful roll of the dice. No one knew what to expect from an American teenager arriving in a top-five European league.
However, it became clear quickly that Reyna would flourish in Germany.
“He has the ability to play as a 9.5 or a 10, on the wings, and in the half-spaces,” Borussia Dortmund chief scout Markus Pilawa told The Athletic. “He can dribble, he can carry the ball, he can play with many contacts and he can be direct.
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“We knew that Lucien Favre (the Dortmund coach) would love a player like him, and we had a very good idea of how quickly he’d be able to feature for the seniors, even if you allowed for vagaries such as his physical development and the adaptation process.”
Favre did like him, as the piece noted:
"“Favre liked what he saw. Lars Ricken, Dortmund’s academy manager, had joked that the under-19s would never get Reyna back once their first-team manager had seen the player up close. He was right. After impressive showings during the club’s winter training camp in Marbella, Spain, this January, Reyna was firmly ensconced with the seniors.”"
However, for all of the excitement surrounding Reyna, he has not yet made a start for Dortmund. 11 appearances in all competitions this season, eight of which have come in the Bundesliga. There is great excitement surrounding his U.S. Men’s National Team future, of course, but before he takes any real steps on the international stage, Reyna must first prove that he can play regularly at club level.
So Saturday’s Bundesliga return, the first major league in the world to do so following the coronavirus suspension, offered the 17-year-old the ideal opportunity. Favre named him to the starting XI in the Revierderby versus Schalke. It would be his first start for the club and a momentous occasion for the prospects of the USMNT starlet.
Then, disaster. Reyna suffered an injury in the warm-ups and dropped out of the squad altogether. He did not play a single minute as Dortmund proceeded to ease past Schalke in a 4-0 victory, Julian Brandt and Thorgan Hazard shining in the positions that Reyna would have played.
In fairness, Reyna was only scheduled to start because Jadon Sancho was not fully fit and could only make the bench and Marco Reus was absent entirely. He is not yet the first-choice option at the club, not even close. But it is telling that he was named to the starting XI ahead of Thorgan Hazard, who is a 27-year-old with 20 league starts under his belt this season. It is also important to note that Favre was more than happy to trust Reyna in a hotly contested fixture against what should have been a tough opponent. He was willingly throwing Reyna into the fire.
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So yes, it was extremely disappointing to see Reyna miss out on his first chance to start for Borussia Dortmund. But even being named to the starting XI is progress. It means Reyna is impressing, and that bodes very well for the future.