This Tuesday at 3 p.m., the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) boss Mauricio Pochettino will unveil the 26-man World Cup squad at Pier 17 on Manhattan’s East River.
But, a leak Friday revealed several of the players on the team. Among them are Sebastian Berhalter, 25, and Gio Reyna, 23, scions of two of the most notable families in American soccer.
Their clans were friends for decades until a bitter scandal torched a 30-year friendship and rocked the USMNT program. Now, the boys will likely be playing alongside each other on Team USA.
“It’s a story that’s so confusing and humanly heartbreaking it’s hard to decipher,” Roger Bennett, the founder and host of soccer podcast “Men in Blazers,” told The Post.
The roots of the Berhalter-Reyna saga stretch all the way back to the 1980s. Sebastian’s father, Gregg Berhalter, and Gio’s dad, Claudio Reyna, were star teen soccer players at Saint Benedict’s Prep in Newark, N.J. It was there, at one of America’s top footballer factories, that the pair became close friends and teammates, forging a bond that survived even after they split for rival college powerhouses — Berhalter to the University of North Carolina at Chapel and Reyna to the University of Virginia.
Their paths crossed again on the international stage, where they became key figures for the USMNT throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. They played together on the 2002 World Cup team, and Reyna emerged as one of the tournament’s standout midfielders.
After hanging up their boots, both stayed deeply embedded in US Soccer circles — Berhalter climbing the coaching ladder while Reyna moved into powerful executive roles.
Berhalter’s wife, Rosalind, and Reyna’s wife, Danielle, were college roommates and best friends at UNC, playing on the women’s soccer team there together.
Claudio Reyna was such a close friend that he reportedly served as best man at the Berhalters’ wedding.
Then came Qatar and the 2022 World Cup. Gregg was Head Coach of the USMNT and Gio, then just 20-year-olds, was one of the team’s brightest rising stars.
He was already playing in the elite German Bundesliga for Borussia Dortmund and was viewed by many fans and analysts as possibly the most naturally gifted player in the US pool. Gregg said picking him for the team was “like you’re putting a family member in the game.”
But Gio barely saw the field in the tournament, logging just 52 minutes across four matches as whispers of locker-room tension exploded.
Months later, as a guest speaker at the HOW Institute for Society’s Summit on Moral Leadership in New York, Gregg described an unnamed player who had nearly gotten sent home for poor effort and attitude. He never said Gio’s name, but it was clear who he was talking about.
“In this last World Cup, we had a player that was clearly not meeting expectations on and off the field,” he told the audience. “We were ready to book a plane ticket home, that’s how extreme it was.”
The next day, Gio confirmed on Instagram he’d been disappointed not only with his lack of playing time but also with Gregg going public.
“I fully acknowledge that I let my emotions get the best of me and affect my training and behavior for a few days after learning about my limited role,” he said on the social platform. “Coach Berhalter has always said that issues that arise with the team will stay ‘in house’ so we can focus on team unity and progress. It is my belief that things that happen in a team setting ought to remain private.”
That’s when the gloves came off.
Claudio contacted US Soccer officials over his son’s treatment. Danielle went even further.
On December 11, 2022, she reached out to US Soccer sporting director Earnie Stewart to report a 1991 incident in which Berhalter, then an 18-year-old freshman, had a heated argument with Rosalind at UNC and kicked her before the couple eventually reconciled.
Gregg responded with a statement posted to Twitter on Jan. 3, 2023. He admitted that he’d “kicked [Rosalind] in the legs” after a “heated argument” outside of a bar. He called the incident “shameful” and said he’d voluntarily gotten counseling in its aftermath and never repeated such behavior. The statement, which was also signed by Rosalind, noted they’d been happily married for 25 years.
In the missive, Gregg also implied that he’d been blackmailed before the 1991 incident was made public, saying that during the World Cup someone had contacted him saying they had information that would “take me down.”
The bombshell allegations triggered a US Soccer investigation that ultimately cleared Berhalter to continue coaching, ruling the decades-old domestic incident isolated and finding the Reynas’ actions did not meet the threshold for blackmail or extortion.
The day after Gregg’s statement, Danielle gave her own. “I was absolutely outraged and devastated that Gio had been put in such a terrible position, and that I felt very personally betrayed by the actions of someone my family had considered a friend for decades,” she said .
She also told The Athletic that she was incensed by Berhalter’s statement and that “it significantly minimized” the abuse on the night in question,” she said.
“Rosalind Berhalter was my roommate, teammate and best friend, and I supported her through the trauma that followed. It took a long time for me to forgive and accept Gregg afterward, but I worked hard to give him grace, and ultimately made both of them and their kids a huge part of my family’s life.
“I would have wanted and expected him to give the same grace to Gio. This is why the current situation is so very hurtful and hard.”
Berhalter was fired from his USMNT job in 2024 over the team’s poor performance and is now coaching the Chicago Fire FC. The Reynas remain estranged from their former friends, and US soccer fans are still split over who crossed the line.
“Reyna was a teenager who wasn’t fully fit and threw a fit because he felt deserving,” one insider told The Post. “That’s what kicked this whole thing off. It’s fairly ludicrous.”
Paul Tenorio, author of the forthcoming book “The Messi Effect: How the Global Legend Changed the Future of American Soccer,” said the original decision to limit Reyna’s playing time was hardly controversial.
“The genesis of this was Gio Reyna not starting that first game in Qatar, which was completely justified,” Tenorio explained. “[Instead] Tim Weah, son of 1995 Ballon d’Or winner George Weah, scored in that match and became one of the team’s most consistent performers.”
Now, nearly four years later, the story has come full circle.
According to the leak, both young players have secured a slot on the USMNT. Their playing styles are distinct.
Gio is a gifted playmaker with a styled Bennett calls “poetic.” He plays for Borussia Monchengladbach in the German Bundesliga, has 36 appearances and nine goals for the national team. But, in recent years, his play has been hampered by injury and inconsistency.
Berhalter, who will be making his World Cup debut, has made just one 11 appearances and one goal with the national team, but he’s been a model of consistency for the Vancouver Whitecaps. Said to be one of Pochettino’s favorite players, he’s energetic, rarely injured and skilled with free-kicks.
Berhalter is “a glue-type player”, while Reyna “is capable of changing games when he’s at his best,” said Tenorio.
On the pitch together at the World Cup, they might close the book on one of American soccer’s messiest sagas.
“Football is about second acts and redemption,” Bennett said.
“May that be so in this case.”
