IRVINE, Calif. — Gio Reyna had already gotten his moment, already produced a goal to justify Mauricio Pochettino’s enduring belief in his quality with a thunderclap of a strike from the outside of his foot that gave an exclamation mark to a 4-1 U.S. men’s national team win over Paraguay that opened the World Cup.
Nearly two hours later, asked about his celebration in the mixed zone, he added a thunderclap of a different sort.
“My wife’s pregnant, if that’s the one you’re talking about,” Reyna said.
Wait, what?
“Obviously, I’ve known for a couple months now, so I was waiting for the perfect time [to announce it],” the 23-year-old Reyna said. “This sort of felt like it. I already sent her the picture; she’s seen it too. It was a great moment for us.”
Reyna, after scoring, had covered his ears, which he declined to explain aside from saying it was an inside joke between himself and some close friends. Then he put the ball in his stomach, indicating to the world that his wife, Chloe, is expecting.
For a player who was nearly sent home from the last World Cup and whose behavior — as well as that of his parents — spiraled into arguably the biggest scandal in US Soccer’s history, the narrative of growth pairs nicely here.
Reyna has often referred to getting a dog when asked about how he’s changed. With all due respect to Melo — yes, after Carmelo Anthony — a child is a slightly bigger deal.
In any case, Reyna responded to a question that referenced 2022 on Friday night in the same way he has the last few weeks.
“That wasn’t on my mind at all,” he said. And why would it have been?
The 26-pass sequence that culminated in Reyna’s brilliant strike almost certainly will be one of the best team goals of the World Cup, punctuated by as good a finish as one could conjure up.
Again and again in the months leading up to this World Cup, Pochettino was asked why Reyna was still in the mix, despite not playing at Borussia Monchengladbach. Again and again, the manager said his individual quality was such that he had to be.
When the U.S. inevitably needs a goal late in a game at some point in this tournament, it’s hard to imagine Pochettino won’t turn to Reyna.
“I just told him he deserves it,” Christian Pulisic said. “We see stuff from him like that every day. It’s not like it’s a crazy surprise and he deserves it. It’s great to see him pull this off in a moment like this.”
His wife and parents, Reyna said, have been urging him to shoot the ball more. Maybe they have a point.
“I think I should,” Reyna said. “If it happens in the next couple games, I’ll take the same opportunity and hopefully get the same result.”
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