EMBATTLED REYNA ON U.S. ROSTER
Forward Gio Reyna, the player at the center of a three-month soap opera that has engulfed and embarrassed U.S. Soccer, was called up to the national team Wednesday for Nations League games with Grenada and El Salvador.
The roster announcement comes two days after U.S. Soccer released a report detailing the friction between World Cup coach Gregg Berhalter and the Reyna family, one that began at last fall’s tournament in Qatar and left both men’s futures with the national team in doubt.
The report cleared Berhalter of any wrongdoing, but the federation has not decided whether to offer the coach a new contract. In the meantime, Anthony Hudson, a U.S. assistant in Qatar, is managing the team. Hudson visited Reyna last month in Germany, where he plays for Borussia Dortmund, and has called him back to the national team for the first time since the World Cup.
“Clearly it became a bit more complex in the months since the World Cup, but as far as we’re concerned Gio is a part of our program,” Hudson said in a statement. “He’s a good guy and a top talent and he is evaluated like any other player. We made the roster decisions based on what gives the team the best opportunity to win these games and we brought him in because we think he can help us do that.”
Results at Grenada on March 24 and against El Salvador on March 27 in Orlando, Fla., would lift the U.S. into the Final Four of the Nations League and qualify it for this summer’s Gold Cup. The U.S. won both tournaments under Berhalter two years ago, then made the round of 16 in the World Cup.
The 24-player roster Hudson summoned for the two games includes 13 players from the World Cup team, among them forward Christian Pulisic, midfielder Weston McKennie and goalkeeper Matt Turner. Also named was Club America forward Alex Zendejas ,adual national who has decided to play for the U.S., and defender Miles Robinson and goalkeeper Zack Steffen, who both featured heavily in World Cup qualifying but weren’t on the team in Qatar.
Missing is captain Tyler Adams, who recently picked up a hamstring injury, as well as LAFC midfielder Kellyn
Acosta and defender Aaron Long, who were both on the World Cup team.
Motorsports
NASCAR levied the largest combined fine on one team in series history, hammering Hendrick Motorsports for modifying air-deflecting pieces last weekend at Phoenix Raceway.
Hendrick was issued a combined $400,000 in fines — $100,000 to each of its four crew chiefs, along with fourrace suspensions for the quartet — and docked the drivers 100 regular-season points and 10 playoffs points each. Although NASCAR has issued larger monetary fines and suspensions, the Hendrick penalties are the largest combined punishment for one organization.
NASCAR’s winningest team said it would appeal. William Byron has won back-to-back races for Hendrick to give HMS two wins through the first four races of the season, and Alex Bowman was the Cup Series points leader prior to his 100point deduction.
College sports
Two-time defending champion Virginia swept both relay titles at the NCAA women’s swimming and diving championships in Knoxville, Tenn..
Virginia leads the standings after the first night of competition with 80 points, followed by Texas with 64 and California with 56.
Virginia set an NCAA record in the 200-yard relay to become the first repeat champion in the event since California in 2012. Gretchen Walsh, Alex Walsh, Lexi Cuomo and Kate Douglass finished in 1:31:51. Douglass anchored in 20.34 for the second fastest 50-relay split ever.
Also
Raven Saunders, the U.S. silver-medal shot putter who used her triumph at the Tokyo Olympics to bring attention to social injustice, has been suspended for 18 months for failing to show up for doping tests.
• One year after almost quitting Alpine skiing in frustration, Ilka Stuhec was back at the peak of her form. The two-time world champion completed her downhill season by beating Sofia Goggia, the season’s standout speed racer, for victory at the World Cup Finals in Andorra.