Reyna family flagged Berhalter incident; interim coach named
NEW YORK » The U.S. soccer team was plunged into public turmoil Wednesday when the family of former U.S. captain Claudio Reyna said it notified the U.S. Soccer Federation of a decades-old incident involving Gregg Berhalter and his wife in response to the coach’s disparagement of Claudio’s son, young star Gio Reyna.
Berhalter said Tuesday his 1991 behavior in which he kicked the woman who would become his wife was “shameful” and that he was “looking forward to continuing my conversations with U.S. Soccer about the future.”
The U.S. Soccer Federation has commissioned an investigation by an outside law firm, along with the staff review of the team’s performance over the four-year cycle. All of it leaves the program’s leadership uncertain as the run-up begins to the 2026 World Cup, which the U.S. will co-host.
“Obviously this is a not a positive time for soccer in this country and for our men’s national team,” USSF president Cindy Parlow Cone said Wednesday during a news conference.
The controversy has become a messy public dispute involving Berhalter; Claudio Reyna, who was the best man at Berhalter’s wedding; Danielle Egan Reyna, a former U.S. women’s player; Rosalind Santana Berhalter, the coach’s wife and Egan’s college roommate; and Gio Reyna, the 20-year-old midfielder limited to 53 minutes by Berhalter at the 2022 World Cup.
For the time being, Anthony Hudson, a member of Berhalter’s staff, will coach the team ahead of exhibitions against Serbia on Jan. 25 and Colombia three days later.
USSF sporting director Earnie Stewart, a former teammate of Reyna’s and Berhalter’s, has been delegated by Parlow Cone and the USSF board to make a coaching recommendation.
“Gregg Berhalter, until the investigation and the review takes place, is still under consideration for the head coach job,” Stewart said.
The turmoil on the men’s team follows a $24 million settlement by the USSF last year of a discrimination lawsuit filed by American women players and an independent investigation that revealed systemic emotional abuse and sexual misconduct in the National Women’s Soccer League.
The USSF announced Tuesday that Berhalter was under investigation. The coach, whose contract expired last month, simultaneously issued a statement saying a person contacted the USSF “saying that they had information about me that would ‘take me down.’”
Danielle Reyna said she told Stewart of the 1991 incident on Dec. 11, five days after Berhalter made remarks at the HOW Institute for Society’s Summit on Moral Leadership that did not cite a player by name but clearly were criticism of Gio Reyna. Excerpts were published in a newsletter
by Charter Works, which said the remarks were “erroneously greenlit for publication.”
“I wanted to let him know that 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,” Danielle Reyna said in a statement Wednesday. “As part of that conversation, I told Earnie that I thought it was especially unfair that Gio, who had apologized for acting immaturely about his playing time, was still being dragged through the mud when Gregg had asked for and received forgiveness for doing something so much worse at the same age.”
Berhalter and his wife Rosalind had “spoken openly” about the matter, the USSF said Tuesday, and Berhalter admitted to the kick.