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Jeff Carlisle, U.S. soccer correspondent
LAS VEGAS — Gio Reyna may have only played 45 minutes in the United States‘ 2-0 win over Canada in the final of the Concacaf Nations League (CNL) on Sunday, but it was long enough to have made a huge impact.
Reyna assisted both USMNT goals — a corner that was headed home by Chris Richards and a deft through ball that Folarin Balogun drilled past Canada goalkeeper Milan Borjan — and even though Reyna hobbled off at half-time with a calf injury, he put in a fine display in the center of the U.S. midfield.
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“Gio’s performance tonight is a performance that you expect. It shows his quality on the field, his ball security, his ability to take on two, three players and connect passes,” U.S. interim manager B.J. Callaghan said.
“What I’m really proud of him is we’ve challenged Gio to do more work off the ball on the defensive side, and he’s absolutely risen to the occasion.”
During the previous international window, Reyna had been deployed mostly out on the wing, but of late he has moved into a more central role, adding dynamism to the U.S. attack.
“When [Reyna is] inside there, I like that position a lot for him,” said U.S. captain Christian Pulisic, who won the CNL Best Player Award. “I think he’s dangerous. He causes a lot of problems and you could see that today.”
The U.S. entered the tournament enduring some chaos, as Callaghan was named interim manager late last month after the previous interim manager, Anthony Hudson, left to take a managerial post with Qatari side Al-Markhiya. Despite the CNL marked the first time Callaghan had taken on a manger’s role in the professional ranks, he led two superb U.S. performance against Mexico and Canada paid off.
He will get a chance to further hone his managerial skills in the Concacaf Gold Cup, which starts on June 24.
“I’m just super proud of the group,” Callaghan said. “We’ve been faced with adversity. We’ve been faced with obstacles and challenges and it’s only brought us all together. So my personal feelings, I’m absolutely elated for all of the guys, all of the staff, everyone that just continues to put so much into this.
“To have those two performances is just a way for us to show the country and the world how committed and collected we are. There’s something special happening with this team.”
Canada manager John Herdman said he felt preparation was the difference between the two teams on this occasion, especially on set pieces, where the U.S. was a threat all evening. That led to a complaint about a lack of resources, in this case the limited number of training days he had with his team. He even called out the Canada Soccer Association for not doing more to help his side.
“We’ve got to figure this out financially,” Herdman said. “We’ve got to get serious about winning a World Cup. When you’re playing at home, you get a chance to win it. You get a chance to get a quarterfinal, semifinal and then get on that road to win it. We’re not serious.
“We brought a World Cup to our country and we’re not serious about winning it. You see how close our team is tonight. Tactically, we were there. Chances, shots, we were there. The margins were so tight tonight, so tight. We’ve got to get real. We’ve got to get real and quick.”