USA manager Gregg Berhalter reveals he almost sent a player HOME from the World Cup in Qatar because of his ‘extreme’ poor behavior, before forcing him to apologize to squad… as fans speculate over who it was
United States boss Gregg Berhalter has revealed he came close to sending a player home from the World Cup in Qatar due to his ‘extreme’ poor behavior.
The US enjoyed a successful run in the group stages, making it through to the last-16 before being knocked out by Holland, but it appears all was not perfectly harmonious behind the scenes.
The team are now back in the US, and Berhalter appeared at a Charter leadership briefing, where he opened up on what happened with his squad in Qatar.
Gregg Berhalter is back on American turf and has spoken out about an issue he had in Qatar
Berhalter (left) said he almost sent an unnamed player home from Qatar due to his behavior
‘In this last World Cup, we had a player that was clearly not meeting expectations on and off the field,’ he began. ‘One of 26 players, so it stood out. As a staff, we sat together for hours deliberating what we were going to do with this player.
‘We were ready to book a plane ticket home, that’s how extreme it was. And what it came down to was, we’re going to have one more conversation with him, and part of the conversation was how we’re going to behave from here out. There aren’t going to be any more infractions.
‘But the other thing we said to him was, you’re going to have to apologize to the group, but it’s going to have to say why you’re apologizing. It’s going to have to go deeper than just “Guys, I’m sorry.” And I prepped the leadership group with this.
‘I said, “Okay, this guy’s going to apologize to you as a group, to the whole team.” And what was fantastic in this whole thing is that after he apologized, they stood up one by one and said, “Listen, it hasn’t been good enough, You haven’t been meeting our expectations of a teammate and we want to see change.”
Fans online speculated over whether it could be Gio Reyna, given his lack of involvement
Luca de la Torre was another name mentioned by supporters online as a potential culprit, but there is nothing to suggest that he was the player at fault
‘They really took ownership of that process. And from that day on there were no issues with this player.’
The identity of the player was not revealed by Berhalter, but fans were quick to speculate online.
Gio Reyna was a huge talking point during the tournament for his lack of minutes, despite him starring for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga at club level.
That has led to some fans assuming he is the player in question, with one USMNT fan writing that it ‘has to be’ him, and another adding: ‘This sounds like Gio’.
Elsewhere, one other supporter put forward Luca de la Torre, noting: ‘Seemed very strange that he got zero minutes after how good he was for us in qualifying.’
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