Gio Reyna, who grew up in Westchester County’s Bedford, has been named to the U.S. men’s national soccer team that will compete at this summer’s World Cup.
Head coach Mauricio Pochettino has included Reyna in the 26-player roster for the June 11-July 19 tournament of 48 nations competing at stadiums in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Pochettino announced the U.S. squad on Tuesday afternoon, May 26, in a televised event from Pier 17’s rooftop in New York City’s South Street Seaport.
Several other players from New York state made the roster Tuesday: Tyler Adams of Wappingers Falls, Joe Scally of Lake Grove, Tim Weah of New Rosedale.
Here is the full roster going to the World Cup:
∎Goalkeepers: Chris Brady, Matt Freese, and Matt Turner
∎Defenders: Max Arfsten, Sergino Dest, Alex Freeman, Mark McKenzie, Tim Ream, Chris Richards, Antonee Robinson, Miles Robinson, Scally, and Auston Trusty.
∎Midfielders: Adams, Sebastian Berhalter, Weston McKennie, and Christian Roldan.
∎Wingers/attacking midfielders: Brenden Aaronson, Christian Pulisic, Reyna, Malik Tillman, Weah, and Alex Zendejas.
∎Strikers: Folarin Balogun, Ricardo Pepi, and Haji Wright.
The U.S.’s opening cup match will be against Paraguay on June 12 at southern California’s SoFi Stadium.
Whether Reyna would play a World Cup 2026 role had emerged among key squad questions.
Reyna had not gotten a lot of playing time with his pro team in Germany recently and he had dealt with injuries, but sportswriters and commentators talked about what he was capable of bringing to the team. Late last year, Reyna was critical to the U.S.’ 2-1 defeat of Paraguay in a friendly — soccer parlance for exhibition — match, scoring a goal and creating the second.
Reyna plays his pro soccer for Borussia Monchengladbach, which competes in the top level of Germany’s Bundesliga. A number of U.S. players are in Europe’s best pro leagues,
Teams must submit a final cup squad list by June 1 to FIFA, world soccer’s governing body. Like the U.S., some, including powerhouse Spain, have already announced their tournament rosters.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Bedford’s Gio Reyna makes it onto the U.S. World Cup 2026 team
Reporting by Michael P. McKinney, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
