Gio Reyna Shines with Stunning Trivela in World Cup Win

The ball sat up for Gio Reyna on the edge of the box, and time seemed to pause.

Eight minutes into stoppage time, with a statement win already secure and the crowd still buzzing from a four-goal show, the 23-year-old drifted into space, nudged the ball out of his feet and wrapped his right boot around it. Not a laces-through-it hit. A trivela. Outside of the foot, curling away from the goalkeeper, past Orlando Gill’s full-stretch dive and into the far corner.

A flourish, not a necessity. But it felt important.

The co-hosts had already torn through their South American visitors in a 4-1 victory that will sit comfortably in the history books. Christian Pulisic lit the fuse early before making way at half-time, and Folarin Balogun, trusted to lead the line, repaid that faith with a sharp, confident brace. Mauricio Pochettino’s side played with authority and bite, the kind of front-foot swagger expected of a team carrying the weight of a home World Cup.

Reyna’s strike was the exclamation mark.

He came off the bench and, with that one moment, reminded everyone what his ceiling looks like. The technique, the calm, the audacity to choose artistry when a simple finish would have done. No one has ever questioned whether he can do it. The problem has always been how often.

Form. Fitness. Timing. All the little derailments that turn a prodigy’s rise into a stop-start journey.

Kasey Keller has watched that journey from closer than most. The former USMNT goalkeeper, a Gladbach alumnus and a long-time family friend, has seen the talent up close for decades. Speaking to GOAL, he cut straight to the heart of it: this is what everyone has been waiting to see regularly.

Reyna’s loan to Borussia Monchengladbach looked like the right move at the right time. A club that knows how to use creative midfielders, a league that rewards risk-takers. For a while, it clicked. He played more, found rhythm, hinted at a proper run. Then came another small injury, another pause, another stretch of watching from the sidelines before minutes slowly returned late in the season.

Nobody, Keller pointed out, will be more frustrated than Reyna himself. The expectations are enormous, and not just from the outside. This is a player raised in a footballing household, with Claudio Reyna’s shadow and support never far away. The family ties run so deep that the Reynas were staying at Keller’s house around the Seattle game. This is personal for everyone involved.

Talent is not the issue. It never has been. The question now is consistency — finding that invisible gear that keeps a player on the pitch week after week, month after month.

For the national team, that question shapes his role. The USMNT head to Washington state next for a meeting with Australia, and Reyna will again be pushing to turn cameos into something more substantial under Pochettino. But right now, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams and Malik Tillman form a dynamic, high-energy core in midfield. They press, they cover ground, they set the tempo.

So where does that leave Reyna?

At the moment, as a devastating option off the bench, and as a ready-made replacement if anything happens to that starting trio. Keller stressed that reality: Reyna hasn’t had the minutes to expect a full 90 every time, but there is no doubt he can slide into that midfield if called upon. If Tillman or another starter goes down, there will be no panic. The quality is there; the understanding is there.

Every player has lived that tension at some point — feeling ready, knowing you can change a game, but watching from behind teammates who are in top form. The only answer is patience, and that is a hard ask for someone who has been told his whole life that the sky is the limit.

Reyna’s numbers already hint at what could come if he finally strings together a full, healthy stretch. He is up to 39 senior caps, his goal tally now into double figures. For a player who has missed so many windows through injury and interruptions, those figures feel like a starting point rather than a reflection of his true impact.

There should be more. He knows it. The staff know it. The fans certainly do.

The rest of this World Cup offers him a stage he has craved on home soil, in a squad that believes it can go deep. Minutes will be there if he keeps forcing the issue with moments like that stoppage-time trivela. And once the tournament dust settles, the 2026-27 campaign at Borussia Monchengladbach looms as a potential reset — a chance to finally align his body, his form and his reputation.

If that happens, the goal against South American opposition won’t be remembered as a one-off flash of genius.

It will be remembered as the start of the stretch where Gio Reyna stopped teasing his potential and started living it.