ASN: Scally & Reyna talk about Bundesliga season and World Cup hopes

Joe Scally and Gio Reyna have had very completely different seasons taking part in for a similar membership, Borussia Monchengladbach. ASN’s Brian Sciaretta tells their story and the way it impacts their World Cup hopes

BY

Brian Sciaretta

Posted
Might 19, 2026
8:00 PM

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JOE SCALLY AND GIO REYNA have been mates since childhood and through that point they’ve been teammates in academies, youth nationwide groups, the total nationwide groups, and now on the first-team membership stage with Borussia Monchengladbach, which completed the 2025/26 Bundesliga season in twelfth place. However additionally it is presently when each are on the crossroads.

We at the moment are lower than two weeks till Mauricio Pochettino names his roster for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and there usually are not many clues as to what the Argentine supervisor will do. When he names the roster for March, Pochettino insisted it was not the ultimate roster and no choices have been made as to who would finally make the crew.

Nonetheless, when studying the tea leaves and the expected rosters of many pundits and journalists who’ve adopted the crew for years, the suspicion is that each Reyna and Scally are on the bubble – for various causes.

Reyna has struggled badly for enjoying time. This season, Reyna has performed simply 510 minutes for Borussia Monchengladbach within the Bundesliga (plus one other 68 within the DFB Pokal). It marks his fifth straight season the place he has been held to underneath 800 minutes.

Final October, Reyna spoke to the Related Press and indicated he understood that he wanted to play to make the World Cup crew.

“I think Pochettino was very clear with saying, ‘You need to play, perform and then if you do that then you have a good chance to come in again,’” Reyna instructed the AP. “It’s all on me now.”

Whereas Reyna scored his first and solely objective of the season within the second to final sport and he grew right into a constant substitute position by the tip of the season, the minutes finally weren’t there.

Nonetheless, there may be the assumption or hope by some that Reyna nonetheless could possibly be a distinction maker for the U.S. crew. Pochettino a minimum of acknowledges this as a result of he has referred to as up Reyna within the final two worldwide home windows, each in November and March. Throughout that point, each time requested, Pochettino has spoken extremely of Reyna and his performances in the course of the March window.

However by any measure, Reyna is just not a lock to make the World Cup crew. It should come down as to if his restricted resume over the previous few years is sufficient.  

“I obviously came here to play more,” Reyna defined of his season. “I was a bit unfortunate with two injuries that weren’t great timing. The last couple of weeks has been very good for me to get more minutes and to have some good performances, I felt. The season’s coming to an end now, so hopefully we can just finish off with one more good game this weekend for the team and individually also. And then, hope to go to the World Cup and continue with the form that I feel like I’m building on.”

“No spot is guaranteed or safe,” he added. “I want to be there. It’s a World Cup in your home country. I try not to let it take over my day and stress me out too much, but it is in the back of my mind. I want to be there. I want to represent my country. I want to give everything for the team.”

For Reyna, the main speaking level was the disastrous fallout following the 2022 World Cup in Qatar the place Reyna’s effort was questioned when he was not taking part in a lot, the-coach Gregg Berhalter revealed that info in a seminar that was presupposed to be off-the-record, after which Reyna’s mother and father unveiled a home violence incident between Berhalter and his spouse (then his girlfriend) in faculty.

Since then, Reyna has been within the highlight. When requested about whether or not he has achieved sufficient to make the World Cup crew, his reply was diplomatic.

“If I say no, I am not backing myself,” Reyna mentioned. “And then if I say yes, it’s the arrogant answer where I feel like I should be there. I’ll keep it pretty simple. I love the staff, I love the players, I love the national team. Whatever happens, happens.”

Whereas he additionally admitted to being disillusioned together with his taking part in time within the World Cup in 2022, he strikes a tone now that he’s prepared to be supportive it doesn’t matter what position he’s given.

“I am just really trying to do whatever it can to help the team achieve something great, whether it’s starting and playing 90 minutes or just supporting from the bench and not playing at all,” Reyna mentioned. “And I think we all have this mindset, and I think this is one of our strengths, and that can collectively bring us to success.”

For Scally, the state of affairs is almost the exact opposite. Whereas Reyna has not performed constantly over 4 seasons, Scally has develop into remarkably sturdy. He has eclipsed the 2000+ minute plateau in every of 5 seasons at Borussia Monchengladbach. This 12 months, he turned the youngest non-German to eclipse 150 Bundesliga appearances.

“The season’s been up and down,” Scally mentioned. “We were always in and around relegation. I don’t think it was ever on our minds as players or as a team. We always felt that we had the quality to never really reached that dip. The 150 games is something special. I think it shows all the hard work and different things that I’ve done to get to that point. And of course, I’m very happy and proud. Nothing comes sort of without hard work, and I think that’s sort of where that came from.”

Scally additionally says that whereas he has another 12 months left on his contract with Borussia Moncehngladbach, he may be considering taking his profession in one other path and that he has essential choices to make after the World Cup.

“I’ve been here for a long time,” Scally mentioned. “I love the club. It’s no secret that I also would, of course, love to at some point in my career also experience something different. It’ll be an exciting summer with the World Cup and that’s kind of where my focus is at now and then after that we’ll see.”

However as for Scally being on the bubble, the issue is solely numbers. Sergino Dest, Tim Weah, and Alex Freeman are all proper backs who’ve performed extra with the nationwide crew over the previous 12 months. The trail for Scally could possibly be that Weah would play principally as a winger and Freeman may play as a central defender in a three-man formation.

However Scally may be helpful as a backup central defender or left again and assist give the workers choices in the course of the sport. Nonetheless, he is aware of that his constant play over the past a number of seasons is a large asset for him.

“I have a great relationship with the coach,” Scally mentioned. “I think he just pretty much reiterates to be at your club playing minutes. I’ve been playing every game. So I think that’s the main thing. I just keep doing that. It puts myself, puts us in the best possible way to be there at the World Cup and arrive at 100%.”

Each Scally and Reyna have vastly completely different resumes to be included on the 2026 World Cup roster. Within the coming days we’ll discover out if both or each might be on the crew.