#eric wynalda

[dweemeister]

November 14, 2023

By Adam Elder

(BBC Sport) — On a Saturday evening in February 1990, many of the United States' finest footballers stepped on to A&M Studios' historic soundstage in Los Angeles.

A month before John Barnes would implore his England team-mates to "hold and give, but do it at the right time" in a studio in Berkshire, the United States team recorded their own rap - one they hoped would make the sport famous at home.

In a moment, some of Hollywood's biggest celebrities would walk through the door to join them.

The plan was to record a novelty music video for a star-studded jock jam called Victory. The track celebrated the United States' first trip to the World Cup in 40 years, long before any of these players were born.

Never mind fame, though. In 1990, making football a little less hated in the United States would have counted as a runaway success.

Americans mostly considered football a fringe concern - if they even considered it at all. Baseball, American football and basketball were the "real" American sports.

For most of the 20th century, football in the States was for "the others", to put it politely: expats, cab drivers, dishwashers, exchange students, leftists, intellectuals, Euro snobs and the like.

Still the US Soccer Federation was constantly thinking about how to grow the game.

Werner Fricker, the federation's stern but visionary president, had cannily realised Fifa's desire to wring American dollars out of the world's most popular sport. By 1988, he had guided the United States to victory over Brazil and Morocco to win the right to stage the 1994 World Cup.

But Fricker knew a World Cup in the States faced scepticism. He wanted to prove the hosts had a team good enough to qualify on merit.

He put up his own money to fund a push to qualify for the 1990 event. If the United States succeeded it would be the first time they had made the World Cup since Brazil 1950, where they earned their place via a second-place finish in a three-team pool.

"Werner refused to accept that qualification wasn't doable," said Kevin Payne, former director of marketing and national administrator for the Federation. "He knew what needed to be done, and that past attempts were amateurish."

Fricker made Bob Gansler the team's first full-time coach. A tough yet erudite German-Hungarian immigrant, Gansler's knowledge of American youth football ran deep.

The team picked by Gansler, many fresh out of college, had been raised during the North American Soccer League's Pele-led glory days and were a clean slate from past failures to reach the World Cup.

They had chips on their shoulders for all sorts of other reasons though.

Many of them were second-generation immigrants, their parents and family lives different from an 'apple pie' American ideal. They loved a sport that many around them reviled and yet there was no nationwide outdoor league for them to play in.

[jessethegoat]

Blast from the past (aka 90s Jesse)

[blkwag]

there is never a dull day in the usmnt community, and december 11th of 2022 proved that to a T

(very long post; updated info will be added if necessary)

honestly in my opinion, this situation was messier than the weston situation and that is saying A LOT

SO it was just a regular degular sunday until this tweet by the men in blazers came out and started this entire fire. there is an article under it and it was basically about greggory (gregg berhalter) and the statements he made at the HOW Institute for Society's Summit on Moral Leadership. below is what he said

if you don't (or can't) want to read that it's basically greggory saying that there was an issue with ONE of the 26 players at this world cup within the team. and obviously because usmnt twitter is messy everyone started to say that gio reyna was the player he was talking about because of the drama during the world cup (background info coming soon)

also there's this from berhalter regarding those ^ statements

but anyways

background: during this world cup, gio played very little which many did not expect considering he is quote unquote one of the better players on the team. so there was a little bit of drama where it was kind of like a "he said, he said" thing but the he's are saying completely different things

so after the usa vs wales game, gio was an unused sub. out of the subs used jordan morris was one of them which raised A LOT of eyebrows and questions. gregg's reasoning:

"In the phase of the game we were at, we went with Jordan who we felt could give us speed and power".

again, raised eyebrows because gio can give the u.s that as well. but we move.

matters only got worse ^ when gregg had said to the press that gio was dealing with some issues injury wise (probably muscle tightness or something like that) and then gio was like... i'm good fam. and said that he was 100% fit and was good to play. which caused EVEN MORE confusion during that time. and it didn't help that eric wynalda (former us player) hopped on a twitter spaces saying that gregg told gio to lie about his fitness and was comforting his dad (claudio) on the phone..

but anyways NOW BACK TO THE MESS

so in the midst of that men in blazers tweet, a "big" usmnt fan account tweeted about how gio and tyler had to be separated during training. we have no clue if this is 100% true or not, but at this point it sounded very believable

so now at this point people are all over the place. people are calling gio an entitled brat, there's a group of people who are 100% on gio's side and a group is 100% for gregg. and then were reasonable people (like me) who saw the two truths in this:

yes, gio should've been held accountable for his actions and his behavior during the camp

no, gregg should not have brought any of this information to the public (even if he didn't specifically say which player it was)

then to add more fuel to this blazing fire, the athletic comes out with an article regarding the situation

which kinda makes me 🤔 because the fact that they had this typed up and ready to go and dropped it in the fire...

but anyways. the article had to be updated with certain information because news kept coming out after it was published but i'll get into that in a bit

so the main takeaways in the article

gio's lack of involvement at the world cup was due to him showing a lack of effort in training (prior the wales game) and even before that, in the scrimmage game against al gharafa sc

it wasn't clear whether his lack of effort was because he was trying to look out for himself (because he is very injury prone, second to pulisic methinks) or if he was just being a fussy baby because he wasn't going to be a starter in their opening game vs wales

gio threw his shinguards after not being a sub during the wales game, his lack of effort in training continued after that (which resulted in teammates deandre yedlin and aaron long telling him to you know.. chill out a bit and to show more effort)

the issue had to be brought up multiple times, gio stood up and apologized to the group for his lack on effort (before a video session)

after he apologized, some of the players on the team spoke up and i guess let gio know about himself (held him accountable, probably telling him what he already knew)

updated information i mentioned before. gio's agent, dan segal, provided a statement to the athletic:

"Gio obviously did not have the experience anyone hoped for at the World Cup. The situation, relationships and interactions among parties are far more complicated than what has been reported. It is disappointing and disrespectful for certain parties to be commenting on private team matters publicly, especially when some do so without full knowledge of the facts and others do so in a self-serving manner."

"At this point, our view is that nothing more is gained by those associated with the national team turning on each other, and we plan no further comment on this matter."

so the issue was supposed to end there right??

❌WRONG❌

because THE INFORMATION FROM THE SUMMIT GREGG ATTENDED WAS SUPPOSED TO BE OFF THE RECORD

(also those who gave the info to the athletic were anonymous)

so now EVERYONE is getting in on the drama and tea, espn wrote an article on it which led to this tweet by some man named jason where he stated that there was a vote on whether to let gio stay at the camp or go home.

13 voted for him to stay, 12 voted for him to leave 🌚 crazy right?

well apparently that was FALSE AND UNTRUE, according to ex usmnt player and slightly annoying pundit taylor twellman. he came out and said that the vote by the players was not true and did not happen (these were tweeted early this morning)

(ppl thought he was paid by ussoccer to say it wasn't true)

so at this point there has been tweet after tweet, twitter spaces that was the equivalent to a real housewives confessional (which some guy who weston follows was dropping some tea, some of it seemed fishy so idk but some of the stuff he said were believable), people calling for gregg's head, people still calling gio a brat and bringing up previous issues (like he apparently broke curfew during the u17 world cup), just pure hot garbage

until like..... two hours ago gio makes a statement!

so now that we have come to the end of this (hopefully, probs not) im going to give my opinion on his statement and this mess overall

i agree with gio that this should have remained private because look at all the mess it caused

the fact that berhalter told him that his role was going to be very limited is VERY disappointing especially considering a lot of people were hoping for him to play a lot more than he did. especially since we were all on our knees praying to god that he wouldn't get injured prior to the world cup. so it is expected for gio to be upset about that and he has every right to be upset about that because he had that reoccurring injury and worked hard to stay fit for this big moment.

i appreciate gio acknowledging that he is an emotional person and saying that he let his emotions get the best of him because his attitude and emotions were a major point in this whole situation. so of course it would affect his training and overall behavior at the camp.

he apologized to the team and said that he was forgiven and that should've been the end of that but unfortunately it wasn't. hence the situation and this statement which is honestly not that bad for a 20 year old. yeah he misspelled devastated but i will ignore that.

the last sentence in his statement kind of hits though

"I hope that going forward each person involved in U.S. Soccer focuses only on what is in the best interest of the men's national team so we can enjoy great success at the World Cup in 2026."

to me this is a BIG slap to the face to everyone at ussoccer as a whole (coaches, higher ups, etc.)

and yeah. that's really it

it sucks that all of this garbage came out and honestly i wouldn't be surprised if gregg's contract doesn't get extended because of this. not like i wanted him to extend it anyways because berhalter ball can only get this team so far

but all of this could've been avoided. would it have gotten out eventually? for sure. but not even a week after the usmnt got knocked out? bro. the wound was "this close" to healing.

there is though some sort of closure regarding gio and his lack of minutes, i just wish it we didn't find out this way.

at some point it felt like all the fingers were being pointed at gio and all the blame and shame were pointed towards him, which for 20 year old is.. not. like i'm sure it doesn't feel good to be thrown under the bus like that especially by your manager.

at the end of the day. gio is a great player. he is a talented player, and he knows it. which sure can lead to an ego and whatever but he's also 20. like freshly 20 i still thought he was 19. his freaking parents are like ussoccer royalty, so of course he's gonna have a bit of a chip on his shoulder.

he just needs to mature in certain areas and gain professionalism in certain areas. which tbh, it's more of the maturity side and not letting his emotions get the best of him. because we have all seen him get frustrated and fiesty on the pitch.

i just hope that he can put this behind him and continue bettering himself and working on himself, both with his skills in the sport and off the pitch.

he still has a lot of fans who love and support him, i don't think anyone really is going to hate gio because of this unless they already didn't like him.

but yeah. again, that's it.

thanks for reading

[labelleperfumery]

Ex-'USMNT' Star Eric Wynalda Named In Battery Report, Video of Altercation

Eric Wynalda — a former soccer star for the U.S. Men’s National Team — has been named in a battery report involving a teenager … but we’re hearing he’s calling BS on the claims. Per a Vegas police report, obtained by TMZ, Wynalda — who was… from TMZ.com https://www.tmz.com/2024/05/13/former-usmnt-star-eric-wynalda-battery-report-teen-soccer-tournament/

[3acesnews]

Ex-'USMNT' Star Eric Wynalda Named In Battery Report, Video of Altercation

[trieuanminh90]

Đây là nhận định của huyền thoại người Mỹ Eric Wynalda về tương lai của hậu bối trong viễn cảnh rời khỏi Chelsea.

[bronva]

Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic urged to join another Premier League club by USA legend Eric Wynalda

Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic urged to join another Premier League club by USA legend Eric Wynalda

Christian Pulisic is struggling for game-time at Chelsea (Pictures: Getty) USA legend Eric Wynalda says Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic needs to be at a club where he ‘gets more game-time’ and has suggested his compatriot could join another Premier League club. Much was expected of Pulisic after the American completed a £58m move from Borussia Dortmund in 2019. Pulisic had thrived at the…

[thesportsgrail]

USA Soccer Top Goal Scorer: USMNT Leading Scorer All Time

USA Soccer Top Goal Scorer: USMNT Leading Scorer All Time #mls #soccer #usmnt #america #usa #majorleaguesoccer

USA Soccer Top Goal Scorer: Take a look at the list of players who have scored the most goals for the USMNT on the international stage. The World of Sports is much more than a passion in United States of America, be it NFL, NBA or NHL, the fan following has been beyond description. But same cannot be said for the sport of football (soccer) around the country. Taken a fair share of time to become…

[furryalligator]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Furry Alligator (@furryalligator)

#Repost @foxsoccer: The most underrated goal in @ussoccer_mnt history? It’s No. 9️⃣9️⃣ in our #100Moments countdown

[blkwag]

Sorry I know I’m late but I just read your post about the drama surrounding Gio and I agree with a lot of your points. I think Gregg shouldn’t be saying anything to the media if it’s been resolved but I’m glad Gio was held accountable and hopefully learned his lesson.

I also want to add though that I think Eric Wynalda shouldn’t have poked his nose into this whole thing and started a lot of unnecessary rumors on social media (even if he had good intentions, I don’t think it was his place to release info about personal conversations with Gio’s family). He fed into this whole controversy before Gregg even made his statement and is now on Twitter patting himself on the back for it. He also didn’t even have the full story and his tweet was kinda misleading (which is why so many rumors came out of it).

Idk it just doesn’t sit right with me that people are all “team Gregg vs team Gio” but nobody is Eric accountable for fueling the fire in the first place. Also why are former usmnt players always the messiest.

(Also sorry for making this so long I had a lot of thoughts lol)

ur good! you don't have to apologize.

and you do bring up a good point because eric did stir up a lot of the drama during that time and most likely made the entire situation for gio worse. now that we know from gio that his role in the wc was already going to be limited and then for eric say that.. just added fuel to the fire

[hindinewshub]

Former US soccer coach Eric Wynalda fired from USL job

Former US soccer coach Eric Wynalda fired from USL job

[ad_1]

LAS VEGAS — Former U.S. soccer star Eric Wynalda was fired Wednesday as coach of the Las Vegas Lights of the USL League Championship.

Wynalda, 51, was hired in October 2018 ahead of the team’s second season in the second-tier league. The team made the announcemen t on Twitter.

Las Vegas finished 13th among 18 teams with the Western Conference, with 11 wins, 15 losses and eight draws.

It…

[3acesnews]

Ex-'USMNT' Star Eric Wynalda Named In Battery Report, Video of Altercation

[ermuellert]

ok wolfsburg is up one time to score three more goals guys