The USA face Germany in East Hartford, Connecticut on October 14 and then three days later play Ghana in Nashville, Tennessee. Reyna and Berhalter were embroiled in an acrimonious bust-up during last year's World Cup in Qatar that led to Berhalter's future as US national team coach being thrown into doubt.

The dispute spread to involve Reyna's parents and an investigation into a 1991 altercation between Berhalter and his wife, then his girlfriend. The coach, whose contract ran out at the end of 2022, was cleared after the federation's probe and eventually re-hired as USA coach in June.

Berhalter took charge of the team again for friendlies in September against Oman and Uzbekistan but Reyna was injured for those games and not called up. The pair have since talked and Berhalter said their video call had gone well but accepted work remained to be done on their relationship.

"I'd say that the conversation was positive. I was really just appreciative of the conversation and having said that, acknowledging that I think it will take time. There is a difference between a Zoom call and being in person but I think that both intentions are positive and the idea is that we work together for the team to be successful and I think we're both prepared to do that," he said.

"So, I think that although it may take some time, we're both aligned with what we want to accomplish," he added. Reyna is coming back from injury and has yet to feature for Dortmund this season and Berhalter said they needed to be careful with his involvement.

"How many minutes can we give him on the field that he can build up in a safe way and then go back to Dortmund and really propel him to make a big impact for his club? So we're going to be creative with the minutes," he said. Berhalter will be without his key central midfielder Tyler Adams who suffered an injury with his Premier League club Bournemouth.

The clash with Germany will be the debut for their new coach Julian Nagelsmann, who replaced Hansi Flick, sacked after a 4-1 friendly loss at home to Japan. Berhalter, who played in Germany for Energie Cottbus and 1860 Munich, said he expected Nagelsmann to make a swift impact.

"Their talent is incredible, the amount of high-quality players they have playing in the Champions League and in top five leagues. It's a very, very strong player pool," he said. "Julian Nagelsmann is a very good coach. I think he's an innovative coach. He has a lot of tactical flexibility, whether that's through pressing or how they build up, has some interesting movements with his teams, so we're really looking forward to this challenge.

"I know for Julian it's going to be interesting to see how he can translate these ideas across to his team in three days. But, you know, that's part of the challenge of international soccer and he's a bright guy, bright coach, and I'm sure he's going to pick up on it really fast," he added.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Ethan Horvath (Nottingham Forest/ENG), Matt Turner (Nottingham Forest/ENG)

Defenders: Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic/SCO), Sergino Dest (PSV Eindhoven/NED), DeJuan Jones (New England Revolution/USA), Kristoffer Lund (Palermo/ITA), Tim Ream (Fulham/ENG), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace/ENG), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United/USA), Joe Scally (Borussia Moenchengladbach/GER)

Midfielders: Johnny Cardoso (Internacional/BRA), Luca de la Torre (Celta Vigo/ESP), Lennard Maloney (Heidenheim/GER), Weston McKennie (Juventus/ITA), Yunus Musah (AC Milan/ITA), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund/GER), Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven/NED)

Forwards: Brenden Aaronson (Union Berlin/GER), Folarin Balogun (Monaco/FRA), Kevin Paredes (Wolfsburg/GER), Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven/NED), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan/ITA), Tim Weah (Juventus/ITA)

October 5, 2023

L. Maloney

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