Fans of the US men’s national team are confused by the timing of a Harvard Business Review event scheduled to be held Thursday after details of an alleged blackmail plot against coach Gregg Berhalter emerged.
Gio Reyna’s mom Danielle admitted Wednesday to reporting a domestic violence incident from 31 years ago involving Berhalter and his now wife Rosalind to US Soccer after her son’s turbulent World Cup.
And former USMNT captain Claudio Reyna reportedly threatened to share details of Berhalter’s past during the tournament to US Soccer officials, according to ESPN, although both he and his wife have denied threatening anyone.
Fans were not in agreement of the timing of Gregg Berhalter’s Harvard Business Review talk
Now, Berhalter – whose US Soccer contract expired on December 31 – is still set to speak at noon on Thursday to the Harvard Business Review’ despite a whirlwind couple of days, a spokesperson from the publication confirmed to DailyMail.com.
‘The best business leaders know how to organize teams, help them set ambitious goals, and create wins,’ A Twitter post promoting the event from Wednesday reads.
The same can be said for sports coaches. We’re going live with US men’s soccer team coach Gregg Berhalter tomorrow.’
While a LinkedIn post for the event was initially made two weeks ago, fans were bewildered at the timing of the talk.
‘This doesn’t seem very well thought out,’ one said.
‘Might not be the best time to do this given the allegations,’ another claimed.
‘This is hilarious. I mean it would have been hilarious, two days ago. Now it’s just sad.’
Before Danielle Reyna admitted to sharing the information on Wednesday, Berhalter came clean about the incident a day earlier as he described the ‘shameful’ act of kicking his future wife as a college student.
‘Now is the time for me to publicly share some personal information which a third party has used against my family and me,’ he said in a lengthy statement.
The information on Berhalter’s past was reported to US Soccer on December 11, following the coach’s comments at the HOW Institute for Society’s Summit on Moral Leadership in New York.
At the event, which was supposed to be ‘off-the-record’ per The Athletic, Berhalter detailed the problems that the coaching staff had with an unnamed player – later confirmed to be Reyna – during the tournament.
Berhalter was forced to go public about kicking his wife Rosalind during an argument in 1991
Claudio and Danielle Reyna (pictured in 2018) released statements regarding the situation
‘In this last World Cup, we had a player that was clearly not meeting expectations on and off the field. One of 26 players, so it stood out. As a staff, we sat together for hours deliberating what we were going to do with this player,’ Berhalter said according to a Charter leadership briefing.
‘We were ready to book a plane ticket home, that’s how extreme it was. And what it came down to was, we’re going to have one more conversation with him, and part of the conversation was how we’re going to behave from here on out. There aren’t going to be any more infractions.
The player later acknowledged his poor behavior, saying in an Instagram post that he apologized to his teammates.
He also noted that Berhalter told him he would have a ‘very limited’ role before the tournament.
Claudio Reyna (No. 10) and Berhalter (No. 3) played for the USA between 1994 and 2006
Danielle Reyna (No. 14 – bottom right) and Rosalind Berhalter (No. 7 – second row, third right) were soccer teammates for four years with the University of North Carolina
That proved to be true as the Borussia Dortmund winger played just 52 minutes across four games, with zero starts.
The Berhalter and Reyna families go way back, as Claudio and Gregg played youth and high school soccer together, before linking up again on the national team, while Danielle and Rosalind were roommates and teammates at the University of North Carolina.
‘To set the record straight, I called (US Soccer sporting director) Earnie Stewart on December 11, just after the news broke that Gregg had made negative statements about my son Gio at a leadership conference,’ Danielle Reyna said in a statement.
I have known Earnie for years and consider him to be a close friend. I wanted to let him know that I was absolutely outraged and devastated that Gio had been put in such a terrible position, and that I felt very personally betrayed by the actions of someone my family had considered a friend for decades.
‘As part of that conversation, I told Earnie that I thought it was especially unfair that Gio, who had apologized for acting immaturely about his playing time, was still being dragged through the mud when Gregg had asked for and received forgiveness for doing something so much worse at the same age.’
Danielle Reyna was unhappy at the treatment of her son Gio by Berhalter at the World Cup
Claudio Reyna stood by his wife’s remarks.
‘I support my wife, Danielle, and her statement. I too was upset by Gregg’s comments about Gio after the US was out of the World Cup, and I also appealed to Earnie Stewart on December 11 asking him to prevent any additional comments,’ he said.
‘While in Qatar, I shared my frustrations about my son’s World Cup experience with a number of close friends, Earnie and Brian McBride among them.
‘However, at no time did I ever threaten anyone, nor would I ever do so.’
.