Q & A with Claudio Reyna
I’ve never been much of a fan of Captain America (and his performance against Ghana in the 2006 World Cup only made me more sure of myself) but I found a good deal of value in a couple of his answers in a Q & A posted at ussoccer.com.
When asked about the next coach of the U.S. Men’s National team, Reyna said:
People need to learn – and the coach needs to reiterate it – that it’s a privilege and an honor to be selected to play for your national team and it’s not something you expect to happen. So every time you are selected to come in, it’s something major.
Surely he is speaking about Landon Donovan. It is a bit ironic though, isn’t it? For how many years did Reyna ride his free Bruce pass? If his coach were sincere about selecting players who were deserving, Claudio might not have made the cut on many occasions.
When asked if his critics understood how good he was, he said:
Yes and no. For people who really knew the game and saw my impact for the team, I think I was always respected. You get people who are into stats and think that’s the most important thing, or doing things like tricks or whatever. Purely simple soccer is sometimes the most difficult thing to do, and the people who like the way I play realize that I make it look so simple when it’s the hardest thing to do.
So, if I t think Reyna lacked quality, I don’t understand the game. To be fair, I think Reyna—between injuries—had a great year or two at Manchester City but he was never able to transfer that confidence and sense of comfort to his international game.
Does “purely simple soccer” include not trying to be cute with the ball as Haminu Dramani bears down instead of simply playing the ball upfield?
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“Does “purely simple soccer” include not trying to be cute with the ball as Haminu Dramani bears down instead of simply playing the ball upfield?”
So much anger. Soooooo much anger.
Josh-
You speak as Man City was the only gig Claudio Reyna ever had beside being a Nat. I agree, in recent years Claudio has not been fantastic. He has never dazzled me and I have never been a huge Reyna fan. But I have always known that there has to be something special about the guy because of the way that his current and former coaches as well as players speak of him. They regard him highly and say that he has an understanding of the game that few other players have. He is a notch above the rest in this regard. He does not have dazzling speed, or fancy moves or even a great first step. Those have never been his qualities from day one. But he has always had a great sense of knowing where to be to be able to receive the ball and distribute to someone who can make something happen. In that regard he was certainly captain material while on the field. Thus the captain armband for us yanks and then the Captain America nickname from abroad.
Reyna has never had a hard time finding a job and has always been sought out after his first successful years at Leverkusen. I just checked it out and Reyna has played a total of 271 games in club and European competition for Bayer Leverkusen (95-97), VfL Wolfsburg (97-99), Glasgow Rangers (99-02), Sunderland (02-03) and Man. City (03-curent). In those games he scored 24 goals. Not a lot for that many games but he has never been a goal scorer. But neither was Carlos Valderama and he was one of the premier midfielders on his era. All and all Claudio has been our first American soccer star who is recognized world wide. With that said, I will admit that it is getting close in time for him to hang up the cleats.
WHY DIDN’T HE DEFEND?!? HE JUST LAID DOWN ON THE PITCH!! What, the referee is going to stop play for getting caught in possession?!
Ugh…anyway…there’s always South Africa.
[...] With everything riding on the Ghana game, the odds looked good. Deuce finally got his team on the board but it wasn’t enough. Ghana would celebrate a deserved victory as U.S. fans secretly wished to sue someone for Claudio Reyna’s slip-and-fall, which effectively ended four long years of anticipation. [...]
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