Who are the guys on the US Men’s National Team? + Why the Berhalter-Reyna family feud was one of the most dramatic scandals in USMNT history

testing testing testing is there a frog in here ribbit ribbit ribbit i think the frog's name is charlotte ribbit wilder it's charlotte the frog oh that's fine it's fine it's fine okay hi charlotte good day madeline we're back with another episode of the sports gossip show presented by ebay live yay wait i just realized what's weird about our lights what one's a whole lot tall well i think it looks fine though i don't know we moved we moved some things and now yeah i'm all i think it looks we'll look at it looks no it looks it looks good i just all of a sudden i felt like i'm like there's a they're closer to us yeah they're like hello big tree yeah exactly if you fight for the ants we're gonna light you like the sun that's pretty good nixon five nixon five nixon five oh my god okay well we have a jam-packed episode today we sure do deep dive into the u.s men's national team yeah we'll be getting into all of the key players quite literal players on this year's men's national team and we'll also be getting into some of the lore and drama and we talked about this on tuesday but there is family drama when i tell you quite literal family drama madeline cooked on this timeline oh hush she cooked no this was like a michelin star chef in the in the kitchen it's gonna be amazing um and yeah we're gonna do the stuff today where like when every four years i'm like oh right that guy yeah so we're gonna give you all the that guy stuff that we personally were googling and looking at uh where do they play when they're not on the u.s men's national team are they married do they have kids yeah just the personal life section wikipedia as we always say it's one of our favorite uh subject areas to discuss on this show and hopefully this will all be helpful for the australia usa match that is set for friday so tomorrow at three o'clock eastern yes so tune in and i'm a little sick if i sound froggy in any way it's uh an ode to the french team who won yesterday escargot snail way way i don't know what i was going with there but whatever also real quick what that argentina game oh my god messy got his first hat trick in his world cup appearances that was historic for him that man is i believe five or six days away from being 39 it's crazy uh how it's like he's so good still it's really crazy i think he's now one goal away from beating the world the record for most goals scored in world cups yes which he certainly will i i think odds are he'll score at least one more to tie it it was also very cute teammates kept giving him the ball i know be like you know you i know you know you know you know you go because it's like his victory lap it's his last world cup yeah well he uh yeah he he's right now tied with some german guy whose name i should know yeah he's tied they kept putting it on the thing yeah he's tied all right oh he's tied for second yeah no for first no i think he's yeah he he over he took over ronaldo to be tied with the german guy for first oh so he is tied yes he is he needs one you should google that let me just look it up we never know who has most but i'm pretty sure that messy is one goal away from being the all-time yes you're right you're right tied the germans uh miroslav close miroslav um tied with 16 goals each and then ronaldo with 15 and the guy the german guy miroslav was like i really i can't wait for him to beat my record which is a really nice thing to say passing the torch that's really sweet so he'll probably beat it sorry guy sorry you enjoyed the record for as long as you could yeah anyways well should we get into it yeah let's go let's talk about some guys let's talk about some guys uh should we start with their coach yes mariso pochettino i think it's pochettino is it pochettino let's look that one up i have heard it pronounced wait really yes the fox broadcast that every broadcaster pronounces it differently i've heard pochettino pochettino wait wait okay so it's pochettino according i don't think that's pochettino pochettino pochettino no maybe it is pochettino because i think pochettino pochettino no seriously we've i also this is not like we haven't been watching soccer we have watched every single match so much we watched the entire men's match this is just a hard name to pronounce pochettino pochettino pochettino it's not pochettino i don't know it's like i mean listen you can say it like that i like it you can say it however you want you're sick you can say whatever you want this is charlotte's flu game we you know unfortunately madeline you don't have a flu but it's your flu no we've all we've both had several flu we have been sick for weeks we've had several flu games but it's fine and i'm really excited to be here doing this this is a really fun episode yes so he is their head coach he became the men's national team head coach in 2024 we will get into all of that in a little bit but i'm really excited to be the lore behind his hiring in a little bit but first where did he start playing his career when he played soccer as a professional player madeline this man is argentinian uh he is was born in a in a town called murphy oh in the province of santa fe in argentina okay and i looked it up and it was named after some irish guy who moved to argentina because i saw murphy santa fe and i was like i thought he was argentinian and then i was like well santa fe is a town so it wouldn't be a town within a town in america i feel like we're gonna need a second deep dive episode with a history lesson from charlotte on what was going on there listen because i got a lot of questions argentina oh there's world war ii in argentina you can just do a little goog for and you'll be lost for hours in deep dive yeah so yeah you know someday we'll just have a history podcast yes just geography yeah uh but yes and and i thought it was funny because his first he played uh the first team he was ever on in 1989 was with the primera divisio club newell's old boys what a name okay pretty good right do you think that they called it like you know he called it a soccer club did you play for the old boys club and he said i did and i still do if you know what i'm saying just saying that's really good um wow okay and and where did he end up playing did he end up playing yeah yeah he he played yeah he played in europe he was on the argentinian national team he got 20 caps which every four years i have to look up what that means it just means you played in a game wow he played in 20 games god forbid you say something that's like a nice round number for him it is yeah it is better than 19 and kind of better than 21 yep yes i would say so i would say so you know funny enough in youth soccer my number was 21 oh well i was good i was good as a child got less good as i got older but i i got a lot to unpack there but that again for me for another episode last thing about uh our man coach poconos he was nicknamed the sheriff in reference to his paternal grandfather who also was the sheriff of murphy santa fe argentina oh okay i don't know if they still call him that oh well and that's that and that's marizio with charlotte let's do the next one okay uh let's talk about star for the u.s men's national team christian browns poolishick there's so we've we looked this up pulisic seems to be the product correct pronunciation on that one yeah so i don't know why it's so difficult but it's the kind of name every time i see it does anyone like us go there's that one guy on youtube you look up a name and he pronounces it he's got you covered what's that guys i can't remember his name no it's like pronunciation with insert blank name here well it's like mario or something and the funny thing about it is that he's not american but he's telling you he has an accent and he's telling you how to pronounce american words and he's right he's right he's right anyways uh he plays for ac milan good very good club solid solid yep um you put in here i i read about this lore with his dating history but he was dating a golfer named alexa melton but they broke up yeah and here's something that i don't fully understand they dated for two years i think he slid in her dms in 2024 she would go to his matches in milan um apparently she responded to a comment on a post suggesting that christian had been on raya while they were together the dating app for those not familiar but then she quote publicly retracted the accusation and said quote he is not a cheater any narrative beyond that is not mine okay can i ask you a question what does this feel a little bit like pure speculation maybe someone on his team reached out i mean listen perhaps that's possible i don't know just squash the story because this was was when was this in this was in april yeah leading into the world cup you don't want allegations of infidelity for your star player who's in a lot of commercials and in a lot of uh materials for your team a lot of decks he's in a lot of decks he's in a lot of posters yeah oh material right like just you know publicity materials brochures brochures if you will programs uh yes i i mean it's certainly possible it also could just be maybe he didn't cheat i on it either. True. Anyways, what do we know? What do we know? Uh, okay. Alex Freeman. This is a cool one. Uh, he is the son of former plaque Packers player, Antonio Freeman. Oh, he plays for a Villarreal in La Liga in Spain. Wow. Uh, he, yeah, his dad was saying things like, you know, I thought maybe you'd play football or basketball like I did, but his true love was on the court. Oh, well, so I wonder what it's like having a kid who also is a professional athlete, but they're doing it not in the sport that you did it in. Do you think it like you're, you love it that they're not doing the sport or it kind of drives you crazy? You're like, well, you became a professional athlete. You sacrificed so much, but you didn't do my sport. You didn't do the other football. I think it depends what kind of parent you are. True. I think if you're a good parent, you're, you're like, I'm so glad you're following your bliss. Yeah. I think if you're a bad parent, you're like, why aren't you recreated in my image? Yeah. Okay. That's fair. That's fair. It seemed from what I read about from, from the people magazine articles, I read about these two seem to be a little bit different. I think it's a little bit different. I think it's a little bit like his dad's proud. So that's nice. That's really nice. Okay. Great. Love that. Up next, Tyler Adams. I like Tyler Adams a lot. I do too. I don't know why I just like his vibe. He just, I watch him and my friend Hunter, Hunter Harris, she has a great podcast. Let me say this, text me like, do you like Tyler Adams? I said, yeah. Oh yeah. He seems like a cool guy. He's, he has a nice face. You know what I mean? Nice face, which I guess doesn't mean anything in sports, but I like him. No, he energetically seems to have good vibes. He also has a really good Instagram presence. What's his Instagram like? Oh, just, it's just nice. It's like less, like some of these players, their entire Instagram is just like graphics from that that was sent to them by the digital, like social media team of us men's national team or their club. Right. And what I like, it's a little bit, he has like a self, this photo. Oh yeah. Nice little selfie. It's like behind some video behind the scenes with the other us men's national team players. I think this was going to the world cup. I believe this was May 27th. That way he published, it's got a cool Polaroid. Let me see the Polaroid. Oh yeah. Yes. Oh, oh, it's a video. Oh, it's a Nike ad. Oh, actually, I don't know if it's an ad. Oh, that's that Nike ad that keeps playing. Yes. Rip the script. Do you think that that is like a teaser for a bigger thing coming later or is that the whole thing? I think that's it. I mean, they're doing a bunch of stuff. This is not sponsored by Nike, but I get a lot of emails about it, but they're, they're doing a lot and they had a bunch of stars in that rip the script. I wouldn't be surprised if they dropped something else, honestly. Yeah. Cause I also feel like I'm just, these are my suspicions. This is based on no facts whatsoever, but just a hunch. That if let's say messy, is he in, I would assume Nike offline. I think he, he might be Adidas. Hold on. He might be actually, he might be Adidas, but whatever. Insert blank famous player. If they make it far enough in the world cup or make it to the finals and then they win, I feel like we could get one of those ads all what they did for the Knicks. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Like for the team? Cristiano Ronaldo is. Ronaldo. Okay. Nike. Yeah. Like I could see them putting out some, some other content. They drop it. The way the rip the script one was edited, it almost felt to me like it was, it was a teaser for something, but I think it's just, I think it's the thing. Yeah. It's like a little short film thing. Yeah. And yeah. The other thing about him is that he has two kids. Yeah. Uh, two sons. Uh, he plays for AFC Bournemouth. Yep. Which is that's premier league. I believe that is, uh, he's married to Sarah Schmidt. Uh, she doesn't have a very big social media presence, um, which I deeply admire. Um, and they have two sons. That's great. So there you go. That's, uh, Tyler Adams for you, fab Riccardo Pepe. Yes. Uh, he has a really cool story. Actually. He plays for, um, the club PSV in the Dutch era, Davisi league. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. Um, but he was a guy who has the French guy, uh, or whatever he is. Um, and Ricardo plays for the, that team. He was raised in a trailer park in El Paso. Oh, wow. Yeah. His parents are Mexican. Um, they once pawned the title to their car to pay for Ricardo's travel. Oh my God. Soccer. Um, and he's talked about, you know, the sacrifices they had to make for him and, and he chose to play for the U S and just a really cool, one of those stories where you're like, oh my God, the things people do. Give me that documentary. Yeah. Well, yes. Yeah. And the set. Yeah. The sacrifices. Well, I'm rooting for him then. And I'm sure his parents are proud. Yeah. I think they are. Um, all right. Who's next? Serginio Des. Do you remember all these guys? If you're listening to this, I'm sure you're like, oh yeah, that guy, that guy, uh, he plays for PSV as well. Um, his father is Surinamese American, um, and he has a Dutch mother and I can't find her name anywhere. Her dad's name is Kenneth. I don't know what his mom, I couldn't find it. It's just kind of weird. His dad's from Brooklyn. Um, it's so interesting to me. He grew up in Amsterdam. Um, if this men's team isn't just proof that like the best thing about America is, how diverse we are and how people, you can be from all different places or grown up in other places, but have American roots and you are still American. Like, I don't know what else is, you know, it's like the whole America first garbage. It's like, well, the best soccer players we could get are all for the most part, not all, but many of them are multicultural or could have played for many different teams. And the fact that they chose to play for the U S what a testament, like that's so cool. Well, it's what makes America special and what makes America great. So flip the script on that. Oh, rip that script. Um, huh? Maybe his mom is just offline. Good for her. Honestly, the dream for her. Yeah. Oh. And his dad's from Brooklyn. Yeah. Oh, did you say that? I'm just realizing that. Oh, wait, there's multiple players. Well, there's a lot of Brooklyn connections. We'll get, there's another player who, um, is plays for the men's national team who was born in Brooklyn. We'll get to that. Yes. Yes, we will. Um, but okay. First, uh, uh, we've got Tim way. I'm also like, oh yeah. You know, it was like seeing, it was like a reunion. Yeah. You're like, oh my God. Uh, Tim way. This is crazy. And I remembered, I Googled him and then I remember Googling him four years ago. Uh, his dad is the former soccer player, George way. But more recently he was the president of Liberia. What? From 2018 to 2024 last world cup. His dad was the president of a country. Yeah. And last cup, his dad was the sitting president of Liberia. He's also like one of the greatest strikers of all time. Oh my God. The African. I mean, he's like, I don't know, he's like, I don't know, I don't know. I mean, he's like, I don't know, he's like, I don't know, he's like, he's like, he's like, he was a FIFA world player of the year, um, in 1995. Uh, but this guy, Tim was born in Brooklyn and his mom is Jamaican and Tim could have represented France, Jamaica, or Liberia. Oh my God. And he grew up in New York and Florida players in Brooklyn. Isn't that crazy? That's not even who I was thinking of. Oh really? No, we haven't even got to him yet. Oh my God. Anyways. Wow. Okay. That's crazy. That's some lore. I mean, that's, I feel like that is the making of a Disney channel move. Remember the one, what was the one? It was about the president's, um, my day with the president's, was that one on the phone? What was it? No, no, no. I don't know. Something like that. Like that. I'm like, give me that remake. But it's like, oh, my dad's the president of a country, but also I'm a professional soccer player. And so was he? Yeah. Also, who is going to be the first athlete to be the president of the United States? That's a really good question. Well, I guess you could argue Obama because he played basketball, like he, but not professionally, obviously. Obviously, recreationally, but he famously, he was on the bulls. Yeah. And he, and he often, like, I remember when he was president, he would have like famous people play basketball with him at the white house. Remember when he's wearing the suit and would roll up a simpler time. Um, wow. I love that. Well, speaking of family connections, we got to talk about two Nepo babies that are on the team, which we will get into more, um, more extensively in a little bit. But said Burr Halter is the son of Greg or a halter, former us men's national team star, but also. They're former coach and he plays for the Vancouver white caps professionally and was born in London when Greg played for crystal palace, um, which is wild. But one of my favorite things about him, can you click on the instrument post that I put in here? Yes, ma'am. So Seb, he doesn't have a lot of instrument posts up, but he does have one from 2015 when he is a child. I mean, he's only 24, 25, I think, um, with Martin Garrix. Who is Martin Garrix? I think he's like, he's a DJ, isn't he? Oh, oops. Yeah. Actually, I think, yeah, he is. Didn't he do that? Dutch DJ. What's his song? Um, animals. Yeah. Isn't that a song? Yeah. Animals. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, look, he's playing three dates in Boston. Oh, let's go. Um, but I just love, cause he has like the, Seb has the Justin Bieber kid haircut, you know? Why is that? I guess he likes him. I guess he likes him, but it's just funny that I feel like most of the time, like I have a lot of archived old photos, nothing bad. Like it's just like old photos. I'm like, this is so millennial core. I need to hide this from the internet. This is too embarrassing. This I'm like, I love that he just kept this up. Same. Cause if you go on his Instagram, it's like this one other reason was, and then just like soccer photos. And there's not, this took like two seconds of scrolling to find. Yeah. So it makes one think he's archived other posts, but he said, you know what? I'm keeping that up. That's staying. I know. And I guess, you know, it's not really, he's too young to have anything millennial course. So this is just like a funny, cute. Yeah. And he's giving a little thumbs up. And I believe, is that an Abercrombie sweatshirt? Yes. Or, or, um, roots or something? No, it's Abercrombie. I think it's Abercrombie. That fricking moose. Wow. That brings me back. You know, can I say something about DJs real quick? Please. They always look like, like if you're a white DJ, you generally look like you went to British public school, which is their private school. Like, you look like, it looks like you, I'm like, you look so like a little boy. Yes. I can't, do you know what I mean? I can't explain. I'm always like, you're putting on a uniform. I'm like, you're. Is he a DJ? Yeah. He's a DJ. And a lot of them look like that. Cause it's like either you, you know, you're an intern on wall street or you're a DJ. There's no in between. And sometimes you're both. Yeah. In the. worst case you're both in the worst case you're both right anyways we'll get more into him in a minute and we'll also get more to this next person geo reina son of claudio reina also u.s men's national team former star friends with greg we'll get into whether they're friends still um he was born in the uk also when claudio was playing for sunderland at the time um and he is married he got married i believe in 2025 based on some internet stalking they're quite young i was gonna say isn't he a baby he's 20 let me check i feel like he's 22 i think he is too um 23 he's 23 um he married his wife chloe like i said i believe in 2025 wedding was very pretty we can pull up their flowers if you would like to real quick i can't open instagram um i got you but it's nice it's just a lot of greenery i wouldn't say they're compressed wait this is really lovely they got married at the blue hill at stone barns oh very nice chic okay um i did a bunch of internet stalking to find out how long they've been together it seems like they've been together since around 2021 so i'm like did they meet and she also played soccer she went to providence college i believe played soccer there go friars so i don't know if they met just and i would imagine either they grew up close to each other or just kind of grew up in the soccer world and knew each other but they're clearly both i think the same age wow so and anyways she is um expecting a baby good for them a baby good so congrats to them i mean it a lot a lot of soccer couples actually i mean we could talk about geo for a while but we're going to do that in a second so move on to tim ream who's another big time oh my god that guy he's the tall white guy with blonde hair and a ponytail um the amanda batula ponytail yes no no no from summer house wait no because that that's erling holland who has no he also has it too yes what is wrong with people look i'll uh 2020 yeah he had it he i saw a clip of yeah look oh no he's got it also okay so this is a bun where you do a bun but then instead of pulling it through you leave like a half you leave like a ponytail yes yes which amanda batula from summer house yes we haven't even talked about that it feels like sports i know i don't watch summer house but i have read everything on the internet about the situation i know it's crazy so you could say i don't watch it but i read it yeah well it's like consuming the personal life section of wikipedia but of a show yeah in some ways if you think about it too far behind at this point yeah anyways tim ream uh yes blonde guy with the amanda batula ponytail uh he's from st louis he plays for charlotte fc okay um he's married to kristin sapienza and she also played soccer at st louis university um they've been together for a long time i think they got married in 2012 they have three kids together wow okay so uh and he is the team captain this year i believe yes i believe that's true so congrats to him so there you go cool uh up next chris richards he plays for crystal ball and he's the team captain this year i believe in the premier league and he is from hoover alabama you know what i know hoover alabama from no there was a show on mtv i think oh my god it was about hoover high school and their football team no um let me find the name of it two a days two a days remember that show hoover yes it chronic it would premiered in august 2006 i loved that show same oh my god yes it was on for two seasons so that is where my brain went to when i saw hoover alabama what an amazing you know you know yeah anyways and i think i've played some volleyball tournaments in hoover alabama i feel like you probably did probably at some point that's uh that sounds right yeah um all right anthony robinson yes uh he played for fulham in the premier league he was born in england his dad moved to the u.s u.s and became a naturalized citizen um he grew up in england but is playing for the u.s again multiculturalism love it he's married to a woman named uh sorry engaged to a woman named darcy myers they have two kids together and yeah love that that's that guy all right who's next charlotte floren balligan oh yes he's got another brooklyn connection um he was born in america because his parents were visiting new york and his mom was seven months pregnant at the time and the airline refused to let her board the plane back to the uk so he was just born in brooklyn isn't that wild but he he didn't grow up in brooklyn obviously no which is crazy no he uh he he grew up in the uk in london i mean that's kind of wild i feel like do you think those rules have eased up a little bit i feel like airlines don't stop pregnant when we're flying anymore i don't i feel like yeah that was i mean he is let's see how old he is he is 24 so you know born in 2001 so like there was some time yeah now i mean that's a great like no you can't go home she's like crazy and then the kid was just born in america born in brooklyn yeah uh he became the first u.s men's national team player to score two goals in a match in the world cup and he was born in brooklyn and he was born in america and he was since the first world cup in 1930 which was the opening match against uh paraguay yeah paraguay uh that they won 4-1 yeah that just happened and so long time coming i guess yeah um yeah he was eligible to play for nigeria the uk or the u.s and he chose the u.s wow okay so i love that and his mom was like i don't think anything happens by luck i think i was supposed to have him there and you know what he's helping the u.s so yeah you know it worked out we're lucky to have him we're lucky to have him when you're here you're family as they say at olive garden when you're here you're here when you're here you're here does anyone charlotte i talked about this when there was that guy making this fake i mean it really was ahead of its time if you think about it ai quote-unquote generated commercials but they he wrote them and they're unbelievable this was like i don't five years on the internet no it was unfortunately some of the funniest stuff they make me laugh so when you're here you're here you're here um all right i think last but certainly not least we have kenny oh yeah weston weston um he was born in washington state lived in germany though until he was nine because his dad was an air force officer i'm always fascinated by the kids who grew up on a base they have like grocery stores and on the base real company men i would argue there that's the most company man you could be i think so i think working for the government in but more specifically as in the military that and you've got your whole i mean you know i guess the ultimate company man would have been the ultimate company man would have been the ultimate company man old school mining towns where you had to pay in currency issued by the company yes and so they trapped you yes it's kind of dark sorry dark that's yeah whole different discussion it's okay anyways where does he play charlotte he plays for juventus juventus sorry uh in italy um who and he yeah he grew up mostly in texas after he was nine um i think he could have played for germany as well because he lived in germany till he was nine his dad was an air force officer but um considers little elm texas his home yeehaw yeehaw wow okay great charlotte thank you for including all those player bios in here you know hopefully it's just it's just the stuff that i mean it's a quick hits yeah i need to know watching my husband i kept being where's that guy play and he was like i don't know maybe you should like google look it up for your sports name team insert blank name married insert blank kids insert blank name divorce why well before we get into a deep dive into the family drama that has plagued the u.s men's national team in recent years we have to do a little fun ebay live fashion mailbag segment bring it on we got a great question from one of our listeners of course it was world cup related and the question was if you could purchase any old world cup jersey on ebay live which one would you get and why oh you go first okay the the first one that comes to mind for me i think it's the french team they want an identity right with like a little collar which their jerseys now are the little collar they're very chic i love their french jerseys that the players are wearing right now because when i was a kid i think my mom got me a jersey in france or like she got it or someone else got it oh really yes like when they won that's so sweet i don't know where that is now also wouldn't fit so i think i would search for one of those oh i'd love to get one yeah you should get people there's so many articles on how to style world cup jerseys i'm like okay i need to buy some world cup jerseys you know when we did that um fashion sports summit yeah emilia petrarco was wearing such a chic outfit where she had the um a soccer jersey over like a pleated skirt yeah and i was like man it's a good look i don't know i feel like i would just look i'm i feel like i'm the kind of person where i would just look like i'm like wearing half a soccer uniform though you know what i mean well i think it's about you have to style it based on your body type i know you know i've done like the deep dive on like how to dress for your body type i never dress for my body type god forbid and then when you put on something that is like based on your proportions you're like all right that does look better yeah oh but because i think it's about styling i guess i guess maybe in my but all we want to wear is loose that's the problem it's because you want to wear the jersey just with baggies yeah or adidas soccer shorts or the full uniform and they're like are you playing unfortunately yeah and i guess maybe it's just like too ingrained in my mind when i was in third grade my favorite outfit was just to wear my soccer my game day youth travel jersey to school well yeah and so i think that putting it on now i would just be you know i don't know but if i could it would be um the world cup the u.s world cup one from 1994 which was made to look kind of like denim yes look at this with the stars on oh my god that's insane i love it it's pretty incredible i might actually need to get one of these wait they're not that expensive no they're not i wonder if there's like a did they reissued are these oh wait look at this oh oh charlotte sorry now we're just on ebay online shopping my favorite hobby um okay i think these are great options maybe we should get them i think we might need to ebay if you're listening which which you are ostensibly you are um all right okay uh oh before i get into it uh thanks to our mailbag sponsor ebay live can't miss live streams heart pounding auctions iconic fashion and collectibles whatever you're into you can bring it home right now don't miss another second at ebay.com slash ebay live boom boom all right should we get into the family drama heard heard around the world or at least heard around the united states of america i have been waiting for this since we started this show great because this happened this this happened this came to head in 2023 yes and if we had had this show then would have had a field day but now we get to have a field day with it because it's still relevant yes so for those who aren't familiar this is a drama between the burr halter family and the reina family who we've already discussed seb and geo play for the men's national team and then the fathers claudio reina and greg burr halter obviously both former u.s men's national team players stars friends and friends for a long time but this kind of came to a head at the 2022 world cup when there was some drama with the playing time that claudio's son geo was getting when greg was the head coach of the team so that's the context but before we get into that let me give a little bit of context to the context okay the sorry just the context to the context is so much crazier than i remembered it's really crazy so claudio and greg had been friends since uh high school i believe they went to high school together played together um claudio was even the best man at greg's wedding um and then their wives were teammates together um at unc and where greg also attended so okay like deep connections greg has even said at one time quote they were best friends growing up so close i i would gather if you're saying if you're the best man in someone's wedding yeah that's a big deal yeah if your wives played i mean this is you're all intertwined it's like family yes it's it's like family so claudio and greg they reconnected when they were both playing soccer in europe in the 90s okay um for different clubs but they reconnected there and i think that kind of reignited their friendship okay so that's the the context of the context so in around like between 2016 2019 ish um claudio so geo's dad reportedly had complained at one time to u.s soccer officials um about everything from geo's coaches to referees um they found an article from yahoo that was a great article about the deep dive if you want even more information but they basically said that um claudio's behavior would later be described by an unnamed person as quote inappropriate bullying and mean-spirited so he's already like clearly i mean and i'm sure claudio was involved in geo's soccer training and upbringing his entire life and so it was very apparent that he clearly was at least meddling to some degree into the off the field drama with geo whatever it was it seems like and this was when he was on the so he would have the youth team the yes okay i believe this would have been around then because this was before he was on the the men's this is like in the development program yes yes okay yes i believe so um so you're like okay that's interesting then greg is hired to coach the u.s men's national team in 2018 okay and he is hired by a man named ernie stewart who was the u.s men's national team's first gm that they had um and he was also again this is important context formerly a teammate of both greg and claudio for a decade oh my god okay so it's like he played with each of them yes and in addition to that in addition to being connected via friends again at the like kind of corporate level of the u.s men's soccer at the federation level greg's brother jay was the u.s soccer federation's chief commercial officer so again another just like family connection they all feel very intertwined it's like almost codependent kind of like i'm reading all this information i'm like let's feel like a little too close for comfort well it's like yeah with your co-workers well it's like a little too close for comfort newell's old boys club they might as well that's what they might as well called it yes it is it is so then in 2020 gm um makes his debut for the senior u.s national team so the you know the main national team um and at one point in an interview greg had said that coaching geo was like quote you're putting a family member in the game again that's how close they were yeah they were like family yeah yeah it's like coaching your nephew they've known each other longer than they've been than they haven't known each other yeah you know what i mean yeah so um and then 2021 to 2022 geo starts playing in some key games for the team um he played in the world cup qualifying opener but then he was dealing with some hamstring injuries okay just some ongoing injuries don't need to get into it doesn't really matter yes um he played but he only played one full game between september 2021 and the world cup in let's see it was like in the fall it was in november november 2022 um and at one point he wasn't included in the starting 11. so okay because again some a soccer expert would probably get be able to get into more specifics but i think the injuries were the one of the main reasons yeah yeah why okay so then flash forward world cup 2022 we're there okay yay wow a controversial world cup once again yes corrupt it was in qatar there's a lot of drama with fifa probably could do an entire 12-hour other podcast on that but it's also wild that it was in november because of covid because it was because of covid i know i was like remember now i was like oh my god i remember watching that and now i remember why it felt so different yeah because watching this one i've been like well this feels right and then i'm like what was weird about that one because that was the last one yeah yeah you're right that it was november how they think about it is it also was this was the first olympics but since covid like the tokyo olympics remember the 2020 tokyo olympics that were in 2021 that would have been the last remember that was kind of weird too remember they did it yeah didn't they do it the following year am i making this up wait but what remember the tokyo olympics that were in 2021 that summer olympics i'm just thinking about summer summer yes not the winter but nobody could be there yeah it was weird and then like simone biles pulled out that anyways it's just like you think about these like global sporting events that you didn't really get a quote-unquote normal version of until now yeah wow if you think about it so true anyways wow food for that um so november 2022 rolls around um geo says that he is apparently told by greg that his role at the world cup will be quote very limited ahead of their opener so this is like going into the world cup which well this is a little bit awkward um and he even later on said that he quote let his emotions get the best of him and that they quote affected my training and behavior for a few days after learning about my limited role so he was kind of butthurt his attitude he had kind of a poor attitude which is not great and according to reports during a november 17th scrimmage he quote walked around and moped around the whole time um which stewart who will get into the um former first gm of the team said later in an investigation which we'll get to the investigation oh boy okay so that's why also a lot of this reporting came out was because there ended up being an investigation which we're getting to which we're getting to this is all the context for the contact yeah yeah um so then geo doesn't play in their world cup opener against wales and this is where things get really messy involving geo's parents claudio and daniel yes so claudio texts stewart gm that night and says quote what a complete and utter effing joke our family is disgusted in case you were are wondering disgusted at how a coach is allowed to never be challenged and do whatever he wants and then claudio also subsequently texted uh u.s men's national team general manager brian mcbride who also again another teammate and someone he described as quote a close friend saying quote our entire family is disgusted angry and done with you guys don't expect nice comments from anyone in our family about u.s soccer i'm being transparent to you not like the political clown show of the federation okay okay and then his wife claudio's wife danielle apparently like didn't board the bus with the families that greg greg's family was on like to go to the matches okay um you're like uh-oh can i okay so it seems like just a just a quick little analysis stop here who knows if geo said to his dad send a text like i kind of feel like given the history and the reports that came out that claudio was involved in geo's other soccer playing career when he was younger that i feel like claudio was just like i'm sending this yeah yeah because it's also he's texting his friend he's like complaining to his friends basically but they also run the federation so it's like oh well this isn't the best thing to do oh my god because ultimately these people still work for a company and they have to report to someone they don't want they you know what i mean it's like they're not gonna what like i get yeah it's your friend but you can't really side with claudio i'm sorry like you have a job to do yeah yeah you're at the world cup which apparently they were trying to do yeah okay so we're at the world cup so we're at the world cup then there's meetings held to determine whether geo should be sent home from the world cup because of his behavior and i would imagine it was also probably partially due to the family involvement i would guess and they're like this is messy can you imagine that being such a pain in the ass that they're like let's just because he's a good soccer player yeah no he's he's not he's not a bad player okay and so they ultimately determined that they're not going to send him home in the future so they're not going to send him home in the future so they're not going to send him and they let him stay and then on thanksgiving day great day to give thanks well at the world cup um the brian mcbride and ernie stewart meet with the parents of geo claudio and danielle to help them basically explain why geo is getting uh less playing time or essentially no virtually not that much or no playing time um and apparently during that meeting claudio says quote you guys don't even know what we know about greg like a threat yeah yeah like what well what do you escalated things that escalated things okay that will come back around okay so november 25th u.s uh draws against england geo does play for a little bit okay okay december 3rd geo plays in the u.s is lost to the netherlands and doesn't speak to the media after the match but he plays a little bit okay okay so then the u.s i think after that match was out yep all right december 6th greg speaks at a convention or conference that i was really trying to understand what it was called the how institute for society summit on moral leadership that he thinks is off the record oh no but which it's on on the website it like makes it seem like it's off the record but i guess there was some sort of like contract pr person there or something dldr wasn't off the record oh no or someone recorded it maybe when they shouldn't have okay but it's like all these like leaders it's like the head of it's like for company men yeah yeah it's a meeting about companies and leadership and business for whatever for leaders of companies and business yeah so in this conversation that he thinks is off off the record he goes into details about this situation with the player i don't based on looking at the transfer it doesn't seem like he specifically says geo's name but it's implied oh my god so i'm just i'll read part of the quote quote um he said quote as a staff we sat together for hours deliberating what we were going to do with this player we were ready to book a plane ticket home that's how extreme it was so he just goes on and on but so he's talking about this situation publicly or what he thinks isn't publicly but well it is publicly no um then december 11th 2024 the athletic shout out to the athletic yeah they published a story alleging that geo showed quote an alarming lack of effort in training ahead of the u.s opening match and that he had eventually apologized to his teammates but that same day danielle and claudio so geo's parents they reach out to ernie stewart to talk to him on the phone took and danielle later says quote she wanted to let him know that i was absolutely outraged and devastated that geo had been put in such a terrible position that i had felt personally betrayed by the actions of someone my family had considered a friend for decades oh my god so then also again from yahoo they basically danielle reportedly told ernie stewart about an incident that occurred in the early 90s involving greg and his wife rosalyn when they were college students at um unc so like 30 years ago yes um yes so the investigation well we'll get to that but essentially what danielle is referring to was a january night uh greg and his then girlfriend now wife rosalyn were drinking they were 18 years old they began to argue apparently rosalyn hit greg in the face greg pushed her down and kicked her twice greg was then tackled by somebody walking by who neither of neither greg nor rosalyn knew yeah so alleged ostensibly that had happened in 1992 they've been married for 30 some years since then yes but it hadn't come out publicly nobody knew that publicly no and so danielle would later say quote i thought it was especially unfair that geo who had apologized for acting immaturely about his playing time was still being dragged through the mud when greg had asked for and received forgiveness for doing something so much worse at the same age let's just let's just go through the rest of the timeline like and we'll and we'll yeah okay um then ernie stewart obviously reports this incident that he learned from danielle and claudio to the u.s soccer council who then hire an independent firm to investigate the allegations they then interviewed both greg and rosalyn separately i'm sure they interviewed other people as part of this investigation and the results of the investigation came out that's when the information came out so that happens then december 31st greg's contract expires so they're like all right well this investigation is now happening is he going to get rehired is he not are they going to look for another coach what's going to go on january 3rd greg and rosalyn release a joint statement about the situation okay um and basically part of greg's statement he said during the world cup an individual contacted u.s soccer saying that they had information about me that would quote take me down an apparent effort to leverage something very personal from long ago to bring about the end of my relationship with u.s soccer this is a difficult step to take but my wife rosalyn and i want to clear want to clearly and directly share the truth it's a long statement you can read it um but yes it is on the internet the same day u.s soccer releases a conflicting statement basically saying the investigation is still ongoing and that it has been quote expanded to look into quote potential inappropriate behavior towards multiple members of our staff by individuals outside of our organization they they continue saying quote we appreciate greg and rosalyn coming forward to speak openly about this incident um but they committed to sharing quote the results of the investigation publicly when it's complete they eventually share the results so to greg greg and rosalyn sort of said this happened like told everybody what happened a while ago if you like the statement i won't read it for everyone's listening but it is a very long statement you can see it on his twitter account it's still up yeah um and he addresses the situation i actually think for a statement like pretty good statement yeah to just like address what's going on yeah yeah yeah um instead of being vague and word salad so from a peer standpoint good statement okay um then on january 4th claudia and danielle they released a statement being like uh-oh um we thought we were talking to ernie stewart in private because he's our pal oopsies oh my god like oops we didn't mean for this to go to an investigation um danielle's statement basically she said i want to be very clear that i did not ask for greg to be fired i did not make any threats and i don't know anything about any blackmail attempts nor have i ever had any discussions about anyone else on greg's staff i don't know any of the other coaches i did not communicate with anyone in u.s soccer about this matter before december 11th and no one else in my family has made any statements to u.s soccer regarding greg's past at all um so and then claudio released the same in his base it was while guitar i shared my frustrations about my son's world cup experience with a number of close friends ernie and brian mcbride among them however at no time did i ever threaten anyone nor would i ever do so interesting that danielle also said i'm sorry this information became public i regret that i played a role in something that could reopen wounds from the past yeah yeah so okay okay should we pause here pause here i think this whole thing speaks to the level of um how wrapped up and delusional and sort of working working themselves into a spiral and a swivet about themselves and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their son's career yes two clearly very competitive people became it was like you can watch through this just this timeline amazing by the way what you put together i'm an off the internet thank you internet thank you madeline but through all of these things it's sort of like oh you can watch these people get sucked into wallowing in their own sense of victimhood because their son didn't play when they thought he should instead of being able to zoom out have some perspective be like okay this our son is is behaving poorly right and we have to we have to take any personal side of things out of it yeah they were unable to do that and it ended up like so deeply affecting people they considered their best friends i just can't imagine i can't imagine interfering in any someday child of mine's life this way right i also can't imagine doing this to my best friends yeah right it's like obviously what greg it's a horrible but it's like that has nothing to do with this this situation do you know what i mean and it's like for it to come up in this context it i think again shows like if this happened in any other type of job if geo worked at a law firm or something yeah and his parents were like talking crap about some other partner or something they're like well we know this thing it's like i mean sure but like i would be mortified if my parents got involved in my professional life like this yeah it's the same sport but ultimately to your point it's only going to hurt geo in the long run yeah and you know it's it's it's i i forgot until going through this whole timeline yeah just how absolutely insane this whole thing it's just clearly there i just read it and i think about claudio and danielle that they're like who was advising them and i think no one was advising them to to just kind of act independently in this way and embarrass their son throw their friend under the bus who obviously dealt with his very painful thing and is probably unbelievably ashamed and embarrassed by his horrific actions when he was a college student obviously as he should be to combine that and then embarrass your kid at the world cup with clearly no guidance it's like what were you thinking they weren't thinking no i would imagine yeah and it's like they got so sucked up in the melodrama of everything yeah you know and it was like when you get sucked up in the melodrama of a situation you lose all perspective right and then you sort of come out of this haze of like riding those highs and lows because it can feel really good to just feel like you're the victim yes it can feel really good to be like i'm being wronged but you can't you that's a very um inappropriate and ineffective way to go through your life yes so then when you zoom out it seems like they zoomed out and danielle in that state those statements to your point they were like uh oops why do we do say this oops well and from my understanding too the situation with greg and his wife rosalyn had never uh become public and i think from what i recall in his statement he says that like this was something my wife like she didn't want this out you know it's like and and if she wanted it out there she would want it out there on her own time and you know like let her give the statement and for it to come out in this like gossipy like the two pair their seemingly best friends or close friends are sharing this information with people who work for their son's company essentially i just can't yeah for danielle to do that to her friend right where it this is if anyone's this is rosalyn's story to tell yes yes to to do i i that is what like yes it's messed up to meddle in your son's affairs that happens all the time right to betray a best friend like this is really mind-blowing it's really mind-blowing but but i think it does too and i'm not saying that this is an excuse i can just see where the high stakes of something like the world cup and clearly danielle played soccer claudio played so they all played talk they're all deeply competitive people right right you can kind of see where all the threads come together to form this like frankenstein yes no it's true you can see it you can see it um so also how what goes what happens next so yeah so then late january after all these statements um ernie stewart and brian mcbride both depart the federation okay oh wow so then u.s soccer hires a company called sportsology to help them uh find a new like new heads of the company and also like well what are they gonna do about this coach i just have to read a quote about sportsology so it says on their home page which i just love this language a good old little word salad for you they are a quote leading provider of premium knowledge strategic advisory and operational support in the sports industry i i would like to say that we are a provider of premium knowledge we're coming for you here's the thing madeline i feel like we've talked about this company before that's what i thought you think yes do any of our share i yes thank you that's also why i was looking them up and i was like when did we talk about them so if any shareholder can remember when we talked about this company sportsology i swear we've talked about them i'm gonna google in our google drive sportsology well maybe it's okay yes oh okay yes charlotte's pulling up an old topic doc sportsology shoot why did that come up right no we definitely talked about it we definitely did in like 2025 we did someone some shareholder please try to find this information when we talk about uh well yes oh yes when was it when was it what were we talking about okay we were talking about yes okay when the red sox fired when craig breslau who uh was in the red sox front office fired a scouting supervisor after the guy said on a hot mic after a zoom thanks brad you effing stiff yes they hired sportsology the the breslau brought in sports consulting from sportsology to conduct an organizational audit boom and in practice like they said they were going to streamline baseball operations in practice it triggered a wave of firings and accelerated the marginalization of some of the longest tenured voices in the building uh-oh characterizing the cultural shift to align more with wall street efficiency well i guess they didn't get a leading provider of premium knowledge wow okay well that's wild i know when i was reading i was like how i was like i feel like we've talked about this you know it's so crazy we've now been doing this long enough that we have like our own primary our own database yes we have our own archive um sorry okay so um apparently they said that when just as some comics when ernie stewart departed the company or the federation that the song this family drama didn't have any impact on him leaving but they say that they say that and i'm like okay sure interesting timing um also in late january just as an aside doesn't really mean anything but i'm just going to throw it out there for you to speculate if you want but claudio did step down in his role as austin fc sporting director and became a technical advisor okay so that happens you're like all right well that's okay then in march u.s soccer does release the report from alston and bird which also did you know alston and bird worked on that crazy uh diesel uh volkswagen no i believe that's one of their cases they worked on yeah um anyways in their report they apparently found no legal impediments to greg being hired as the u.s men's national team coach again so basically they're saying the incident that was brought to us exactly shouldn't have any bearing on his employment yes okay then in april they hire a new sporting director named matt crocker and he was also responsible for bringing in emma hayes the women's yes so i think i people may i think he seems fine yeah i don't know emma hayes is great yes okay um then in june the u.s men's national team announces that they rehired or they rehired greg to basically stay on as their head coach but in between january to june they had two interim head coaches which was like a lot of turnover i'm like like that felt chaotic so there's just like a lot of organizational drama that unfolded i would argue because of the scandal i mean clearly there were organizational problems before that it's like the u.s men's national team has not been very good and greg berhalter has not did not live up to his expectations as a head coach and they never made it very far in a national international stage right um so then by september 2024 um i don't know if you remember this do you remember copa america when u.s didn't make it out of the group stage on their own home turf it was so bad that wasn't great yeah um and i think at that point again they have a new sporting director in matt and then i think they were like all right we need to bring in a new head coach but to bring in a new head coach that's really good you need money so they brought in um two private donors and a bunch of commercial partners the private donors included a hedge fund billionaire named ken griffin oh that guy this guy do you know this is he is at least at the time purchased the most expensive residential sale that was ever closed in u.s history when he bought a penthouse for 238 million dollars on central park south he also has an art portfolio worth over 800 million dollars according to reports and one of my favorite details of just how rich he is his a one-time purchase a stegosaurus skeleton for 44 million dollars so he's got a lot of cash cash to burn okay this is the only disposable income this is the only nice thing i'll ever say about a billionaire what if you have to spend 44 million dollars on it pretty cool to buy dinosaurs i mean how unbelievable is that like that but aside from that this guy sucks how do you also price a skeleton no well right that's my question it's a good point so he's brought in and then another billionaire named scott goodwin was also brought in along with commercial partners to basically like hey can you guys they have been longtime supporters of the soccer federation and uh soccer in general and they've been a big part of the in the u.s um and they're like hey we need a little bit of extra money to recruit a good coach they're like yeah no prob so they drop in a little cash they probably vemoed it you know milli or two whatever um and that's when they hired our guy marizio so he is hired in september 2024 so that is how we end up with marizio is kind of inadvertently because of scandal not really like again i'm sure u.s federation would be like no that's not why but i do think that's a good point i think that's a good point i think that's a good point i think that's a good point i do think that i don't know if we would see this ripple effect from a company level and all of the kind of fallout that happened without the scandal breaking and without geo's parents meddling in his professional life and then unveiling details about greg's personal life at the same time i just don't think any of that would have happened no so you could almost argue that in some ways had none of that happened would we have the u.s national team that we have now i was in this world cup i i think you're exactly i don't know i think that look greg was his team was losing whether that had to do with the internal vibes because obviously this was affecting everybody and geo's behavior and greg's um even before any of the dirt came out that the rain has brought to the u.s federation they weren't winning so you'd think well he would have been gone but the fact that they rehired him yeah after all of this also feels like normally a coach that loses like losing in the world cup as embarrassingly as they did it's sort of like you usually don't get a second chance it almost feels like a makeup call for all of the dirt they went on given how many friends greg had in the organization right right right we don't know that of course but it does seem like had all of this not happened maybe the federation wouldn't have felt quite the same amount of like oh my god we really got to get we really got to get whipped into shape because this is crazy right right but it it's it's an it's organizational dysfunction at a level that you know we talk about a lot of organizational dysfunction on this show this is like mind-blowing it's a mind-blowing level of dysfunction that has clearly had ripple effects and honestly i really just i don't think that i i just feel like they wouldn't have gotten a new coach had none of this happened honestly they certainly wouldn't have maybe they would have maybe they would have and maybe listen they look at probably the women's team who are under the influence of the federation and they're like unbelievable right and constantly are doing well on an international level that they're like we need to compete in some capacity with our counterparts in the same sport in this country so maybe they would have i don't know but i do feel like you if you think about this from a pr perspective optics wise the u.s men's federation looked bad with this scandal and everything that came out about it no matter how you feel about it and so it's like they had no other choice but to shake things up and it's like i don't think that they would have shaken things up if they weren't concerned about pr yeah you know i just i think that if if they didn't care then they probably would have kept greg honestly yeah i mean i think that if they the loss in the copa america it was that was so bad i feel like he would have been gone after that but i don't think that they would have gotten the money the money to yeah i feel like this was like an emergency call of like guys this is the pr is off the rails like we need a good hire we need something yeah and when we talked to um julie fowdy and abby wan back on the show they were like oh we love pokey or what ever like you know he seems to have a good reputation um can we talk about the the thing that brings us to friday's game is that greg berhalter's son sebastian seb and geo reina are on the team together now yep they are what is that like i i cannot even imagine because this is it's one thing if like your parents get into a fight with your friend's parents and it's like whatever these were betrayals on a level that if someone did this to my parents maybe you can separate it from the kid but the fact that the kid was already in a fight with the other kids dad it's like are they just very good at compartmentalizing are they actually are they able to actually be friends in some capacity like i just can't imagine how these two people can play on the same team together i have absolutely no idea how they're able to do it and you think about again like the logistics when i was talking about i think was it danielle that i said earlier who didn't take the family bus yes like there's all the transportation i think for the world cup like you're together like the family bus you know like they're always together they're probably all have the same credential they're probably all sitting in the same section so just to imagine like that they clearly have a lot of close proximity to them do they talk do they don't talk i don't know no i know it's like did they go to like friendship counseling maybe did they have some was it like we have to work through this for the sake of our kids because they're on a team together yeah yeah and then how do geo and set feel about each other that's what i mean i'm like how like we need someone on the someone just got to tell us we need some there's a shareholder out there with ties to these two families with ties to us or someone's got to send us a DM. It can be off the record. We just need to know. Or on background, we'll keep you anonymous. What's the deal between Seb Berhalter and Gio Reyna? What's going on there? The biggest what's going on there. This really is. So yeah, that's the saga. That was a long one, but I hope you stuck with us. You did an amazing job. Thank you for that. You're so welcome. I also think that what's interesting is the vibe seemed pretty good. Yes. On the men's team. So either their new coach is doing something right or everybody's grown up a little bit. Or, you know, maybe Sportsology did their job and they shook things up from an organizational perspective and fix things. You know what? Maybe it trickled down. Let's give credit where credit's due. Consultants. Thank you. This is really a story about good consultants. Thank you for your service. Oh, my God. All right. Well, we did it. We did it. Well, as always, please rate and review, like and subscribe. It makes a huge, huge difference. You can follow us on Instagram at Sports Gossip. And TikTok at Sports Gossip Show. You can subscribe to our little paying subscriber chat on Instagram at Sports Gossip. Our sub stack, sportsgossipshow.substack.com. You can buy merch linked in description. And yeah, I think that's it. Rock and roll. Okay. Okay. Bye.