Wild Story: Gio Reyna's Parents Were Reportedly Blackmailing US Soccer Coach Gregg Berhalter After Their Son Had A Limited Role At The World Cup

Alright so there's a lot of moving parts here. Let me try to sum up the story as easily as possible. Yesterday a new Gregg Berhalter account tweeted this out: 

Essentially claiming he was being blackmailed with a domestic violence incident from 1991 - when he was in college at UNC. The incident claimed he kicked his now-wife in the leg outside of a bar during a fight. It wasn't information that was out before, but apparently someone was sending it to the US Soccer Federation. While no one knew this account, it was reported by a bunch of people as accurate. So much so the US put out this: 

Fast forward to today and it was announced that assistant coach Anthony Hudson will take over for this month: 

If that wasn't enough former US player Heath Pearce alluded to something like this coming out today: 

We now know it's Claudio Reyna:

[Source] - Former United States men's national team captain Claudio Reyna sent multiple messages to U.S. Soccer executives during the World Cup threatening to reveal sensitive details about USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter's past, multiple sources told ESPN.

The messages began after his son, Gio Reyna, was informed he would have a limited role at the tournament.

Jesus what a soap opera. All this because Gregg told Gio he wasn't going to play a bunch during the World Cup. Now we have a full on circus, which might show the US finally cares about soccer. Childish? Absolutely. Dirty as hell? No kidding. But here we are now with Gregg being investigated by the US Soccer Federation, a star player's dad being the one to throw him under the bus and no one knows what the hell is going to happen moving forward.

There's nothing that says Gio was involved in this, but he's still linked. There was plenty of drama with him already: 

Oh if that's enough, the date happens to line up with this: 

U.S. Soccer did not receive any details about the claims until Dec. 11, when an executive was informed in a call with Claudio Reyna and his wife, Danielle, that Berhalter, 49, had a past domestic violence incident, sources told ESPN.

That information arrived the same day as comments Berhalter made at the HOW Institute for Society's Summit on Moral Leadership in New York were published by Charterworks, detailing how "a player" was nearly sent home from the World Cup for not meeting expectations on and off the field.

Mind you Claudio Reyna and Gregg Berhalter grew up playing together, they were on World Cup rosters together. They have a long history and have known each other forever. Now we have them in this bizarre story because of Gio's playing time. It's a shit show, only way to describe it. Now Claudio is obviously denying it: 

But there are multiple outlets reporting it as true. Everyone assumed it was Claudio. We now have this statement from his wife: 

Again, I don't know where we go from here. There's no way the US can bring back Berhalter. First, managers typically don't get two World Cup cycles unless they have massive success. Second, there's a domestic violence incident, even from 1991, which is now public. Then there's Gio. Even if he didn't have a role in this, it's going to follow him for his entire national team career. 

Bizarre stuff all around here.