Sunday's matchup between the two USMNT players paints a portrait of Tillman's rise, Reyna's fall under Mauricio Pochettino
This shouldn't be happening. The soccer matrix is broken. Something in the wiring, the deeply-mathematical calculations which we all use in order to predict player pathways and career moves, has misfired. Reality be damned, this just feels wrong.
Gio Reyna should not be playing for Borussia Monchengladbach against Malik Tillman's Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday. Such a declaration all sounds rather dramatic, but this fixture is the polar opposite of the way things would have been just two years ago.
Reyna, of course, was supposed to be the shining light of U.S. soccer. Sure, Christian Pulisic is guy, but in terms of raw, unadulterated talent, Reyna runs him very close. Tillman, meanwhile, is a tier below on that scale – and remains as such. The narrative was that he was never going to be good enough. He would be just out of the spotlight, the guy who was perhaps national team quality, but would have no place in the squad.
Reyna, in fact, was supposed to be the one blocking him.
But now, things are the opposite, the roles reversed. Reyna is the guy on the way down, stuck in mid-table mediocrity. Tillman – even if Leverkusen have endured a rocky start – is very much a player on the rise. They both moved this summer. One has reached new heights. Another was shut out at his previous employer, and left grasping for a new home. This game is, in effect, a microcosm of how things have all gone wrong for one, and simply soared for another.
Getty Images SportGio Reyna, and the art of falling far
The Reyna journey is well chronicled. He followed the Pulisic character arc at first. He was in the Dortmund team at a young age, setting all sorts of records for the youngest player to do nice things: score, assist, and appear in the Champions League.
Pulisic blazed the trail, Reyna was the one who could not only step into his shoes, but also stretch the limits of how good an American in Europe could be.
Of course, it all went a bit wrong. Some of the reasons were out of Reyna's control. Others he perhaps could've impacted. Reyna, we were told, had – perhaps still has – an attitude problem. Certainly, for the USMNT there was a perception that he was above the concepts of "running" and "being a good teammate."
Here was a kid with an ego, a guy who knew just how good he was. Maybe he was even too aware of it.
And then there are the things he couldn't have counted on. Reyna's hamstrings are fickle. So are his calves. He was used so much, so young, that his body simply couldn't keep up with the high intensity of the upper echelon of the Bundesliga.
He's a fluid, luxury player. His legs aren't built for the rough and tumble of the German day-to-day. Reyna got injured a lot. Managerial changes didn't help. By the end of his Dortmund career he was left either watching from the bench or settling for garbage time minutes. It was clear that the journey was over.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesMalik Tillman, constantly on the rise
Tillman, meanwhile, has gone from strength to strength. He appeared to come from a dangerous place, in a sense. The Bayern Munich academy came with immense expectations. He was in and out of the side for the youth setup, appeared a handful of times for the senior team, and settled for a necessary – if slightly underwhelming – loan to Rangers in the 2022-23 season.
He came back to Germany the year after as a player in stasis, clearly not good enough for the Bayern first team but needing regular football. The solution was another loan, this time to PSV. A couple of knocks rather limited him, but he was otherwise a promising prospect – playing a valuable creative role either in the midfield or out wide for the Dutch giants.
They activated his buy option for what now looks like a bargain at $14.1 million (€12M), and he only developed more. He was probably their best player for the first five months of the 2024-25 campaign. Fellow USMNT-er Ricardo Pepi may have been the one scoring the goals, but Tillman was orchestrating and doing everything else.
He looked a player brimming with confidence, holding his own in the Champions League and providing all sorts of clever passes from a more overt attacking midfield role. He looked a shoo-in for the U.S. team under Mauricio Pochettino. And even when he picked up a serious ankle injury in January, he had shown enough for Bayer Leverkusen to pay his $41.1M (€35M) release clause. He became the German giants' record signing.
Getty Images SportRocky starts for both
The irony here, of course, is that both endured poor starts to the season for reasons out of their control, and are rather in limbo in their squads. Tillman found the back of the net in his Leverkusen debut, and was otherwise immensely effective for an hour. He was less impressive – but still solid – a week later.
However, things were poor at his club. New manager Erik Ten Hag, it was widely reported, had done an excellent job of antagonizing the club and everyone around it in his brief few months in charge. Leverkusen sacked him after three games, deeming the situation irreconcilable despite the short amount of time that had passed. But Leverkusen did the thing all the same, and the man who had spent a record outlay on the American was now out the door.
Reyna, too, was thrown into jeopardy. He perhaps was more pronounced in his need to leave his former club. Dortmund was never going to offer a clear pathway to first team football, and the German side had already tried to sell him earlier in the summer – only for a move to Parma to break down.
Monchengladbach seemed a much more natural fit, not least because of the manager's willingness to use a No. 10. Well, that manager was let go, too. Gerardo Seoane was already on thin ice after orchestrating a dramatic crash out of European football contention towards the end of last season.
A winless start to this one, highlighted by a home battering by Werder Bremen, was enough for the board. Sporting director Roland Virkus admitted that the club no longer had faith that the manager could turn things around. That, too, was a risky move. Seoane should have gone in May.
Still, the point remains: both are new clubs, neither under the manager who vouched for their signature. That's a precarious spot.
Getty ImagesThe USMNT picture
It's worth asking what this all means for the USMNT. Tillman was excellent in the Gold Cup – especially the group stages – as a largely backup U.S. side made an agreeable run to the final. It was hard to intellectualize the tournament, but many used it as proof for the fact that Tillman should be in the side when the top players all return.
Success at Bayer Leverkusen, you'd assume, would only reinforce that notion. If Tillman could do it at PSV, then showing that same quality for Leverkusen, at 23, would prove that he could some day be a star for the national team.
Reyna, meanwhile, admitted that the move to Monchengladbach alone was basically brought about by his desire to be back in the USMNT when the World Cup comes around:
"I believe I'll be there. That was one of the reasons for my move. I'm in open contact with the coach. If I play well at Borussia, I'll definitely find my way back to the national team," he said after his arrival.
Ironically, then, these next nine months will serve as a real test of that. Tillman was left out of the squad for the September camp, Pochettino admitting that he wanted the attacking midfielder to find some form. Reyna was never going to be in it – such was his lack of playing time.
