re: Wynalda Reporting Rift Between Gregg and Gio

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Are you asking why he would be honest about his fitness?

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Why would he be honest if his coach told him not to? Gregg and Gio have known each other since one of them was a baby. If there really was some masterplan, which there wasn't, Gio would've gone along with it.

The whole idea that Gregg would've come up with this plan is dumb in itself, but it's even dumber to assume there was a plan and Gio went rogue when there were two matches left to play.

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The question is whether Gregg asked him to say he wasn’t 100%.

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Yeah, that's my point, it's much easier to believe they weren't on the same page, rather than some master plan that Gio went rogue on.

Given the context of events in the last few days, it’s pretty clear Wynalda is an Iranian plant to cause internal strife.

Hold the line boys!

The athletic soccer podcast (Paul Tenorio and Sam Stejskal) do a 9 minute dive into this issue during their Iran match preview. It’s worth a listen at the 18:30 mark.
LINK

TL;DR: they believe Berhalter, they don’t think Wynalda is credible, they think the accusations are absurd, and it doesn’t match at all what they are hearing from insiders. Also they agree with Gregg’s handling of Gio given the game state (and form of other players), but would have liked earlier subs nonetheless. Also, trigger warning to most of you, they were even fine with the Morris sub.

I believe US soccer leaned on Eric to walk back the story. Years ago Derek Richey of the Straight Red card got an exclusive interview with the father of Sebastian Lleget. In the exclusive interview the elder Lleget went off on US Soccer naming names etc. Derek wrote the story. US soccer got wind of the story and told the elder Lleget if he didn't quash it the son would never be called up again. Derek pulled the story.

Source?

Their USMNT content and analysis is some of the best and most balanced out there

What was the rumored content of the Lletget article?

I’m trying to figure out what controversies he has been involved in and can’t come up with much of anything. He wasn’t big in the Klinsmann era, he got games with Gregg, and stopped being called up when younger and better players matured.

I’m not sure what Seb Lletget’s dad would know as some insider.

It’s all secondhand info at best and mostly thirdhand since Lletget was a bit player for the US until 2019, with Gregg.

What leverage does the USSF have on Wynalda? He’s never going to coach an important team. I’m sure even Eric himself isn’t expecting a call up I haven’t seen him on any USMNT broadcasts in years. He was doing some stuff for Yahoo in 2010 but he is well down the list on people who will call games ever again.

At this point, Wynalda simply isn’t important enough for people to focus on, in that regard.

This reminds me to an extent of the track and field reporter who claimed there would be a bunch of very high profile failed drug tests ahead of Tokyo. He didn’t name names but implied at least one US A-lister.

It ended up being a good Nigerian long jumper and a couple of mid-tier European 100 meters guys.