Saying five times that Gio Reyna is “special,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino called in the 22-year-old midfielder for November friendlies despite his limited club playing time in Germany.
Pochettino said Thursday he made the decision “to give the motivation to arrive with the possibility and and the belief that he can compete for a for a place in the World Cup.”
Christian Pulisic, sidelined since hurting a hamstring in an Oct. 14 friendly against Australia, will miss the matches even though he could return to the field for AC Milan's Serie A game at Parma on Saturday.
Midfielder Weston McKennie and goalkeeper Matt Turner also were among the notable omissions from the 25-man roster.
Forward Ricardo Pepi, midfielder Tyler Adams and defenders Joe Scally, John Tolkin and Auston Trusty are back with the 16th-ranked U.S. for the games against No. 39 Paraguay on Nov. 15 at Chester, Pennsylvania, and 15th-ranked Uruguay three days later at Tampa, Florida.
Pochettino said his goal is to have players arrive at the World Cup “like animals and feel really strong.”
Reyna, a son of former captain Claudio Reyna, was nearly sent home from the 2022 World Cup by then coach Gregg Berhalter for alleged lack of effort in training, causing Reyna's parents to contact the U.S. Soccer Federation about a three-decades-old domestic violence allegation involving Berhalter and the woman who later became his wife. A USSF investigation concluded Berhalter did not improperly withhold information.
Reyna will be in camp alongside Berhalter's son Sebastian, a midfielder who debuted for the U.S. in June. Reyna has played for the Americans only once since the 2024 Copa America, appearing as a 69th-minute substitute in the CONCACAF Nations League third-place match loss to Canada. Slowed by a thigh injury following his transfer to Borussia Mönchengladbach, he has been limited to one start and four substitute appearances in the Bundesliga.
Pochettino had repeatedly said playing time with clubs impacts whether players should be called in for national team games.
“He has enormous, enormous talent and it’s true that he’s not playing too much but I think it’s a good opportunity in November,” Pochettino said. “We need to understand that sometimes some players struggle to play but can be important for us. That is why. It is not contradictory, my message."
Pulisic, an attacking midfielder, is the top American player. He drew criticism for skipping the CONCACAF Gold Cup last summer to rest his body ahead of the European season and the World Cup. Pochettino said he was left off the latest roster “to provide him the the possibility to recover 100%.”
Pepi and Trusty are back with the team for the first time since Pochettino's second camp in November. Scally, like Reyna, has not been with the group since the Nations League final four. Adams missed the October games because his wife was due to give birth.
In addition to Pulisic, others missing the matches because they are hurt or recovering from injuries include defenders Cameron Carter-Vickers (Achilles) and Antonee Robinson (knee), winger Tim Weah (thigh), midfielders Malik Tillman (thigh) and Johnny Cardoso (ankle), forward Alejandro Zendejas (knee), and goalkeeper Chris Brady (lower body).
Robinson had knee surgery on May 27 and hasn't played a Premier League match for Fulham this season.
“We are worried, of course, I think because he is now for a long period, that cannot play,” Pochettino said.
McKennie was left off to allow him training time with his new coach at Juventus, while Turner hasn't played since New England's Major League Soccer season finale on Oct. 18. Pochettino did pick a pair of MLS players whose teams were eliminated from the playoffs on Oct. 22, defender Alex Freeman and midfielder Diego Luna.
Chris Richards, a regular starter at central defender, was left off; Crystal Palace coach Oliver Glasner has said he was disappointed the U.S. used Richards last month despite a calf ailment.
“Milan or Palace, they are not right to complain," Pochettino said. “We are the first that care and we never meant to play a player with some doubt.”
He said clubs expressing frustration with the U.S. national team “makes me feel very disappointed because I am very respectful with all the coaches."
Also dropped were midfielder James Sands and forward Patrick Agyemang.
Others on the roster after missing the October games include goalkeepers Roman Celentano and Jonathan Klinsmann, right back Sergiño Dest, and midfielder Sean Zawadzki. Celentano and Klinsmann are the only two players on the roster who have not made U.S. debuts.
Pochettino's team will play a pair of March friendlies, then report in late May ahead of its World Cup opener on June 12.
The roster:
Goalkeepers: Roman Celentano (Cincinnati), Matt Freese (New York City), Jonathan Klinsmann (Cesena), Patrick Schulte (Columbus)
Defenders: Max Arfsten (Columbus), Sergiño Dest (PSV Eindhoven), Alex Freeman (Orlando), Mark McKenzie (Toulouse), Tim Ream (Charlotte), Miles Robinson (Cincinnati), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach), John Tolkin (Holstein Kiel), Auston Trusty (Celtic)
Midfielders: Tyler Adams (Bournemouth), Sebastian Berhalter (Vancouver), Aidan Morris (Middlesbrough), Gio Reyna (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Cristian Roldan (Seattle), Tanner Tessmann (Lyon), Sean Zawadzki (Columbus)
Forwards: Brenden Aaronson (Leeds), Folarin Balogun (Monaco), Diego Luna (Real Salt Lake;), Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven), Haji Wright (Coventry)
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
American soccer player Gio Reyna talks during an interview with The Associated Press at the stadium of his Bundesliga club Borussia Moenchengladbach in Moenchengladbach, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Mohamad Al-Assi ran beneath the concrete wall as the sun rose over Bethlehem. His Nikes pounded the gravel, his breath fogging the air as graffiti and paint splatter blurred past with each stride.
The road along the barrier separating Israel from the occupied West Bank makes up a stretch of a marathon route that Al-Assi and thousands of others ran on Friday. The event is open to people in other parts of the world running in solidarity with the Palestinians and another, shorter race was happening in Gaza.
The race, known as the Palestine Marathon, was held for the first time in three years and was among the first big international events in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Festivals, conferences and holiday festivities that once drew thousands have been scaled back or canceled because of the war in Gaza and heightened Israeli restrictions.
It marked a turning point for Al-Assi, 27, who was released from Israeli detention six months ago. Video from that day shows him gaunt-faced and hollow-eyed, his once muscular legs weakened after more than two and a half years of prison.
He began training in December, gradually upping his mileage every month since. He ran 62 miles (100 kilometers) that first month, and in April reached 135 miles (217 kilometers), according to his account on the tracking app Strava.
He jogs in the morning after his mother wakes him up in their home in Dheisheh, a Palestinian refugee camp made up of graffiti-covered cinderblock homes in tangled alleyways.
“The main difficulties we face are the cars on the roads and the presence of Israeli security forces along the route where I train,” Al-Assi said.
He had to suspend his training several times because of military operations in the camp.
“I would return home feeling hopeless because I couldn't do what I had intended to do,” Al-Assi said.
In the West Bank, runners cannot complete a 26.2-mile (42.2-kilometer) course without hitting a checkpoint or military gate, which is why Friday's marathon route looped around the same circuit twice.
They ran up through the narrow streets of two Palestinian refugee camps and down to a farming town next to Bethlehem where fields are divided by the concrete wall, barbed wire and cameras. The course hooked back to finish at Bethlehem’s Manger Square.
Organizers say the race highlights restrictions facing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, where checkpoints can disrupt even routine commutes and where open land for hiking, biking and running is increasingly taken by Israeli settlements and outposts.
“Marathon runners anywhere may ‘hit a wall’ under the physical and emotional strain of completing the 42-kilometer race course," they said on the marathon's website.
But in the West Bank, they added, "runners literally hit the Wall.”
At a time when the West Bank’s economy is struggling and in the shadow of Gaza's fragile ceasefire and stalled rebuilding efforts, the atmosphere in Bethlehem was celebratory. Crowds gathered near the Church of the Nativity to cheer runners at the race's early morning start and finish. Bagpipes blared and drummers pounded out traditional rhythms through streets along the route.
On a beachside road in Nuseirat in central Gaza — which is roughly the length of a marathon — 15 disabled people, including amputees, ran a 2K, and a couple thousand of people ran a 5K. Thirteen years after the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, canceled a 2013 marathon because Hamas forbade women from participating, the women were back.
Haya Alnaji, a 22-year-old woman who ran in the 5K, said the number of people taking part reflected that Palestinians in Gaza were determined to live and persevere despite the devastation wrought by more than two years of war.
“All of Gaza loves sports,” she said.
Al-Assi was arrested in April 2023, and imprisoned under administrative detention, which allows Israel to hold detainees for months without charge. Between 3,000 and 4,000 Palestinians are being held under that system, according to Israeli rights groups and the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
In October 2023, Al-Assi was sentenced for transferring money to suspicious entities, a charge he denies. Israel closely monitors money transfers — particularly to Gaza — for fear that funds could end up in the hands of militants. Palestinians, however, say donations and charitable contributions are often swept up in the dragnet. Israel’s military, Shin Bet and Prison Service did not answer questions about Al-Assi's charges.
In Israeli prisons — where detainees routinely complain of inadequate diets — Al-Assi said nearly everyone goes hungry. The weight he lost eroded the endurance built through 10 years of training.
“I have more muscle mass than fat, so when I lost weight, the loss came from my muscles rather than fat,” he said. “This had a major impact on my physical fitness.”
He also had to regain the mental fortitude to run a marathon.
“I was emotionally shattered after spending such a long period in prison,” he said.
On Friday, he collapsed to his knees, bowing and thanking God after finishing second overall, as supporters and journalists encircled him. He dedicated his run to Palestinians still in Israeli detention.
“After 32 months in prison, Mohamad Al-Assi is first in his class!” he shouted through tears, raising his hands and looking up to the sky.
__ Imad Isseid contributed from Bethlehem, West Bank and Abdel Kareem Hana from Nuseirat, Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian amputee runner takes part in the 2-kilometer Palestine Marathon along the coastal road near Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian runners take part in the 5-kilometer Palestine Marathon along the coastal road near Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Runners participate in the Palestine Marathon in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Runners pass by Israel's separation wall as they compete in the Palestine Marathon in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian Mohamad Al-Assi, who was released from Israeli detention six months ago, runs past Israel's separation wall as he trains ahead of the Palestine Marathon in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sam Metz)
