Derek RaeSep 18, 2025, 11:00 AM ET
Viewed through the prism of Gio Reyna, is it a Fluch oder Segen (blessing or curse) that his new circumstances at Borussia Mönchengladbach have immediately taken on a new dimension?
We genuinely can't say just a few days on from the unsurprising departure of Gerardo Seoane, who became the second Bundesliga coach to be removed from his position already this season after Erik ten Hag down the road at Bayer Leverkusen. The Swiss tactician was on decidedly shaky ground going into Sunday's ill-fated 4-0 home Packung (thrashing) at the hands of Werder Bremen.
Too many negatives had piled up for sporting chief Roland Virkus and the club's other decision makers to gloss over. Now it's no wins in ten league matches going back to last season, not a single goal in five top-flight games and the knowledge that after pushing strongly for Europe, die Fohlen (the foals) could barely get past trotting mode during a miserable Endspurt (final phase) last term that saw them fall to a disappointing tenth. The football was generally flaccid and uninspiring.
Seoane had to go.
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Here in Germany, it is sporting directors and their staff, not coaches, who plan squad compositions and sign players. So Virkus and his team were responsible for the acquisition of Reyna, and you can understand why it was an attractive move for both parties.
The United States international needed a new stage to kickstart his career, and it helps your life and football needs when you can move from one Borussia to another, making a fairly short hop along the Autobahn with the added bonus that a close American friend -- Joe Scally -- is firmly ensconced in the Niederrhein (lower Rhine). Gladbach, philosophically, are a team for a Spielmacher (playmaker) They've already had another player in this mold for more than a year in Austrian craftsman Kevin Stöger. No matter that he is left footed & Reyna the opposite, the point is they feel they can afford someone perhaps a bit one dimensional with an eye for a pass.
So far, so good for Reyna. But here's the danger: Will Virkus himself survive if bad results and iffy performances continue to bedevil Gladbach? I suspect not. A new sporting director could mean a new Spielidee (way of playing).
Then you have the coaching part of the equation. Virkus has handed the reins on a short-term basis to an internal figure in Eugen Polanski, someone strongly identified with the club going back to his youth days.
Polanski, promoted from coaching the under-23s, will get the chance to prove himself, but the fixture list facing him is brutal: an emboldened Leverkusen on Sunday followed by Eintracht Frankfurt and then SC Freiburg. Virkus says they'll also simultaneously assess the market and names such as Italian-American Pellegrino Matarazzo, former Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzic and ex-Union Berlin tactician Urs Fischer have been bandied about.
If it were the latter, for instance, Reyna would have to try to thrive in a system featuring five across the back and a very low block. Not necessarily the optimal fit.
Terzic he knows from BVB and vice-versa, and it's matter of record that Terzic viewed the American as more of an impact substitute candidate than a starter. Reyna didn't help himself either by not making a strong enough case in his rare outings from the beginning. I particularly recall him underwhelming against Werder Bremen in 2022 when handed a gilt-edged chance.
Matarazzo might seem like someone who would be, on the face of it, more sympathetic to Reyna, but although half American, his job would not be to become preoccupied with the needs of a national team not part of his remit. This is a results-dependent basis for all concerned and sentiment plays little part.
Polanski to me is initially good news for Reyna. As an internal appointment, Polanski knows why Reyna was signed from Dortmund and by whom. He also knows this is a limited Mönchengladbach squad and Reyna is one of the few brights lights, in potential terms anyway.
Scally, who didn't start in Seoane's final match in charge, may well return for the Leverkusen visit. Although the two Americans have been good pals for many years, the two are footballing oppositions.
Scally is the athletic-but-unspectacular counterpoint to Reyna's flair and finesse, but Scally knows who he is and what he's good at as well as where he has to improve.
Although relatively young at 22, both need to know that they must urgently take on leadership roles at a club without a credible Achse (hierarchy). It's a time to be grown up, and besides, World Cup places should serve as the ultimate motivation.
Things should improve for the team as a whole in a few weeks when captain and catalyst Tim Kleindienst returns after a knee injury, and it will be intriguing to see if Reyna can forge a productive understanding with one of the top strikers in German football, but the American midfielder must also show he has matured to the point of having improved his work gegen den Ball (against the ball). A playmaker is one thing, a luxury player is something a team in the Abstiegszone (relegation zone) can't afford.
The time is now for Reyna to write a new chapter in his story and help a club that desperately needs his inspiration and creativity. But just saying that isn't the same as doing it.
