World Cup assistant coach Anthony Hudson was named on Wednesday to guide a January national team camp while a report said Gio Reyna's parents sparked a US Soccer investigation into coach Gregg Berhalter.
Hudson will guide the Americans, co-hosts with Mexico and Canada for the 2026 World Cup in a Los Angeles training session ahead of friendlies against Serbia on January 25 and Colombia on January 28, US Soccer sporting director Earnie Stewart said. The news came a day after Berhalter, whose contract as US coach ended last Saturday, admitted kicking his future wife in a 1991 incident he said was being used against him in a threatening manner.
ESPN reported Wednesday that Claudio Reyna, a former US captain and current sporting director at MLS' Austin FC, contacted US Soccer Federation executives with threats to reveal details about Berhalter's past after Berhalter told Gio Reyna, Claudio's son, he would have a limited role at the Qatar World Cup.
Details were not revealed to US Soccer officials until December 11 by Claudio and Danielle Reyna, Gio's parents, after Berhalter spoke of an unidentified player who was nearly sent home from the World Cup, with Gio Reyna confirming on Instagram the next day that he was the player. Berhalter and Claudio Reyna, ESPN reported, played together on youth and high school teams as well as the US national squad and their wives were college teammates at the University of North Carolina.
US Soccer is conducting a review of the World Cup while considering who will manage the Americans in the upcoming home-field World Cup cycle. The late-year scheduling of the 2022 World Cup did not allow for a full analysis ahead of the upcoming camp. Berhalter said he underwent counseling after the kicking incident and he has not repeated any physical incident. "It was a shameful moment and one that I regret to this day," Berhalter said. "There are zero excuses for my actions that night."
Hudson, 41, is a former national team manager for New Zealand and Bahrain as well as the US under-20 side.