There’s a particular kind of satisfaction in watching someone who was nearly left behind become the person everyone’s talking about. Gio Reyna provided exactly that on June 12, delivering a stoppage-time goal against Paraguay that wasn’t just pretty. It was a statement.
The US Men’s National Team opened their home World Cup with a convincing 4-1 win at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. And while the scoreline told a comfortable story, it was Reyna’s finish, a trivela struck at the end of a 26-pass sequence lasting roughly 70 seconds, that became the match’s defining image.
The goal that rewrote the narrative
For the uninitiated, a trivela is a shot struck with the outside of the foot. It’s the kind of technique that looks like showing off until you realize how difficult it actually is to execute with precision under pressure, in stoppage time, at a World Cup, in front of a home crowd.
The goal quickly earned consideration as a potential “Moment of the Day” for the tournament.
