Ricardo Pepi at PSV Eindhoven

I think Sullivan is a right winger. Most of his goals has come from that side.

 

And Ching faded away after. His scoring was just pure hustle plays.

 

Oh yeah Conor Casey, dude missed out. Quite surprising indeed to not bring a 5th striker since Bradley played with 2 up top.

 

Credit given to you on a more appropriate thread. It is my hope that they expand the roster by at least 1 or 2 based on covid. But who knows?

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/the-2023-u-20-player-pool-thread.2113124/page-36

 

So your lot basically left their lucky charms at home

 

Can't forget Eddie Johnson in 2014. Had huge goals in both rounds of qualifying.

Why didn't he make the roster?

 

Also one of my all time favorite goals where he scored immediately after subbing in. Like, he jogged into the box for a corner directly from a sub, won the header, and scored. GAM was one of my favorites. EJ for me is one of our biggest what ifs of that generation.

Pepi can now at least fully focus on his club and honing his game there. He's on the right path, still quite young, and I have to agree with GGG that his success in the Netherlands and lack of success in Germany and internationally means he's probably not quite ready.

I would've given more credence to his relationship with Ferreira personally and taken Pepi over Haji, maybe, but there's definitely a silver lining in this for Pepi.

Edit: here's the goal

I mean come on, in the Waldos no less. What a time to be alive.

 

Voetbal International rated for the FC Utrecht - FC Groningen match Pepi with a 5.5 and Booth with a very good 8!

 

Pepi went almost a year with no goals. That was definitely a mark against him. I also wonder how he did in that last USMNT camp. Wright must have been better in the last camp before, I'm assuming. Maybe Egg wanted him to stick it out at Augsburg as most of the other strikers on that roster have found goals.

 

Pepi gets the start up top at home against Fortuna Sittard:

Drie wijzigingen in onze opstelling. ⚔️#grofor pic.twitter.com/41IsAEC8uP

— FC Groningen (@fcgroningen) November 13, 2022

 

Amazing to see that Burak Yilmaz is still playing.

 

Goal Pepi

45' BAM!!!!

Wat een aanval en natuurlijk is Pepi voor de goal!

(1-0)#grofor pic.twitter.com/i1hH06XrqC

— FC Groningen (@fcgroningen) November 13, 2022

 

I bet that was one angry goal...

 

Here's the goal. Pretty lazy defending to be honest...

1591797676818964486 is not a valid tweet id

 

Goal! Ricardo Pepi scores to put Groningen up 1-0 on Fortuna Sittard https://t.co/JgkAsozRkA

— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) November 13, 2022

pretty smooth finish, actually

 

Pepi has been good, besides the goal. He had 1 key pass, in the 1st half.

 

I don't understand leaving him out but oh well


He certainly brings more than a Morris but we will likely need wingers more than 4 strikers..

If we don't get some goals greg will have to bear the brunt of this one.

 

People who watched Ching on the regular knew what he was and that wasn't a world cup caliber striker. I'm happy he came of age when he could have a career in a league, but nobody, at that time, or now, would consider Ching a guy we could add to a WC roster and thing he did literally anything at all for it.

Pepi's been the best striker prospect since Altidore for nearly half a decade. It was him in AOC circa 2017-2019, and by '18-'19 he passed AOC, and then flew into relevance after that.

Ching was a jag, and known jag, Pepi belongs in the history of high end prospect strikers like Altidore, Eddie Johnson, Donovan and McBride among others, he is very much of a piece w/those guys in terms of perceived talent and upside as a young teen and developmental trajectories as he approached his twenties.

 

He played pretty well. Have to downgrade him a bit for fluffing a decent chance in stoppage time. Wasn't ready for the ball caroming to him off a corner, and couldn't control it. Otherwise he could have had a hit from close-ish range, thru a few bodies.

In addition to the goal, he held the ball up solidly on Groningen's second goal. Made a nice diagonal run to provide an outlet, deftly held onto the ball at speed thru contact and moved it along. Maybe could have been less negative and played thru lines. But kept possession high enough & all's well that ends well.

He's really their best passer, once they can get the ball into him. And his pressing was a force again. Critique would always be he could have been more physical, and if he's more clinical in this one he bags 2 instead of 1. Might be tough, but we should hold a prospect of his ilk to a high standard.

Groningen ultimately lose 2-3. It was a pretty even game, at Groningen. Sittard are a pretty weak opponent. That's a microcosm of how bad Groningen have become. Hopefully Pepi can find his way to a better team next season. So far in Europe he's solely played for relegation-battlers.

 

Pepi has 6 goals and 2 assists, for a team that is currently 15th in the league.

 

I don't think the Duch league is that much better than MLS.
Pepi has scored tougher goals in MLS than in this league.

 

Oops, they did it again.

Groningen drops points late in the match - this time pulling back to tie (after giving up an 84 min to fall behind) at 90+1 only to lose it at 90+2.

It's concerning how bad their late-game defense has been. Out of 14 games they have;
11/12 - 1 G loss to goal 5 mins into ET. Were up 1-0 from 45 to 78.
11/6 - 1 G loss to goal scored at 84. Were up 1-0 at HT.
10/7 - 1 G loss to goal scored at 80.
9/17 - 1 G loss to PK goal scored at 90.
9/4 - 1 G loss to goal scored at 70.
8/26 - T to goal scored at 88.

I've never really crunched numbers for a team's late goals against before, but that seems unusual. One of the main reasons the Tractor Boys are hovering just above the drop zone. That's 9 potential points dropped in the last 20 mins, 6 in the last 8 + et. Not much Pepi can do to help that, but something Wormuth needs to fix.

 

He's only 19, he's going to be 23 for the World Cup that matters. Egg probably explained to him, he didn't take him to save him the embarratrip, he's one for the future.

 

The defending in Netherlands has always been suspect, otherwise outside the top teams even the strongest leagues have a lot of dead wood.