I like this Czech beer* with an interesting story behind it: Budweiser trademark dispute - Wikipedia * hate the American version In the all-touch video, I like Pepi physicality and speed. I think he will be fine in that regard. He also seems to pressure opponents well on defense. You gotta be a tough hombre mentally not to get frustrated receiving only 1/8, 1/4 chances most games that lower tier clubs produce. And not choking when you do get a great chance. I'd love to see him get an easy chance early in the next couple games and bury it, just to get off the board with scoring. It will be interesting to see how his 1v1 skills translate to BL & also how good he will be to recognize when to have a go at a defender.
My super early hot take is that Pepi is going to be reasonably successful at Augsburg, but not so successful that they win a ton or make a lot of money on his eventual sale. Andre Silva absolutely tore it up at Eintracht Frankfurt, but only went to Leipzig for 25 million dollars, according to transfermarket. I can see Pepi hitting 15ish goals in a couple years before earning a similar move to a better team, but not for more than 25-30 million dollars.
Derek Rae translates a Kicker profile of Pepi in this Twitter thread: For #USMNT & @FCA_World Augsburg fans, the just published Monday Kicker has a large section devoted to #Pepimania. Some details in this thread 🧵 so follow it if you like. I’ll add as I go.— Derek Rae (@RaeComm) January 9, 2022
He’s easily my favorite player on the team now. Would absolutely love to see him become a star for a huge club.
Starts! Startelf-Debüt für @Ricardo_Pepi9! ✊ Viel Erfolg, Jungs! 🔜 #FCASGE pic.twitter.com/i89DnUmUmW— FC Augsburg (@FCAugsburg) January 16, 2022
Looked like he had a goal where the ball went to him nicely but the referee blew the whistle for a foul on Augsburg. Then the actual goal could have been Pepi’s. The other guy was lucky the goalie was cheating the other way. Either way, 1-1 is a decent result so far for a team trying to get ahead of relegation.
I had the game on in the background, so not fully concentrating on him... but what I saw was decent- a passable first start. Made some nice runs into channels, worked hard to get into the box, followed that foul/play up to finish well, was just offsides on a nice break that I would've liked him to finish, and pressed pretty well. I'd like to see his hold-up play improve... and as a young guy getting opportunities, I know it will. But otherwise, showed a lot of what he's shown in MLS... inauspicious but decent first start.
I watched the whole game, I would rate him "ok". Augsburg definitely is not eye candy and they just don't pass well when they are near the opponents goal. If we wanted to be kind, you could say that they need to work with Pepi to understand his runs better. Or you can say that most of their attackers aren't very good and can't hit an open run. I am sure it is partly the latter.
Agree he was ok. He had a chance in the first half to control a long ball better that might've put him in on goal - that's about the only thing I can criticize. Otherwise he just played ok. I think this will be the case most games with this team.
His story is pretty unique and inspiring. His parents obviously took a big risk and made a big sacrifice moving to El Paso. And he said when talking about why he chose the US over Mexico that he was really grateful for the opportunities he’s had growing up in America. I love to see guys like him succeed. The fact that he’s on pace to be our best striker ever just makes it even more fun to watch him.
I remember reading some analysis that showed Pepi was about league average in MLS last season, but got lucky (maybe outperformed xG) to raise his goal total. Which is still good for an 18 year old, but added some context in that he wasn't just dominating the league. Add to that he's 0 for his last 5 with the NT, his production came against 2 of the worst teams in the Octagonal, and he's just moved to a bottom table team that doesn't score goals, and we have a slightly worrying situation that is indeed reminiscent of Sargent. And I can't deal with listening to another group of posters calling for him to be moved to defensive midfielder cuz he can't score enough with his .1xG per game. Wonder how much leeway he'll get from the impatient group here, but definitely concerning.
He scored 13 on an xG of 8.86 per American Soccer Analysis. Even if he hit xG dead-on, that's an impressive goal total for a teenage striker in any first division league. He looked totally wiped out by the end of the season though, both for club and country. He got too many minutes in 2021, so I hope there aren't any knock-on effects from that.