It's so "All About Eve" in a weird way. Pepi's best situation is LdJ doesnt' score, he comes in and pops the game winner with some regularity and Bosz starts to feel they need Pepi to start, or at least come in at 60-70 mins consistently, but LdJ, not wanting to be seen as the aging starlet, and still wielding some heft as captain and club legend, digs in on his minutes.... Resulting in a duel at dawn in the forests of Eindhoven! (which do exist, tho no one duels there, but hey, trends come and they go. Maybe Ricardo will bring back the field of honor.) I pick Pepi at twenty paces at dawn, in the Boktse Beemden.
It's the Netherlands, Bru - the whole freakin' country is a marsh. But there's a "forest" (Dutch-level) there too. Eindhoven is actually has a lot (for N'lands) of forested area around it, relatively speaking. Tho, a foggy marsh bank is probably best for duels anyway. Don't want to hit a branch by mistake.
This was always setting up quite well for him .... be the understudy to LDJ ... an aging veteran Dutch striker ... all the while gradually improving his skills so that when the time is right he will start and LDJ will be a sub and continue to support the club. Pepi just had to be patient - and it seems like he has been a great pro in that way. Seems frankly like he is in a better developing environment than Flo. It is what it is. And Bocsz gets to gradually train and rely on a developing young quality striker. PSV are no idiots ... they know as Ricardo continues to improve his value just keeps rising.
I don't have much of a problem with the way PSV are using Pepi so far, but I will say that I would have expected more than zero starts for him in the 25 matches across all competitions that they've played so far, particularly given the age of their starting striker and the number of competitions they're involved in. Obviously some US fans are disappointed, and perhaps a little frustrated, about that. PSV's success, and Pepi's part in that off the bench, mitigate that disappointment a good deal for me, but I can understand if others feel differently.
The Wiki page says: "Holland" is informally used in English and other languages, including sometimes the Dutch language itself, to mean the whole of the modern country of the Netherlands. It goes on to say: Between 1806 and 1810 "Holland" was the official name for the country as a whole I think that is why some people interchange the two even though it isn't accurate today. I have often wondered about this so thanks for giving me the motivation to look it up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland
Curses at you in Frysk! I only do this because my father-in-law, who was born in Frysk/Friesland, loved to give people a hard time about it, half in jest. Even the (non-Frysk) Dutch will call Netherlands "Holland" some times, especially the Belgians from Rotterdam. But True Dutchman know the difference. It's not quite as bad as calling Scots "English" but a few of the northern Dutch folks who battle to retain "Frysk Culture" genuinely get a bit peeved by the conflation.
So Tolkien kind of borrowed it for Hollin in LoTR. Interesting. The main entrance to Khazad-dûm was the Great Gates in Dimrill Dale, east of the Misty Mountains. During the Second Age, it was decided to open a way to the west side of the Silvertine, which would facilitate contact and cooperation with the Elven realm of Hollin.[2] The Doors of Durin or West-gate were built in the dark cliffs of the Silvertine mountain and protected the entrance to what became the goblin-realm of Moria, once the Dwarf kingdom of Khazad-dûm. The doors were bordered on each side by two ancient holly trees, symbolising the border of the Elven Relm.
By '94 I'd gotten used to using Netherlands and then went to the WC game with Netherlands vs Brazil. Almost every NL fan had gear on that said Holland. I now use whichever pops out of my mouth first.
As long as you stay south of Lemmer, you're probably ok... but once you get to Joure, I make no promises!
From the PSV website ... "Ricardo Pepi sent PSV through to the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League last week by scoring a late winner. The super sub came off the bench against sc Heerenveen in the 76th minute and just over 60 seconds after being brought on, he beat sc Heerenveen goalkeeper Andries Noppert in a 1 v 1 situation. Bosz was over the moon. “It’s incredible. He has one goal-scoring opportunity and takes it. As a player, I would lose my composure, but Pepi did an excellent job”, said Bosz, smiling brightly."