The young Mexican-American striker from El Paso had an absolutely brilliant debut for the US national team last night. He earned a goal and an assist and played role in setting up the other two goals as well. The future looks bright for Ricardo Pepi.
SOMEONE had to act like they would come good. Pepi seems prepared to answer the call. If we have even just found our Funes Mori, that is a big win for us, with how poorly the production has been from his position, outside of Zardes (yes, I wrote it).
All Aboard 🚂🚂🚂 Big time play from the youngster. What a moment for @Ricardo_Pepi9!pic.twitter.com/DjsTsc4PLu— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) September 9, 2021 Pepi ➡️ @AaronsonBrenden late in the game. Very much love to see it. pic.twitter.com/ZQhl0q4x80— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) September 9, 2021 SEBASTIAN LLETGET MAKES IT FOUR 💥 pic.twitter.com/d7nCb78tAZ— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) September 9, 2021
X-posting from postgame thread: Pepi just seems to find the ball so much better than any other striker in this pool ... granted, I write seems because we just need a larger sample size. Sargent almost finds the ball, but is always just a half-yard off contact or a half-step too late. Pefok is too static to regularly find the ball anywhere outside of the box. Dike will always intrigue me just because I'm personally a sucker for that skillset, but see also: Pefok in his case.
Pepi was involved in every one of our goals. Held the ball up and slid a nice through ball to Pulisic for the first goal, scored off the header for the second, assisted on the third, and Pepi’s shot on the fourth caused the rebound. He also provided pressure up front that caused turnovers. All around great debut for a young player.
So if Pepi plays part in all qualifying games rest of year, does that mean he is eligible for work permit anywhere in the world? We know he will probably leave in January window. Hopefully to somewhere he will play . No big clubs yet.
He strikes me as not very athletic, but he always finds the space and he has relatively good technique. Terrific game.
Kid was athletic enough to score and create three other goals. If he ain’t an athlete I don’t know who is.
That looked like a really athletic header to me! He running is deceptively good- he is faster than he looks. He runs with ball with good control and keeps it tight so he can lay passes off well. He's only 18. He'll get stronger still and learn to use his body better and he's got some huge learning lessons to come in the international game in terms of positioning and physicality. This was just round 1. Of course, he becomes the automatic starting choice on the teamsheet in October against Jamaica, but hope he can continue to be rotated smartly, since (1) we need to develop other striker options (2) kid is still going to have highs and lows with process, like all young strikers (think of the hot starts of Rashford and Greenwood at Man U and how the club 'groomed' them overtime to accept the responsibility by not making them automatic starters. Hope we can have a similar approach with Pepi. A quick word about Sargent. Too much negativity in my book about him. He's still young and needs to get minutes in WCQ. He'll learn and get better. He needs to play striker, not wing. We should go with 2 striker (not striker and wing) for some matches and let Sargent play support striker. The entire team was in a funk in the 1st half, including Pepi missed a really good chance 6 yards out that Sargent did a great job spotting him and dished a nice header back across goal. Having said, it was Pepi's day and congratulations for the kid. He saved Gregg's bacon, although Gregg gets full credit for the changes he made at halftime as well. Bello, Sands? What was he thinking there?
I feel bad for Sargent. I have Zardes, Dike, Hoppe, and now Pepi ahead of him. I hope Pepi goes to a good club this January. He has good balance and uses his gait well as seen in his assist. Defenders will catch up with him but they will have to foul him to get the ball. I want to see him paired up with Dike or Pulisic up top.
And to think, just a couple weeks ago, we all briefly thought Pepi would be playing for Mexico during this qualifying window (or at least those of us who were seeing the reports coming out of Mexico). He might turn out to be one of our most impactful dual nat recruitments yet, and he has some serious competition for that distinction.
Pepi's athleticism is on a par with Clint Dempsey's. He is not an elite athlete. But there are quite a few very good soccer players who are not elite athletes. On an even higher level, forwards like Benzema and Lewandowski are not elite athletes. But they are certainly devastating finishers. Pepi is young enough and talented enough that we can dream he can reach something close to their level. Someone deserves a lot of credit coaching this young man. Generally, we don't do a good job of developing forwards. Maybe he was born with some freakish instincts. Freakish instincts can make up for a fair amount of missing athleticism. He is so calm and disciplined out there.
"Only two weeks ago, Ricardo Pepi of FC Dallas had ended the fevered speculation over his international future by deciding to represent the U.S. over Mexico. He had spent the past two U.S. games, both disappointing draws, watching from the bench as other center forwards (Josh Sargent and Jordan Pefok) had failed to make a significant impact. But now Pepi was rising in the air to head DeAndre Yedlin’s pinpoint cross into the goal and give the U.S. a victory—its first final-round away qualifier win since October 2013—that might define this entire World Cup qualifying campaign. “When I decided to play for the United States, I said that I was going to give all my heart to the team, and tonight I showed that,” Pepi said after the game in a press conference during which he switched easily from English to Spanish. “I think [Pepi] did a great job,” said Berhalter. “He worked tirelessly, competed against physical center backs, scored a really good goal. Overall, I think he had a strong performance. For an 18-year-old, it’s really impressive what he did.'” https://grantwahl.substack.com/p/from-disaster-to-salvation
Per cap-typing rules, Pepi still has to be capped four times or more, since he is under 21 years old, correct?
I may be alone in this….but if I were advising him I’d tell him to stick around MLS for another year and use the WC as his jump to Europe in January’23. I’ll admit I have no idea what his contract situation is. He’s going to want to be established and playing in the lead up to the WC. That’s guaranteed in MLS….and a risk wherever he would end up in Europe.
He's a monster in the making. He's what people hoped Sargent would be. Fast, strong, good feet, aggressive. He's a handful for any defense. I have no problem saying this kid needs to be the starting 9 going forward. Sarge or Pefok can get sub minutes until either Pepi starts tanking or they make some real noise and get goals off the bench.
Oh yeah, and that header for the winning goal? Fantastic. Rose up high, strong in taking up a good position and finished firmly into the upper corner. That was a fantastic goal.
FIFA Eligibility Rule Change Offers World Cup Hopes For ‘One-Cap Wonders’ (forbes.com) That's how it reads to me. Damn! Mexico will go in hard for this guy. edit: now that I read it again, I think only two more games are needed to cap tie?
I was thinking the same thing. I get it was one play, but wow was that a proper striker's goal. Heading the ball back from where it came with that placement was beautiful. Pepi ALMOST had one in the first half as well on the ball Miles headed back across the face of goal. He just got his feet tangled a little, but that's the type of play where we need a striker to be where he was.