Ricardo Pepi got the starting nod in PSV’s KNVB Cup match on Tuesday and walked away with two more goals to his name.
Pepi scored twice as PSV routed Dutch third-tier side Koninklijke HFC 8-0 at the Philips Stadion. The U.S. men’s national team forward logged 90 minutes in the match while fellow USMNT player Richie Ledezma started and played 76 minutes at right back.
A Hirving Lozano opening goal paired with a Koninklijke own goal gave PSV a 2-0 advantage after 18 minutes. Pepi extended the hosts advantage in the 31st minute before Guus Til made it 4-0 before halftime.
A second goal from Koninklijke continued the busy night for the hosts at 5-0. Pepi doubled his tally in the 83rd minute, giving him his fourth multi-goal performance of the season.
Ivan Perisic added a brace of his own to cap the final score at 8-0.
Pepi now has 13 goals in 23 appearances for PSV this season, continuing a stellar season for the Eredivisie leaders.
PSV’s next match comes on Sunday against rivals Feyenoord.
Sad thing is that he will likely be on the bench this weekend. Going a full 90 today.
They were always going to start de Jong against Feynoord. It does surprise me they didn’t at least bring a young striker from PSV II knowing it was likely a walkover.
I think 2tone’s saying its sad because
They should have started a washed up has-been like Luuk De long for this game against a Tweede Divisie team playing in the highest amateur and the lowest professional football league in the Netherlands and reserve their better striker for the important battle against a 4th place team like Feynoord in the Eredivisie.
https://beta.fctables.com/ricardo-pepi-vs-luuk_de_jong-490389-274247/
Ricardo Pepi is better than De Jong in every important striker category there is, but has to sit on the bench because of a space taking, 34 year old Dutch has-been THAT IS NOT GOING TO SCORE IN THAT GAME ANYWAY. Watch….
Bizzy: every club/NT goes through this from time to time, club legend in a slump with an advanced age. De Jong is a club legend and if you go back to Nov 2 he’s right in line if not better than Pepi’s output. You also have to consider Pepi has mostly started against the bottom table clubs. If you dive a little deeper Pepi is outperforming his xG (6.4 xG 11g league including 1 PSV II match) while De Jong is underperforming (8.5 xG to 6g league). What that should mean is Luuk while pull out of his November slump and Pepi should cool off some. xG isn’t perfect but the idea is your xG and your Goals will even out over the course of a season and unless your world class like Messi or Haaland they usually do. You’re looking at it from a US fan point of view it seems so obvious that Pepi is the best choice. If you’re PSV and DeJong has scored 176 career goals for you including 38 last season to go along with 18a last year it’s not so clear.
JR,
I’m guessing PSV look at striker as ONE position manned, currently , by two players.
As long as the striker is being productive when it matters, it does not matter who he is.
When Earnie signed Pepi he made it VERY clear how this was going to go. Ricardo was there to learn from De Jong. And that is how it is playing out.
Pepi is a cliche; “tough competitor” “chip on his shoulder”, “full of piss and vinegar” and this is all good. A Texan, he’s more Clint than Landon. Ricardo isn’t going to the Galaxy anytime soon.
If you are Bosz and PSV, you want it this way. Some day, either someone will offer stupid money for Pepi or Pepi stays and DeJong falls off a cliff. When then happens, then some other young striker gets Pepi’s current job of padding his stats by beating on the cupcake games in PSV’s schedule.
Ideally it stays this way until 2026 when Pepi is so pissed off he has a blowout World Cup to prove his point.
As a USMNT I don’t want fat, happy just to be there players like Landon.
I want pissed angry players like Pepi , players who want to prove everyone wrong and have the talent to do it. Prejudice, anti American bias? This is a useful thing, so use it.
Vacqui: you’re preaching to the choir, I understand why PSV is playing both strikers. It’s Bizzy and 2tone who thinks it’s a crime against humanity that Pepi isn’t starting every match. I am surprised with Pepi a transfer target and Luuk aging I was surprised a youngster wasn’t brought along to get some minutes. I guess as I think about PSV II plays at a higher level than the squad they played Tuesday so maybe Jesper Uneken wouldn’t get much out of it either.
To put this game into context it is PSV’s domestic cup competition.
According to Wikipedia, Koninklijke HFC plays in the Tweede Divisie which is the highest amateur (and historically the lowest professional) football league in the Netherlands.
How the competition and quality compare to, for example, the USL or a college team, I have no idea.
Well their starting striker Marios Lomis has spent most of his career in USL Championship and most recently USL League One scoring 2g in 12 appearances for Chattanooga in 2023. Former US U20 player Desavio Payne is listed on their rosters but doesn’t appear to have played any minutes this year.
“Desavio Payne”, there’s a name I haven’t heard in a dogs age…
TX 3 Stepper: How about Maki Tall? He was in the French 4th Div last year but he might have retired because doesn’t appear to be anywhere this season. Also on that squad Gedion Zelalem, he’s in Croatia with Lokamotiv Zagreb but has only seen the bench a couple times.
Tall, Zelalem, and Payne were all on the 2015 US U20 WC squad if that wasn’t clear or you were not US soccer sicko in 2015 watching the matches from New Zealand at weird times.
Even if you didn’t manage to watch the U-20 NZ games at 4 in the morning here, you should have heard of Zelalem who was once regarded by the press as the best player in his generation. There was some relief when chose the USA over Ethiopia or Germany (it was unclear Germany was actually interested in him). The, now 27 y.o., signed with Arsenal aas a 16 y.o. but played for only the U-21 and U-23 teams there. He has steadily moved on to arguably lesser leagues as time moved on, as injuries have hampered his career.
Dennis, Zelalem was a name at the time but I’m guessing not too many have thought of him since he left NYCFC a few years ago. If you’ve come into the NT fandom in the last 5-7 years you wouldn’t now him. For sure injuries hampered him. He was back on the 2017 U20 WC team but tore his ACL in the first match. He had another knee injury in 2020 that put him out another year.
JR,
If you were interested in the USMNT and were anywhere near Montgomery County MD around 2013 you heard of Arsenal scout Danny Karbassiyoon discovering Zelalem playing for Olney (Maryland) Rangers in the Dallas Cup. Gooch Onyewu grew up in Olney which is about 39 miles from Crofton, MD which gave you Kyle Beckerman and the invasive snakehead fish.
Danny, a former Arsenal player who himself is quite a USMNT story, hooked Gedion up with Arsenal and the rest is history.
At the time Gedion was just another one in the long line of saviors starting notably with Much Adu , the latest being Cole Campbell, who , hopefully, will turn out to be more of the real enchilada.