Ricardo Pepi made the most of his first competitive start in the new Eredivisie season.
Pepi scored twice in PSV’s 5-3 league victory over NEC Nijmegen on Saturday. The American forward had missed the U.S. men’s national team window earlier this month as he recovered from a slight knee issue.
It marked his first competitive goals since scoring against Liverpool back on January 29 in UEFA Champions League play.
“I think it was a very important game, very happy to be back,” Pepi said in a postmatch press conference. “Overall happy to get the win, of course, happy to score two goal so I think, yeah, the definition of being back.”
Pepi opened the scoring for PSV in the 12th minute, slotting home Jerdy Schouten’s pass into the bottom-left corner for a 1-0 lead.
Ruben van Bommel extended PSV’s lead to 2-0 in the 30th minute before NEC cut the deficit two minutes later through Virgil Misidjan’s finish.
However Joey Veerman re-extended PSV’s advantage to 3-1 one minute after the restart.
Pepi would score his second goal of the match, four minutes into the second half. The 22-year-old headed home Ivan Perisic’s cross into the back of the net.
Despite NEC scoring twice later in the half, PSV ran out with a 5-3 win to stay top of the league table.
Fellow USMNT star Sergino Dest played the full 90 minutes at left back, assisting once in the result.
PSV will next open its Champions League schedule on Tuesday at home against Belgian visitors Union St. Gilloise.
Dude just scores.
El Tren is back!
Looks like he’s been keeping an eye on the USMNT.
haha, I read a headline that said Johnny would have his eye on a USMNT spot this weekend while playing for…Simeone! lol man, can’t make it up. I would bet a lot that Johnny will be singularly focused on whatever role and tasks Diego has laid out for him, period, or suffer. Simeone demands some really specific tactical stuff from his players, not only defensively but big time there, or he won’t play you and the leash is short with regards to those things, which I’m sure you already know
and good for Pepi, welcome back