Ricardo Pepi’s first club action of the summer will surely give him confidence going forward.
Pepi scored a hat trick on Wednesday in PSV’s 3-2 friendly victory over FC Eindhoven. The U.S. men’s national team forward opened the scoring for Peter Bosz’s squad before scoring the game-winning goal in second-half stoppage time.
Pepi’s close-range finish propelled the Eredivisie side in front 1-0 after 30 minutes. Hirving Lozano’s pass was finished off by the 21-year-old Pepi for his first goal of the summer.
Despite FC Eindhoven fighting back for a 2-1 lead, PSV would rally in the final 20 minutes to grab the win.
Couhaib Driouech’s through ball pass in the 70th minute allowed Pepi to score his second goal of the day for a 2-2 scoreline.
Jason van Duiven was hauled down in the box in the 90th minute, providing Pepi with a late chance to win the match. Pepi stepped up and stoked home into the bottom-right corner for a 3-2 PSV victory.
Pepi featured in all five matches for the USMNT this summer and now has his first goals of PSV’s schedule. A final friendly vs. Valencia comes for PSV on Saturday before the Dutch Super Cup against Feyenoord on August 4.
Nice to see Pepi doing his thing at PSV. I hope he finds some consistency and develop into the player we know he can be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKJI3qOYmkU
It would be awesome if more American MLS players continued their development in a top 5 clubs in the Netherlands top flight. If players like Jesus Ferreira, Diego Luna, Maximilian Arfsten, Jack McGlynn .etc found themselves playing for an Eredivisie club in a “US PARTNERSHIPS” with other US players, like that found at PSV
Good the see. Hopefully this will help propel him to more minutes this season.
It was a very strange roster today. A few regulars but mostly academy players and then only made 1 sub all match. They have another match Saturday against Valencia so thats where weβll likely see DeJong. Tillman, Pepi, and Ledezma all played for the second team in dual 75 minute friendlies with Padderbon last weekend. Thatβs not surprising considering both Tillman and Pepi recently arrived in camp.
It was pretty much tantamount to the varsity beating their own JV team, too…FC Eindhoven’s a second-division side. I mean, good for Pepi and all he can do is beat what’s in front of him and he did so, emphatically…but I’d very much like to see more minutes and more goals against quality opponents this next season. The problem there, though, is that there aren’t many of those to be found in the Eredivisie either. Ajax, PSV, and Feyenoord are somewhat above MLS level – well, except for Miami – and AZ Alkmaar is right at MLS level if payroll is the key indicator (and I personally believe it is.) The rest of the Eredivisie…meh.
The hope that I’ve had for Pepi is he can bang them in for fun for a year with PSV, and then use that to launch himself into the right situation in a top-5 league (which his brief stint in Germany assuredly wasn’t). But as long as De Jong is in his way that’s problematic. Still, De Jong is now 33 and will be 34 at the end of August – and he’s got a history of injuries – so Pepi’s opportunity could well come. If it does, I do think he will shine.