World Cup 2022 - Qatar

[serrano]

When you look up the word capitulation in the dictionary, you’ll the tonight’s Honduran pre-game picture smiling back atcha.

[Pruitt]

Honduras is on Saskatchewan time.

A sentence that most likely has never been written before.

[Brontoburglar]

lol I went to bed at halftime convinced that if I stayed up they would lose. good decision!

[The Sybian]

lol I went to bed at halftime convinced that if I stayed up they would lose. good decision!

I went to bed at halftime too angry to watch. Planned on playing tennis and not watching the second half, but since it’s raining I didn’t look at the score and watched. What a shock! Would not have believed that score. Honduras seemed to fall apart. Was it extremely hot and humid? Even the US subs seemed out of gas.

[duff]

After Pepi scored in the 75th, Honduras hit a brick wall soon after. No idea about the weather.

[The Sybian]

Do they not have someone on the bench to replace Sands?

When Lleget came on, I thought it was for Sands, when I realized Brooks, I was really confused. Really should have put in Yedlin and moved Adams up, put in Lleget or Roldan for Sands. He was awful. I was impressed by him at Gold Cup, was he just lost out of position?

That didn’t change my opinion or anger at 3G, but thrilled to end the window with a win. A win and two ties is where you aim to finish with 2 road games, so you have to say they are on target. Still not thrilled with this team.

As for Pepsi, I refuse to get excited yet. How many teenaged strikers have we seen come in and score and be proclaimed the future of US soccer? Juan Agudelo, Eddie Johnson, Jordan Morris, not a striker, but I have to add Brek Shea. To a lesser degree, Eddie Gavin. Not as much fanfare but he just disappeared. I’m sure I’m missing a bunch.

[tennbengal]

Um...difference is Pepi is good.

[HaulCitgo]

Is he? Slept through second half but his body doesn't look like a striker yet. Crazy how the entire narrative changes because of one half of soccer. They decidedly do not look like the team I expected to see. Mostly because their good players didn't play. They need their best players on the field. This group isn't really good enough. But five points is five points. Onward.

[mister d]

Once Sargent went out, Pepi certainly seemed to do a lot more striker-y things than we typically see from the USMNT.

[HaulCitgo]

And pulisic kind of disappointed this set.

[Nonlinear FC]

Fuck. I still can’t figure out the formation. 5-2-3 with Adams at right back? More like 5-1-3 because Sands doesn’t count as a player right now. Just pointlessly milling around. He looks completely lost.

Both Adams and Sargent started playing out wide, it was truly bizarre.

[tennbengal]

Once Sargent went out, Pepi certainly seemed to do a lot more striker-y things than we typically see from the USMNT.

He did. And does. It is NOT just last night. He has been scoring goals like a boss for years now - as a 16-year-old against adults. It has carried over to FC Dallas now as an 18-year-old. He "gets it" in a way that pretty much every other striker for this country seldom has. It is why I figured he would choose Mexico. Can't believe he opted for the US and thrilled that his debut was so immediately excellent.

[A_B]

And pulisic kind of disappointed this set.

I don't think he was fully fit even before the injury.

[Nonlinear FC]

1) The issues with 3G are going to be an anchor all the way up to Qatar. They're going to qualify, despite his bullshit.

2) More of a 1a, but this is the most talented pool we've ever had. You lose 2 or 3 guys that are mainstays on top European teams and you still have 2 or 3 guys on the field that are mainstays on European teams... That's unprecedented.

3) Matt Turner is now making us forget that we are starting a GK who plays in MLS. He routinely is making game saving plays and we are yawning about it.

4) Back to 3G... I loved what someone posted last night about Bruce Arena and his lineups. He would play Ritchie Williams in WCQs in a fucked up formation, just because he was so protected at that point that he just didn't have a notion of losing his job if he fucked shit up. That's 3G right now. Sargent and Adams out wide? WTF? Stop tinkering, dude.

5) I want to stress point 2 again. Not having McKinnie and Reyna is MASSIVE in terms of our ability to go forward and be dangerous. Not many national teams can take those types of hits -- clearly 2 of our best 3 or 4 players (Pulisic and Adams being the others) -- and go out and get a result.

6) Aaronson is starting to sneak into that top 5. Guy is not getting the recognition he deserves.

[tennbengal]

Defector has been running a "What's this guys USMT deal" series - here was their piece on Pepi from a week ago (it is a good read):

https://defector.com/what-is-this-usmnt ... ardo-pepi/

Welcome to What Is This USMNT Guy’s Deal, a regular series in which Defector selects a name from the myriad number of exciting young American soccer men playing in Europe and answers the question: What Is This USMNT Guy’s Deal? (Today’s is arriving one day early because of Thursday night’s World Cup Qualifiers.)

Through his three years at the helm of the USMNT, Gregg Berhalter’s attitude towards and comments about dual-national players have been reasonably refreshing and encouraging. Given the uncomfortable political questions involved or at least adjacent to the process, the noxious paternal possibilities of turning it into college football recruiting, U.S. Soccer’s occasionally crippling inferiority complex, and a string of high-profile failures, it’s impressive to see Berhalter’s approach be simultaneously less infantilizing and more successful that his predecessor.

Take Sergiño Dest, for example. While the Dutch federation sweatily lobbied in public for Dest to join up, Berhalter gave Dest the space to make the decision on his own terms, for his own reasons. When highly coveted L.A. Galaxy midfielder Efrain Alvarez was offered a Mexico call-up this past March, Berhalter encouraged him to take it so he could have the most information possible when he made his decision. Former England youth international captain Yunus Musah forsook his spot there because Berhalter and his cadre of young European stars were like, “We’re having fun here, man.”

Certainly Berhalter’s positive-vibes-only approach is tactically sound, though he also can afford to be less aggressive in his recruiting for the simple reason that the USMNT is significantly deeper than it was a decade ago. Sergiño Dest may play for real actual Barcelona, though it’s not like the team doesn’t have another option at right back. The U.S. by its nature will always have dual nationals on the roster, but the recruiting sagas of the Berhalter era have been less anxious because they haven’t borne as much weight.

That said, Ricardo Pepi was a player the U.S. needed. The El Paso-born striker is the latest gem from the prestigious FC Dallas academy, and his breakout 2021 season has set him up as the next FC Dallas prospect likely to make a big move to a huge team very soon. That he is both this good and this strong of proof that the U.S. academy system can produce legit talent makes him important for the USMNT; that he also plays the position of biggest need makes him critical.

Who Does He Play For?

Pepi plays for FC Dallas, the most reliable talent factory in the United States. This guy loves to score goals. He started for North Texas SC, Dallas’ reserve team, in its first game ever and immediately scored a hat trick. He was just 16 then and is just 18 now, and he has yet to stop scoring.

After earning 71 total minutes in spot duty as a 16-year-old, Pepi slowly began to be integrated into a good FC Dallas first team. He nailed a 96th-minute goal in Dallas’ second game of the season, then scored again in stoppage time to help his team upset the Portland Timbers in the first round of the playoffs. This season, though, has been his true breakout year, as he’s already on pace to become the most prolific teenage goalscorer in MLS history. It is easy to see why Mexico wanted him, and why his inevitable transfer to Europe could break records for a homegrown forward player. An unspecified number of Serie A teams have sniffed around, and Pepi recently rotated over to Bayern Munich for training. The Bayern-Dallas partnership has helped facilitate European moves for several promising young players, including Chris Richards and (soon) Justin Che.

How Does He Play?

Here are a pair of stats that indicate how he plays: Pepi is fifth in MLS with 11 goals, but 23rd in the league with just 44 shots. That correctly indicates that he is a prolific and efficient finisher in front of goal, an obviously valuable skill for any forward player and especially obvious and valuable one for a player on the USMNT, whose striker pool is full of very good players who nevertheless are not constantly scoring goals for their clubs. Pepi is 6-foot-1, an intelligent runner, and strong with both feet. What stands out when you watch him is a phenomenal instinct for knowing where to stand. He is not jittery quick on the break like Konrad de la Fuente, though he can burn defenders.

Pepi is also not yet on Josh Sargent’s level as a defensive aid from the forward line, though he’s plenty pesky. Almost all of his career goals have come from inside of the box, where he’s cool under pressure and very advanced at running back to the ball and quickly playing it forward to a teammate.

All in all, he grades out as a potentially complete striker. This is not to say that he is a sure thing, though part of what makes Pepi such a fascinating prospect is that he isn’t just being gassed up for his potential, he’s producing at the first-team level as an 18-year-old. There are always worries that a step up in competition will be too much for a young player, particularly one that is necessarily reliant on other people setting him up, and that MLS teenage scoring record we talked about earlier belongs to one Jozy Altidore, a man who famously did not step up. The key difference here is time. The MLS prospects who this series is dedicated to have adjusted fine in a way that Altidore’s generation never did, and Pepi has never ever looked even close to overmatched, even when at a physical disadvantage.

Wonderteen Index

The Wonderteen Index is a holistic, objective metric that analyzes a player’s full array of skills and talents, distilling it all into a single number that corresponds to their ultimate potential and the likelihood that they will assume the title of Wonderteen.

Pepi is the only player on this here 26-man USMNT roster without a single cap, and he is also the youngest, so he has the “teen” aspect down pat. The best team he’s scored against, however, is, like, the New England Revolution or something, so the wonder aspect is up in the air. But he has a real penchant for late heroics, and since he may not start any of the forthcoming qualifiers, we are all set up for a starmaking moment. Our analysts have taken all this into consideration and awarded him a most promising 14 out of 16.

How Does He Fit In With The U.S. Team?

The theoretical best version of Pepi is the starting striker of the USMNT. The current version is 18 years old with zero senior-level international experience, is entering a tight-knit team set up to play around Josh Sargent, and is therefore probably going to serve as a depth piece. This is fine, as the only trait you can knock him for (lack of top-end speed) is a less pronounced disadvantage if he comes into a game in the 75th minute. The USMNT is about to play three games in eight days, so he will almost assuredly make his debut, and could possibly start. The team’s striker corps is still without a no-shit must-play guy, however, so Pepi is really not all that far from forcing his way into a larger role.

How Close Is He To The Hypothetical Best XI?

Pretty close, though the team doesn’t really play with two strikers, so barring a leap over Sargent in the depth chart, he’s firmly a backup. For now, that is.

[Nonlinear FC]

Interesting write-up... Also an indictment of 3G, sort of. Play a 442 if you have two young, dangerous guys up top. I really don't understand pushing Sargent out wide last night. Totally ineffectual.

[tennbengal]

Interesting write-up... Also an indictment of 3G, sort of. Play a 442 if you have two young, dangerous guys up top. I really don't understand pushing Sargent out wide last night. Totally ineffectual.

Everything about his line-up choices last night - especially in first half - was crazy town. And not in a good fun way. In dark twisted sad way.

[wlu_lax6]

Wahl was super frustrated trying to understand Adams out wide. He was trying to organize the game from out there instead of the center where you would expect that to be done.

[degenerasian]

I also wonder why Honduras crumbled at the end. Perhaps it was the heat or the tight schedule. The biggest difference between the OCHO and the HEX is the 3 match windows in 7 days. I think for teams like maybe Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica, they do not have the depth to play like this every month. This is where USA's depth (and even Canada's) could be a huge advantage. El Salvador were absolutely gassed last night from the opening kickoff. It'll be important to key in on how teams play on the third match day of each window.

For example, Canada's next window is @Mexico, @Jamaica, Panama. Canada will definitely park the bus and maybe throw away the game in Mexico City to save players for Jamaica and Panama.

[The Sybian]

I also wonder why Honduras crumbled at the end. Perhaps it was the heat or the tight schedule. The biggest difference between the OCHO and the HEX is the 3 match windows in 7 days. I think for teams like maybe Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica, they do not have the depth to play like this every month. This is where USA's depth (and even Canada's) could be a huge advantage. El Salvador were absolutely gassed last night from the opening kickoff. It'll be important to key in on how teams play on the third match day of each window.

For example, Canada's next window is @Mexico, @Jamaica, Panama. Canada will definitely park the bus and maybe throw away the game in Mexico City to save players for Jamaica and Panama.

I think it's more of a COVID condensed qualifying round than an OCHO thing. It does make me worry about US players returning to Europe after playing 3 games and traveling to Central America.

And pulisic kind of disappointed this set.

I think Pulisic played well. The midfield didn't do well getting him the ball, and he had to come back deep far too often to get the ball. MiB made a great point that they need to get Pulisic inside more against CONCACAF opponents, because when he has the ball out wide, they will just foul him to break up play and slow the game, but if he is central, it's too dangerous to play a foul-first strategy. Pulisic got a lot more minutes than expected, as he was reportedly not in game shape after his COVID quarantine. Hopefully he didn't pick up another injury at the end of the Honduras game, because his Chelsea playing time keeps getting derailed.

[tennbengal]

co-sign this:

[mister d]

I think Pulisic played well. The midfield didn't do well getting him the ball, and he had to come back deep far too often to get the ball. MiB made a great point that they need to get Pulisic inside more against CONCACAF opponents, because when he has the ball out wide, they will just foul him to break up play and slow the game, but if he is central, it's too dangerous to play a foul-first strategy.

It felt like he had a bunch of runs from the left side into the center that could have started something if there were other players his caliber taking the pass. Or maybe I just like him a lot and think every move he makes is some level of dangerous.

[tennbengal]

I think Pulisic played well. The midfield didn't do well getting him the ball, and he had to come back deep far too often to get the ball. MiB made a great point that they need to get Pulisic inside more against CONCACAF opponents, because when he has the ball out wide, they will just foul him to break up play and slow the game, but if he is central, it's too dangerous to play a foul-first strategy.

It felt like he had a bunch of runs from the left side into the center that could have started something if there were other players his caliber taking the pass. Or maybe I just like him a lot and think every move he makes is some level of dangerous.

Based on how consistently and brutally he is fouled when he makes moves, it appears the opponents think so too...

[HaulCitgo]

I saw fumbling of opportunities and lost balls in possession. Didn't seem like a review of his touches would stat out well. Even the equalizer, the ball is behind the crosser. I'd sooner than out in front to put more pressure on the defense. Guy had to circle around the ball to get the cross in. Which Pepi kind of whiffed on btw.

[govmentchedda]

I also wonder why Honduras crumbled at the end. Perhaps it was the heat or the tight schedule. The biggest difference between the OCHO and the HEX is the 3 match windows in 7 days. I think for teams like maybe Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica, they do not have the depth to play like this every month. This is where USA's depth (and even Canada's) could be a huge advantage. El Salvador were absolutely gassed last night from the opening kickoff. It'll be important to key in on how teams play on the third match day of each window.

For example, Canada's next window is @Mexico, @Jamaica, Panama. Canada will definitely park the bus and maybe throw away the game in Mexico City to save players for Jamaica and Panama.

Landon Donovan mentioned on the Grant Wahl podcast that we caught Honduras at a great time (last of the 3 matches), and that they likely travel commercial, leading to tired legs.

[Steve of phpBB]

Okay, I had no idea how the game turned out and finally checked the score.

The US won 4-1. On the road. Against a credible opponent.

That came as a complete surprise to me based on this thread.

[The Sybian]

Okay, I had no idea how the game turned out and finally checked the score.

The US won 4-1. On the road. Against a credible opponent.

That came as a complete surprise to me based on this thread.

It came as a complete surprise to anyone who watched the first half.

[P.D.X.]

and the prior two games

[duff]

Okay, I had no idea how the game turned out and finally checked the score.

The US won 4-1. On the road. Against a credible opponent.

That came as a complete surprise to me based on this thread.

It came as a complete surprise to anyone who watched the first half.

I would even put in the first half of the second half.

[A_B]

Okay, I had no idea how the game turned out and finally checked the score.

The US won 4-1. On the road. Against a credible opponent.

That came as a complete surprise to me based on this thread.

It came as a complete surprise to anyone who watched the first half.

I would even put in the first half of the second half.

Yeah I went to bed apparently just before pulisic got hurt. I was not expecting a 4-1 score line.

[Nonlinear FC]

Okay, I had no idea how the game turned out and finally checked the score.

The US won 4-1. On the road. Against a credible opponent.

That came as a complete surprise to me based on this thread.

Because Triple G can't get out of his own way. And we are something like 1-33-6 (making that up, but I just saw it somewhere so it's close) when losing at HT. He put Adams out wide, which was an absolute disaster for the formation. Less talked about in the media/Twitter is that he also put Sargent out wide, which... No, don't do that.

I will give him credit, he made subs and all of them had an impact (Llegget scored, Yedlin had an assist, Antonee scored the equalizer.) But, as tb's Twitter post pretty much said, 3G is trying to hard to impress... Fuck, I don't really know who... This really shouldn't be this difficult, yet we are were VERY close to having 2 out of 9 points, which while not a disaster, sure as shit doesn't match the talent level on this squad.

(I will say/reiterate, not having Weston and Gio out there is a much bigger deal than ppl seem to be talking about. I sure hope a) Gio gets better and 2) Weston figures his shit out.)

[tennbengal]

[govmentchedda]

Good god, that's a lot of hyperbole.

[tennbengal]

If the European clubs were sniffing around him pre-breakout that’s probably a good sign.

[The Sybian]

Good god, that's a lot of hyperbole.

Right? I never saw him mentioned until he announced he was choosing the US. I'm not surprised an MLS star slipped through, but I'm usually aware of 18 yo players with massive potential. Either I slipped, he didn't get much hype, or they are exaggerating his talent. Hopefully it's me. To cite Roger Bennett again, the US fans and media are always looking for a savior to carry US Soccer to greatness, and it just doesn't work that way. We immediately proclaim every prospect the great hope, and it never happens, because it isn't realistic. But now that we have 5 or more great hopes, it is inevitable! USMNT to win 2022 and repeat at home in 2026!

[wlu_lax6]

Good god, that's a lot of hyperbole.

Right? I never saw him mentioned until he announced he was choosing the US. I'm not surprised an MLS star slipped through, but I'm usually aware of 18 yo players with massive potential. Either I slipped, he didn't get much hype, or they are exaggerating his talent. Hopefully it's me. To cite Roger Bennett again, the US fans and media are always looking for a savior to carry US Soccer to greatness, and it just doesn't work that way. We immediately proclaim every prospect the great hope, and it never happens, because it isn't realistic. But now that we have 5 or more great hopes, it is inevitable! USMNT to win 2022 and repeat at home in 2026!

Pepi is one of several known youth quantities. You have to really pay attention to MLS development academies to know who is coming into the pipeline. But he is not coming out of the blue. He was just not thrown to the wolves like Freddy Adu or fired off to Europe. The RSL and FC Dallas academies have great reputations for identification and development. At some point it is a numbers game. For every Gio, Westin, etc. there are 4 wash outs and 1 or 2 who just tread water. You just hope that you don't ruin the good ones with their path forward (i.e. Griffin Yow, Durkin) and realize the huge potential (Moses N, Kevin Parades)

[tennbengal]

Yeah. He's NOT an unknown. At all. You just all were not paying attention (not you wlu). And then he showed up to the MLS parent squad and just kept fucking scoring, like has has been doing since he was 15.

[Nonlinear FC]

I used to have a spreadsheet for Yanks Abroad back in the day. We've talked about it... It was something like 20-30 guys, most of them kicking around places like Sweden or second division in Holland or way down the ladder in England. 90 percent of the guys we tracked had dual citizenship or something that got them around the work visa issues.

These days, not only is Yanks Abroad damn near impossible to fully follow, but you need a spreadsheet for the guys coming out of the academies in the 15-16 yo range to have any hope of staying current. Let alone which of those guys are seeing serious European interest.

We're moving into the land of needing Rivals or other high school football and basketball services to track these kids... I'm not really trying all that hard, but it's something we didn't use to have to really think about or put effort into. You'd hear about Landon or Freddy or whoever long before they hit the professional scene. Lots of hype, because there were only a handful of guys emerging every few years. Almost all of them would start to debut on U17 teams, which was the easy way to keep tabs. Now we've got guys like that popping up in their first year of MLS as a 17-year-old kid and unless that's your MLS club, you have no idea who they are.

Pretty fucking cool, really.

[mister d]

https://www.transfermarkt.com/spieler-s ... 0&yt0=Show

[HaulCitgo]

Seems like you could just check MLS starting 11s for guys under 18-19 and you'd have a decent start.