Of the 26 names on September’s U.S. men’s national team roster, Ricardo Pepi’s was perhaps the most surprising.
The USMNT has a host of in-form striker options at the moment, but Gregg Berhalter opted to omit three of those in favor of a player who hasn’t scored a goal in nearly a year.
Brandon Vazquez has had a breakout campaign with FC Cincinnati, Jordan Pefok is off to a strong start in the Bundesliga with Union Berlin, and Haji Wright is still scoring with Antalyaspor in Turkey.
None of them made the cut.
Pepi has only just completed a loan move to Groningen in the Netherlands after a difficult start to life with Augsburg.
But Pepi’s track record with the USMNT, as well as his obvious potential, made the difference in Berhalter’s mind.
“Keep in mind this is a guy that scored three goals for us in World Cup qualifying and has had a tough time since then,” Berhalter told the media on Wednesday.
“We’re trying to get him confidence. We’re trying to get him into the group and see if he can make a push for the final roster — that’s TBD right now.
“You can see that he can be dominant in the Dutch league. And now it’s a question of if he actually is, and can he really take his game to the next level?
“Pepi has had some good history with us. He started in really important games. And we just weren’t willing to give all that up right now on Pepi, and we still think there’s a big upside with him. We still think he’s got really good potential.”
Berhalter addresses Pefok & Vazquez snubs
Berhalter didn’t go in depth into why Pefok missed out, saying that he was already familiar with what the striker brings to the table.
“We’re pretty confident we know Jordan’s profile, we know what he can do,” Berhalter said. “And we didn’t feel like we needed to see him in this camp to determine whether he can be on the [World Cup] roster or not.”
Berhalter did speak more on Vazquez, a player who has had a breakout campaign in MLS. In the USMNT coach’s eyes, however, his lack of experience with the national team is costly at this late stage.
“For us, it’s comparing him to what we have, comparing him to other guys and then the body of work both with his club and with us,” Berhalter said. “And with us, it’s very difficult for him: He doesn’t have a body of work.”
“I feel bad for Brandon,” the coach continued. “I talked to him and I told him it’s not the end and continue to do what he’s doing and keep himself in the conversation. That’s all I can do.”
Berhalter also laid out his vision for what he is looking for in a striker, which could be instructive in explaining some of his personnel decisions.
“We use them in a number of different ways,” Berhalter said. “One of them is to drop in and give us an extra man in midfield. One of the ways is to run behind the backline and then arrive in the penalty box, making good runs inside the penalty box.
“And then finally, starting our defensive pressure. We want to be a high-pressing team. We need forwards that understand the press, know how to use triggers to initiate the press and then actually execute the press well.”
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