Tag: Groningen

Ricardo Pepi scores first goal with Groningen, breaks 345-day scoreless run

Major relief for worried USMNT fans, and for Pepi himself

The long wait is finally over for Ricardo Pepi.

345 days after his last goal, the U.S. men’s national team was on the scoresheet Saturday as FC Groningen fell 2-1 at Sparta Rotterdam.

Three days after USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter showed his faith in the young striker by picking him over several more prolific options, Pepi put Groningen ahead in the 61st minute, capping off a well-worked move with a header to give his new club a temporary lead. Sparta would go on to win thanks to late goals from Sven Mijnans and Vito van Crooij.

Just after the hour mark in a scoreless game, Groningen tried to attack Sparta’s left side, but found no easy inroads. Checking for different options, Tomáš Suslov dropped off the front line before an ambitious switch of play to the opposite touchline, picking out Isak Dybvik Määttä.

As Dybvik Määttä sized up a cross, Pepi’s run came possibly too early, with the 19-year-old arriving at the near post before the cross was struck. However, with his man giving him a yard, Pepi rose up unchallenged as Dybvik Määttä’s service arrived, nodding the ball down past goalkeeper Youri Schoonderwaldt.

Pepi’s last goal in a competitive game anywhere came back on October 7, 2021, when he scored a brace against Jamaica for the USMNT in World Cup qualifying. Pepi went scoreless in the next two qualifiers in that window, his final four MLS appearances, and then the final three qualifiers of the year.

Pepi then made his big move to Augsburg, but things didn’t pan out. He went scoreless in 11 appearances in the Bundesliga, as well as four more USMNT qualifiers and a January friendly. Summer came and went, and the break didn’t end Pepi’s torment in front of goal. He appeared in four more Bundesliga matches, as well as a blowout win in the DFB Pokal, but still had no goals.

Finally, Augsburg reached a deal to send him on loan to Groningen, and things started to look up immediately. Pepi got an assist in his first appearance in the Netherlands, helping his new club to a 1-0 win, and ended his scoreless drought six days later.

For the USMNT, seeing Pepi find the back of the net before their upcoming September friendlies has to be considered a huge positive. Berhalter’s faith in Pepi is clear, but it would still be a very difficult job to lift a striker’s confidence after that many scoreless months going into the World Cup. Getting that weight off his shoulders should do Pepi a world of good.

Watch Pepi break his scoreless run with his first Groningen goal

[lawrence-related id=7253,7154,6686]

Ricardo Pepi admits he struggled to adapt to life in Germany

“A different country, a different culture and a different competition. It was honestly a lot at the same time”

Ricardo Pepi has opened up on his struggles to adapt to the Bundesliga and life in Germany after his move to Augsburg in January.

Augsburg broke its club record when it shelled out $20 million to sign Pepi from FC Dallas, but the U.S. national team striker endured a difficult spell in Germany.

Pepi failed to register a single goal or assist for Augsburg, and jumped at the chance to move on loan to Dutch side Groningen last month.

For Pepi, moving to a new country where he didn’t speak the language and adjusting to one of the world’s top leagues at age 18 was a lot to handle.

“It was quite a tough time. A different country, a different culture and a different competition. It was honestly a lot at the same time,” Pepi told Voetbal International.

Pepi faced an uphill battle for playing time with Augsburg this season, and believed his adaptation to the European game would be slowed if he couldn’t play regularly.

“My feeling was that I could only adapt to the European way of playing football by playing a lot somewhere,” the 19-year-old said. “That probably wasn’t going to happen in Germany yet.”

Pepi registered his first goal involvement in Europe on his Groningen debut, tallying an assist on Sunday. But he still appears to face long odds for a World Cup berth with the USMNT as his goal drought approaches a full year.

The striker has not given up on a berth on the World Cup roster, however, saying that making the squad for Qatar was another major reason behind his move to the Eredivisie.

“I really want to be there,” Pepi said of the World Cup. “The national team coach has said that it is important that I play a lot.”

Asked what his goal is for the upcoming months and Pepi was clear: “Play a lot and score for FC Groningen and go to the World Cup. That is the plan.”

[listicle id=7136]

Ricardo Pepi to Groningen is a great move. The Augsburg transfer was not.

The Groningen loan may be what Pepi needs, but it also puts his future at Augsburg in doubt

It’s easy to see why Ricardo Pepi’s loan move from Augsburg to Groningen was so desirable for all parties. That is not a good thing.

Yes, he’s only 19. Yes, he’s got a contract with the Bundesliga outfit for four more years. But a club like Augsburg doesn’t spend $20 million on anyone and loan them out within a year unless there is something seriously amiss.

From club-record signing to shipped out nine months later, the Pepi story at Augsburg is off to the worst possible start.

Pepi had plenty of options on the table before he moved to Augsburg. Wolfsburg was his expected destination before he changed his mind at the last minute, while Chelsea and Wolves were also interested. Bayern Munich wanted to sign him as a developmental player, while Ajax was also sniffing around.

It’s easy to say now that Augsburg wasn’t the best place for Pepi to go, but there were plenty of obvious questions at the time of the move, too.

He was in a new league in a new country. He was joining a bad offensive team fighting for relegation midway through the season. And he was 18.

Instant success was always going to be a tall task. But with a $20m price tag, it was also going to be expected.

And make no mistake, Pepi was not brought in as a developmental prospect, he was brought to help Augsburg win right away. Pepi played 30 minutes in his first appearance, then started the next two matches.

He would only start two more games the rest of the way.

Season two starts slow

If Pepi’s first season was understandably tough, season two was expected to be better. After all, he’d have a full preseason under his belt and more experience in Germany overall.

Instead, after five total games and 103 minutes, Pepi is gone until next season.

The swiftness with which Augsburg decided Pepi is still not ready to help the team is alarming, and his stats in Germany so far make for some nightmarish viewing.In 16 games at Augsburg (five starts), he has a total of 1.1 expected goals. He is, of course, still searching for his first actual goal.

That will likely come in the Eredivisie, notoriously a free-scoring league. Groningen’s star forward Jorgen Strand Larsen is joining Celta Vigo, opening up a real need at striker.

If he couldn’t stay in Germany, Pepi could hardly have picked a better landing spot than Groningen. He should get minutes and chances to score, neither of which would have been a guarantee in Germany.

It may be too late for him to salvage a World Cup spot with so many USMNT strikers in form, but it certainly won’t be too late to turn around a career that, one year ago, looked to be heading for the very top.

Whether that will ever happen at Augsburg, though, remains to be seen.

[lawrence-related id=6745,6736,6711]

USMNT striker Ricardo Pepi moves to Groningen on loan

Pepi’s heading to the Eredivisie

With the No. 9 role for the U.S. men’s national team up for grabs, Ricardo Pepi is on the move.

The USMNT striker is leaving Augsburg for a season-long loan with FC Groningen in the Eredivisie. Groningen did not announce further details, but Fabrizio Romano has reported there is no purchase clause involved in the deal.

“(Groningen) is a big club here in the Netherlands,” Pepi told the club’s site. “They’ve developed some great players: Luis Suarez, Virgil van Dijk, Arjen Robben. These are world-class players. I know this is a great club for me, and it’s gonna be a good season.”

“Ricardo is a great talent, who has an international reputation,” said Groningen technical director Mark-Jan Fledderus. “At the beginning of this month his name was mentioned to us and we have already had a conversation with him. Shortly afterwards his situation at Augsburg changed and his arrival seemed no longer an option for us. Until yesterday. We acted very quickly on this and last night Ricardo drove to Groningen to complete his transfer today.”

The move comes at a critical time for Pepi’s USMNT hopes. The competition for potential strikers on Gregg Berhalter’s roster for the World Cup is suddenly fierce, while Pepi’s candidacy has fallen off. Since making the jump from FC Dallas to Augsburg, Pepi hasn’t scored a goal at club level, and his last goal with the national team came back in October of last year.

Even with that drought and the addition of Bosnian striker Ermedin Demirovic as a new starter, Pepi had still appeared in every Augsburg match this season. However, he had clearly become a second-choice option for head coach Enrico Maassen, even with Augsburg generally playing with two strikers. So far this year, Pepi has 107 minutes spread across five appearances in all competitions, and only one start.

In that regard, a move to Groningen and the notoriously free-scoring Eredivisie makes sense. For one thing, Groningen needs the help: they’ve scored five goals in four games this season. It’s also a league where Americans have scored plenty of goals, going back to the days of Michael Bradley at Heerenveen and Jozy Altidore at AZ.

[lawrence-related id=5640,2521]