"I'm just glad that we're both doing well." "It's always nice to obviously have that competition, because it forces me to improve. "It's just the nature of the sport: If you don't deliver, somebody else is gonna likely take your place," Balogun said. But things can change quickly at soccer's highest level. He starts for Monaco, while Pepi is behind former Barcelona front-man Luuk de Jong at PSV. "But I've just got to focus on myself."īalogun remains the first choice - for now. "Competition is always healthy," said Pepi, who parlayed his 13 goals last season for Groningen in the Netherlands' top league into a summer move to Dutch powerhouse PSV Eindhoven.
Now, suddenly, there's both genuine quality and an intense battle for playing time up top. games this year and fourth as a second-half substitute. He did the same Tuesday - his sixth goal in as many U.S. But Pepi came off the bench and capped the 3-0 victory. He lost it as soon as Balogun arrived the newcomer was immediately thrust into the Americans' staring 11 for the Nations League semifinal against Mexico.īalogun didn't score in his debut. With Wright and Jesus Ferreira having fallen down the USMNT depth chart since the World Cup and Josh Sargent, the other striker Berhalter chose ahead of Pepi, injured, the starting job was suddenly Pepi's to lose. Pepi shook off the heartbreak in the best possible way: by scoring twice in Grenada in March in the Americans' first competitive game of the 2026 cycle.
return to the biggest party in sports for the first time in eight years, Pepi was left off coach Gregg Berhalter's final 26-man roster for the main event. In his first cap two years ago, then 18-year-old Pepi scored a crucial goal in Honduras in a qualifying game for the 2022 World Cup, then notched two more in his second USMNT game, another qualifier versus Jamaica.ĭespite helping the U.S. 9 Ricardo Pepi said he was happy to see Balogun score Tuesday, too - though nobody would blame him for having mixed feelings about it.
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