Ricardo Pepi has been waiting. Patiently but restlessly waiting for an opportunity. He was once a teenage phenom brimming with potential, at the top of the U.S. men’s national team. Now, at 21, after stumbling in Europe, he has not started consecutive games for club or country for almost 18 months. And his patience wanes.
“I feel ready to be the guy, to be the starter,” Pepi said Tuesday.
And two days later he played like that.
Pepi spurred the USMNT to a 1-0 win over Jamaica in the first leg of the CONCACAF Nations League quarter-final on Thursday in Kingston.
In the fifth minute he deftly twisted his hips, swiveled in behind the Jamaican defense and finished Christian Pulisic’s through ball.
It was Pepi’s eighth goal of the young season and sixth in his last four starts.
And those, he knows, are numbers he can use to ward off a dangerous label:“Super sub.”
Since Pepi moved to PSV Eindhoven in 2023, he has built that reputation. He was stuck on the bench behind experienced strikers at the Dutch club, “waiting to play ten, fifteen minutes every weekend”, as he said. And without weekly opportunities to prove his worth, he’s stuck in a similar situation, behind Folarin Balogun, in the USMNT.
He often scored in those 10, 15 or 45 minutes. But it still wouldn’t start. “It got a little frustrating,” Pepi said this week. And he began to hear ‘that word’, subsubthe connotations of which were mixed.
“Obviously people notice the things I do when I come in as a sub, and it gets them to say the word,” Pepi told ESPN. “But at the same time, hearing that word makes me want to, I don’t know, punch something.”
During a video conference call with reporters, he explained why: “I’m at a point in my career now where I’m ready. I’m ready to start, to get more playing time. I feel like I’m showing that. “
Slowly but surely, play time comes. Pepi has earned three starts for PSV in the past month and a half, more than all of last season. In those three games he scored five goals.
And with Balogun, Josh Sargent and Haji Wright all injured, Pepi was able to parlay those performances into starts for the national team.
“It’s a great opportunity for him,” US head coach Mauricio Pochettino said on Sunday.
Pepi wasted no time on it on Thursday.
His run, after a slight but effective feint, a check to the ball and a sprint back, was that of a confident striker. His shot was a bit sloppy, but ended up past Jamaican goalkeeper Andre Blake and via the far post.
From then on, the US was shaky at times. A sloppy giveaway and defensive breakdown led to a Jamaican penalty, but Matt Turner jumped to his right, stretched and saved the penalty.
The US missed some opportunities to double its lead. In the second half they sometimes sat back and took on the pressure. Mark McKenzie, who had failed in the build-up to the penalty, made several decisive interventions. Balls squirmed just wide of the American goal. Jamaican fans raised their hands to their heads in disbelief that they were not celebrating an equalizer.
For the USMNT, the 1-0 win was by no means emphatic or impressive. But it was more than enough. The two teams now head to St. Louis on Monday for the second leg. All the Americans need is a draw to qualify for the Nations League semi-finals in March.
And that was the main goal. For Pochettino, the 2026 World Cup is still the big picture and the end game. But in this camp, his second, the message was clear.
“It’s obviously easy to look ahead,” Pulisic said on Wednesday. “The main goal right now is to beat Jamaica. That’s really all we’re thinking about.” And after Thursday evening they will be more than halfway done.
