We’re a little ways away from the 2022 FIFA World Cup, with the opening match set for November 21st. However, as Sporting News explains, the USMNT sits in a good position to qualify (and erase the pain of missing out on Russia 2018…).
What’s most interesting at this stage, arguably, is debating what the final first team will look like if and when the U.S. heads to Qatar –– and what impact one of Texas’s own might have. Head Coach Gregg Berhalter can only take 23 players to Qatar, and plenty of airtime and column inches will be devoted to speculation over who might make the cut. For our part though, it’s only right to begin with Ricardo Pepi.
The man himself
19-year-old Pepi was born in El Paso. With family from both sides of the border, he was eligible to play for either the U.S. or Mexico, and attended training camps for both countries at the Under-17 level. Raphael Wicky brought him into the American fold for the 2019 CONCACAF U-17 Championship, where the youngsters went all the way to the final before losing in overtime to Mexico. Berhalter later inducted Pepi into the senior side in August 2021, where the up-and-comer enjoyed a dream debut, scoring the winner in a 4-1 demolition of Honduras.
Since then, Pepi has amassed nine first-team caps, scoring three times. At the club level meanwhile, he spent three seasons in the MLS with FC Dallas before transferring to Germany’s FC Augsburg just this past January. The transfer fee was reported by NBC News to be $20m, plus add-ons. This made him the most expensive American player to move from the MLS to Europe, and if rumors are to be believed, Augsburg had to beat out interest from Manchester United, Inter Milan, and Ajax to secure Pepi’s signature.
The competition
Coach Berhalter has shown he has no qualms about fielding young players –– particularly with regard to strikers. Timothy Weah, Josh Sargent and Brendan Aaronson have 57 caps between them, and are all just 21 years old. Likewise, playing in the Bundesliga will do Pepi no harm in the eyes of the staff; USMNT stalwarts from Alexi Lalas and Eric Wynalda through to Christian Pulisic have plied their trade in Germany, and even this year Berhalter will also be keeping a close eye on the form of Dortmund’s Giovanni (son of 112-times-capped Claudio) Reyna, Leipzig’s Tyler Adams and Wolfsburg’s Kevin Paredes. With three goals in nine international appearances, Pepi has a better strike rate than anyone outside of Reyna, who has four in the same number of games.
Berhalter showed a preference for having options up front with his last 24-man squad, which was built to play Canada, El Salvador and Honduras, and featured eight attackers. He generally likes to play three forwards, and the last three matches have seen an assortment of Pepi, Weah, Pulisic, Aaronson, Jordan Morris and Gyasi Zardes getting starting nods. Zardes and Morris both play in the MLS, and with no disrespect to the league, if Pepi can flourish against the tougher defences in Germany, he’ll stand out by comparison.
The tournament
2022 sees a break from the traditional format of the World Cup being played in summer, when the European leagues are on their summer break. In November, the MLS will have completed a 34-game regular season plus postseason schedule, whereas the Premier League, Bundesliga and Serie A will only be approaching the halfway point in their domestic campaigns. This may lead to Berhalter favoring players based in Europe for fatigue and fitness reasons.
The head coach also has the players available to field a competitive team. The USMNT missing out on 2018 was a particularly sore blow, because when they do qualify, they tend to do well. Since 1990 they’ve qualified from the group stages more often than not and reached the round of 16 at both South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014 against stiff competition. It’s a bit early for specific projections this time around, but the match odds at Coral include some early looks at the World Cup with the U.S. listed below the top tier of presumed contenders, but in the mix with some very competitive nations (and only a notch beneath recent heavyweights like Uruguay and Croatia).
The chances
Regarding those early odds, the Americans are specifically priced at 80/1 –– the same as Mexico –– and if that sounds quite high, it’s tighter than Chile (100/1), who’ve taken the Copa America twice in the last 6 years. USMNT is also seen as a likelier bet than Ghana, Nigeria and Sweden, who’d typically have been viewed as higher caliber sides than the U.S. in decades past.
Of course the odds and expectations will shift based on roster decisions and qualification outcomes around the world. Relative optimism around the USMNT however stems from the fact that there’s something to be said for the pressure-immune abandon of youth. If we can’t cast our minds back to a 17-year-old Pelé lifting the Jules Rimet Trophy with Brazil in 1958, then we can certainly remember Kylian Mbappé terrorizing Argentina in the quarters and scoring in the final of France’s 2018 triumph at 19 –– the same age Ricardo Pepi will be when Qatar 2022 is played.
There will be many twists and turns both in the MLS and the European Leagues that will play a part in the selection of the final 23 who will represent the U.S. in November. Keep an eye on this section for updates –– but we like the odds of Texas cheering a young man of its own to hopeful glory in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
