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Thursday night rundown

Pepi injured, wild Champions League week for Yanks, Tessmann's award, Miggy returns, and more

Just as everything was going well, Ricardo Pepi suffered an injury that will sideline him for awhile. ASN's Brian Sciaretta breaks down that news, the midweek Champions League games, as well as thoughts on Tanner Tessmann and Miguel Almiron
BY Brian Sciaretta Posted
January 30, 2025
5:50 PM

THE MIDWEEK ended yesterday with a wave of activity in the Champions League with high points and low points, but the worst of which was an injury to Ricardo Pepi after he had a stellar outing. Elsewhere, U.S. Soccer named its young player of the year for 2024 and MLS teams have made some big moves.

Let’s start with thoughts on Pepi and then go to the Champions League.

 

Pepi injured during big outing

 

PSV defeated Liverpool 3-2 on Wednesday and Ricardo Pepi scored and assisted in the big game. He now has 17 goals this season in all competitions despite only eclipsing the 1000-minute level in this game. It’s been a groundbreaking season for Pepi where he has shown he can score against very good teams in very important moments. His goal against Liverpool was the eventual match-winner. 

But the big news wasn’t the great performance from Pepi, it was the injury that forced him out of the game in the 76th minute. Reports now indicate he is likely to miss most of the remainder of the season. That is very bad news for PSV as it prepares for the Champions League knockouts and the remainder of the Eredivisie season, which has become a little closer than PSV anticipated after a great first few months.

For the USMNT, the news isn’t catastrophic. From all the timelines given, it isn’t an ACL tear. It sounds likely that he will miss the March international window which is the finals of the Nations League. But that seems like all he will miss as the next time the team assembles will be this summer.

For Mauricio Pochettino, the news comes as a setback because Pepi looked to be flourishing in his system and seemed to be the clear starting No. 9. But we don’t know the forward depth chart right now. Folarin Balogun is also out. Haji Wright has also missed a ton of time. Brandon Vazquez hasn’t played a lot at the club level in a long time. Josh Sargent now likely becomes the starting No. 9 for March, but he has had a tough time staying healthy over the past few years.

Pepi will return to the USMNT. The concerns over Pepi’s absence are worse for PSV. For now, the USMNT can build up depth at striker. There have been a lot of names on the list (and maybe some new ones have entered after January camp) but now we can see if others aside from Pepi can step up. Pochettino needs to have confidence in more than one striker.

 

 

Up and down Champions League finale

 

Ultimately, it was a great Champions League for American players. Cameron Carter-Vickers, Auston Trusty, Gio Reyna, Cole Campbell, Richard Ledezma, Ricardo Pepi, Malik Tillman, Yunus Musah, Christian Pulisic, Folarin Balogun, Weston McKennie, and Timothy Weah are 12 players who participated in group stages and all their teams advanced. Sergino Dest did not but will hopefully be back for PSV for the knockouts.

As Soccer American wrote today: “American players logged 2,536 minutes during the 2023-24 competition. This season, American players have already combined for more than 3,000 minutes — and the knockout stage has yet to begin.”

The final group stage game under the new format saw good and bad from American players (even aside from the aforementioned PSV game).

On the good side, Gio Reyna hit a really nice assist on the final goal of Borussia Dortmund’s 3-1 win over Shakhtar Donetsk. While he only played 25 minutes, Reyna made it count. This is critical to helping him build a case to play more. More than goals and assists, he needs to play regularly.



AC Milan were upset 2-1 by Dinamo Zagreb and it was good and bad for Americans. AC Milan was put in a bad position trailing right off the bad. A comical error gifted the Croatian club the first goal and then Yunus Musah was sent off for an inexcusable second yellow and was followed by petulant behavior. But Christian Pulisic scored his fourth goal of the competition equalizer and became the first American to hit the four goal plateau. But ultimately Dinamo prevailed 2-1 (with Milan still advancing).

 

The concerning news of Musah is more of the topic here. He is not at the standing of Pulisic, who is a top player. Musah still needs to prove himself. When he hits a big assist like he did over the weekend, that helps. But earning the trust of the new coaching staff is a process and Milan can always attract good players. When Musah makes decisions like he did on Wednesday, it hurts his case.

Juventus lost at home 2-0 to Benfica and the Italian club is now struggling a bit. Weston McKennie went 90 minutes at left back and Tim Weah went 90 minutes at right back. These positions are not the optimal use for either player and both players had so-so games. But the big news is that Weston McKennie wore the armband for Juventus. That was a very positive sign that McKennie is viewed highly despite the club not playing great and despite McKennie not playing a favorite position.

Hopefully this is a sign that the club sees McKennie as a mature veteran leader, which would be a nice sign of overall growth for McKennie.

Celtic were outplayed in a 4-2 loss to Aston Villa. Auston Trusty coughed up a penalty (which was missed) and had a tough game for Celtic. He’s on the bubble with the USMNT, so tough games like this are a little more costly.

 

Tessmann starts and wins award

 

In the Europa League, Tanner Tessmann earned the start for Lyon on Wednesday against Ludogorets Razgrad of Bulgaria. A win would ensure that Lyon would advance directly to the quarterfinals as opposed to having to go through the playoffs. Meanwhile, Ludogorets was already eliminated from advancing to the knockouts.

Overall, Tessmann went 64 minutes and left with Lyon up 1-0. Ultimately the had to settle for a 1-1 draw but it was still enough to finish in sixth place and advance to the quarterfinals. Tessmann had some nice passing from a distance and did well at times but was mostly quiet. It remains to be seen if this will open up the door for more playing time as he has had a tough time playing in recent weeks.

 

This comes on the heels of Tessmann winning the U.S Soccer’s Young Player of the Year for 2024. It all depends on how U.S. Soccer defines “young.” If it is anyone who plays in a youth tournament, Tessmann has a great case. He captained the Olympic team and led Venezia to promotion. He had a great year.

For me, the Olympics at U-23 doesn’t seem like a youth tournament but rather one with an age limit. There is a difference. At 23, Tessmann doesn’t really seem like a “young” player. That should really be for players 21 or younger.

 

Almiron returns to Atlanta

 

It’s really cool to see Atlanta United spend the money to bring Miguel Almiron back to the club after six strong years at Newcastle United. Almiron, now 30, was one of the most important players in the history of the league as he was a young player when he arrived and really built up his reputation nicely in Atlanta and used that to get a great Premier League deal.

Atlanta United are trying to rebuild now with Ronny Deila as the head coach. It’s fair to ask if Atlanta Untied is looking to the past when it should be looking to the future. But Almiron gives the club what it needs right now – love for the crest and a player who will give it his all.

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