A sports director for a local Texas news station gave a hilarious tirade at United States men’s national team head coach Gregg Berhalter after Ricardo Pepi was snubbed from the World Cup roster.
On Wednesday Berhalter’s USA World Cup roster was revealed with the shocking exclusion of teenage striker Pepi. Instead, Haji Wright was selected. KTSM 9 News sports director Colin Deaver wasn’t having it at all.
His station provides news for El Paso, Las Cruces and Juarez. There was plenty of excitement and anticipation that El Paso native Pepi would be chosen to go to Qatar for the World Cup. Deaver, as any good reporter would do, had content ready for the moment. In fact, Deaver had a story lined up that he'd been working on since May.
This was his reaction to Pepi being left off the roster.
TV Reporter Rants At Gregg Berhalter
A message to Gregg Berhalter regarding Borderland Golden Child, Ricardo Pepi. pic.twitter.com/0yk3ESzjXi
— Colin Deaver (@ColinDeaverTV) November 10, 2022
Incredible stuff from Deaver.
Plenty of USMNT fans would agree with him regarding Pepi being left at home. Only U.S. star Christian Pulisic scored more goals than Pepi during Concacaf World Cup qualifying.
Christian Pulisic was only player to score more goals than Ricardo Pepi during CONCACAF World Cup qualifying. ⚽️
In nine games for Groningen this season, Pepi has eight goal involvements.Sadly, Pepi won't be on the plane to Qatar for the USMNT. pic.twitter.com/fevdoZmPtC
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) November 9, 2022
The 19-year-old went through a brutal year-long scoring drought for club and country after moving to Bundesliga outfit Augsburg in January 2022. A loan to Eredivisie side FC Groningen to start the 2022-23 season reignited Pepi’s scoring with six goals in his first seven appearances.
Hot form combined with Berhalter selecting Pepi for the September friendly camp made fans think he would certainly be on the World Cup roster. Instead, fans of Pepi felt a lot like Deaver did.
Deaver’s Berhalter beef doesn’t run too deep as he did let us know the tirade was all in good fun.
Since it is apparently not clear, I was joking.
— Colin Deaver (@ColinDeaverTV) November 10, 2022
