Call It What You Want: A CBS Sports Golazo Network Podcast · CBS Sports, USMNT, U.S. Soccer, MLS, World Cup, UCL, Americans Abroad

Earnie Stewart talks Pepi, PSV, Tillman & World Cup preparedness (Soccer 1/13)

·1 hr 8 min·4 clips

Ernie Stewart says PSV chose Pepi as its number one center forward after Luuk de Jong left for Porto.

Jimmy Conrad opens the show with Charlie Davies and Tony Miola on Americans making noise around the world. The mood is pretty upbeat. Ernie Stewart joins as PSV's sporting director, a former U.S. men's national team great, and the conversation starts there. From there, it moves quickly into club-and-country questions. Charlie teases the MLS Media Day interviews he brought back. He says the players he saw were upbeat and carrying a positive mentality. The World Cup come the summer is part of that energy. Some players are trying to get there and some are already in the picture, but the vibe felt the same. The panel then turns to Ricardo Pepi. They talk through his stretch behind Luc de Jong at PSV and how frustrating that could be. Ernie explains that PSV bought Pepi from Augsburg with a plan in mind. They knew Luc de Jong was there. They also knew de Jong would eventually retire or move on. Because PSV plays with only one center forward, Pepi and de Jong rarely lined up together. That mostly happened in emergency moments when the team needed a goal. So the bench role was not easy for Pepi. Even so, Ernie says Pepi kept working and earned the trust to become PSV's number one striker after de Jong left for Porto. The group uses that path to ask about Pepi's ceiling and what his top level could look like if he keeps getting that kind of runway. The show closes by promising more live soccer talk on Thursday at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube. It also plugs the EFL Cup semifinals on Paramount Plus.

As heard by us

A loose, smart soccer conversation that works best when it gets practical about Pepi and World Cup stakes.

Call It What You Want spends most of its time where soccer listeners will want it: Americans doing well abroad, Ernie Stewart's view of Ricardo Pepi at PSV, and how club form spills into World Cup talk.

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Why you'd press play

Pepi, PSV, and World Cup talk with a panel that knows the stakes.

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