{"id":335038,"date":"2026-06-13T14:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T14:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/335038\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T14:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T14:54:19","slug":"el-pasos-ricardo-pepi-makes-world-cup-debut-in-u-s-win-over-paraguay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/335038\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso\u2019s Ricardo Pepi makes World Cup debut in U.S. win over Paraguay"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014 El Paso\u2019s Ricardo Pepi<\/a> made his World Cup debut Friday during the United States\u2019 4-1 win over Paraguay<\/a> in their World Cup opener at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.<\/p>\n

Pepi is one of two El Paso natives on the U.S. Men\u2019s National Team roster this tournament, alongside Alex Zendejas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Neither Pepi nor Zendejas were in the starting lineup for Friday\u2019s match.<\/p>\n

Pepi came off the bench in the 72nd minute with the U.S. already in control, leading 3-0 at the time.<\/p>\n

He nearly added a goal late, firing a shot over the crossbar in the 88th minute.<\/p>\n

The United States went on to secure a convincing 4-1 victory to open group play.<\/p>\n

It marks a strong start for the Americans as they begin their World Cup campaign on home soil.<\/p>\n

Next up, the U.S. will face Australia<\/a> next Friday in Seattle.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014 El Paso\u2019s Ricardo Pepi made his World Cup debut Friday during the United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[119716,28885,138,140,139,119719,119551,119550,27,119718,119717,119715],"class_list":["post-335038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-alex-zendejas","tag-australia","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-national-team-roster","tag-paraguay","tag-ricardo-pepi","tag-texas","tag-world-cup-campaign","tag-world-cup-debut","tag-world-cup-opener"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}