U.S. Mens National soccer team striker Ricardo Pepi has taken full advantage of his return, scoring twice in a 7-1 thrashing of Grenada and scoring the winner with his first touches in a 1-0 over El Salvador to continue their defense of the CONCACAF Nations League title.

The late-March matches bring Pepi full circle after his surprise commission from the final world cup roster by head coach Greg Berhalter in late 2022.

Following a stellar 2021 season with FC Dallas in Major League Soccer–as well as sparking the U.S.’s run towards qualifying by scoring 3 goals and 2 assists in his first 3 caps–Pepi struggled with German Bundesliga side FC Augsburg before returning to form on loan with Dutch Eredivisie side FC Groningen, where he currently has 10 goals and 3 assists across all competitions.

Despite his late push, Berhalter felt that other strikers had shown better consistency with their clubs, and elected to omit Pepi from the world cup.

Upon hearing the decision on a call with Berhalter, Pepi hung up on his coach.

“I remember exactly the moment,” Pepi told the Kon Veel Minder podcast. “I hopped on a phone call with [the] national team coach, he said I wasn’t on the roster so then I just hung up the phone on him.”

But now, following a domestic violence investigation that cleared Berhalter for a possible return to the national team, will Pepi’s hanging up on his coach, though very understandable, lead to a tense relationship for the next four years? Or will the two (should Berhalter return) resolve the differences and maintain the professional relationship?

When receiving feedback while learning that we are not being considered or selected for a position may feel like words falling on deaf ears, and we may feel the urge to simply hang up on the boss or the recruiter. But it is absolutely vital to at least grasp some meaning in them in order to progress–especially as feedback from recruiters and hiring managers is almost as extinct as the dinosaurs.

Despite the claim to have hung up on the couch, Pepi’s own words confirm that even he needed to listen, and the result has been him continuing to score goals for club and country.

“I feel like once he told me,” he said following a match in the Netherlands, “I wanted to flip the page as soon as possible and just focus on the game now. I can’t keep thinking about why I didn’t make it or why I did.”

No matter what, don’t hang up: always listen and make sure whatever reasons they tell you “no” gives you the fuel to play harder in the end.

(Image source: https://www.goal.com/en-qa/lists/usmnt-el-salvador-nations-league-winners-losers-pepi/blt367eda4758b252ed)