Sergiño Dest made a scoring start to the new Dutch league season to help PSV Eindhoven begin their Eredivisie title defense with an emphatic 6-1 home win over Sparta Rotterdam on Saturday.
The United States defender, who also scored in last week’s Johan Cruyff Shield, found the net with a spectacular strike high into the roof of the net in first-half stoppage time to put PSV into a 3-0 lead at the interval.
Debutant Ruben van Bommel, the son of former PSV player and coach Mark van Bommel, opened the scoring on his debut before veteran Croatia international Ivan Perisic grabbed a second.
And PSV didn’t let up in the second half, with goals from Joey Veerman, Guus Til and Yarek Gasiorowski ensuring the resounding win, despite a consolation from the visitors.
“Scoring six goals is of course incredibly good and I am very happy with that,” PSV head coach Peter Bosz said. “Good attacks, we played a lot of forward football, showed great combinations in possession and from the long ball possession we also created a lot of chances in the end.”
There was no place in the PSV lineup for another U.S. international, Ricardo Pepi. Bosz said ahead of the game that he didn’t want to take any risks over the striker’s fitness, though expected to have him back next week.
It was the perfect start to the campaign for Dest after he spent much of last season on the sidelines with a torn ACL that ruled him out for 11 months.
While he made his return late last season, the 24-year-old missed out on this summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup with the U.S. men’s national team.
USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino said at the time that they “determined the best decision is for the player to have an individualized training program for the summer so he can focus on being fully recovered and ready to perform next season.”
Dest has 33 caps for the national team but has not played for the U.S. since March 2024. If fit, the right-back promises to be a key performer as the U.S. heads into the 2026 World Cup on home soil.
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