MORRISTOWN, N.J. (AP) — Recovered from a torn ACL, Sergiño Dest is set to play with the U.S. national team for the first time in 1 1/2 years and says he's matured since his red card at Trinidad in November 2023.
Dest lost his composure by arguing in a needless dispute with a referee, getting a pair of yellow cards for dissent in a 30-second span during a CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal match.
“Obviously it was not good, but I learned from that,” Dest said Friday. “I know that you need to be conscious about your temper. Obviously you need to help the team and that’s not the way to help the team. So I’ve learned from that and I will make sure that these things won’t happen again.”
Dest served a one-game suspension and missed the semifinal against Jamaica. The outside back returned for the 2-0 win against Mexico on March 24, then tore an ACL without contact during training with PSV Eindhoven on April 20.
“It was like a cross from the side, so I was defending. I was closing the gap, I was running on full speed, and then I just touched the ball and the foot where I landed with, I just kind of jumped in the air,” he said. “I don’t know what happened exactly, but it was bad. And to be honest, the first 15 seconds, I felt it, it was a lot of pain. But then after I was like, OK, this is something I felt before, so give me a couple of days and I’m back. But it wasn't like that.”
He didn't return to action until this past March 8. His first 90-minute match was PSV's season finale on May 18, when the team won the Dutch league title as Ajax wasted a nine-point lead with five games remaining.
“I've seen some things and some moments in the field that I was like, OK, I’m back,” he said. “I’m still searching because it’s difficult. Whenever you’re back after an injury like that you need a couple more months to fully feel free again because the first couple games for me I saw in some change of directions I just needed some more time. But now I’m still getting stronger, stronger and stronger, so I feel better and better.”
Dest had hoped to play for the U.S. in the Gold Cup but was cut a few days into training.
“We had like eight, nine days off and I did some training sessions, but not too much,” he said. “I wanted to relax, as well, a little bit because I thought I would be good. And then I came back and then I was surprised and I think the whole staff was surprised, all my power — I just lost like a lot of my power in my right leg, so it wasn’t safe for me anymore to be on the pitch.”
Dest, just 24, started at right back in all four matches at the 2022 World Cup and is a backup to first-choice Antonee Robinson on the left. Dest likes to attack more than any other American defender.
“He is a player with the flexibility to play high,” coach Mauricio Pochettino said, praising Dest as someone who can prevent the American attack from becoming predictable. “(He) has the capacity to go forward and beat players, score goals.”
A son of a Surinamese-American father and Dutch mother, Dest played in Ajax's youth academy and chose to play for the U.S. rather than the Netherlands. He made his international debut in 2019 and has a pair of goals in 33 appearances.
Dest in October 2020 became the first American signed for Barcelona's senior team. His role was diminished after Xavi Hernández was hired as coach, and Dest was loaned to AC Milan in September 2022 and then to PSV in August 2023. Even after the injury, the Dutch club acquired his rights the following June and signed him to a four-year contract.
“He’s unbelievable with the ball. It’s kind of an old-school type of ability with the ball at his feet," goalkeeper Matt Freese said. “You can give the ball to him and he’s going to be able to get out of every situation.”
While Dest was hurt, he became a follower of Formula 1 and attended a race at the Dutch resort town Zandvoort.
“I just tried to stay off football and do other things in life, watch other sports and also just be relaxed with friends and family, just to disconnect,” he said, “because it’s difficult if you cannot be on the pitch and you see them play.”
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Ronald Blum, The Associated Press
