U.S. Soccer star uses CONCACAF Champions Cup as revenge tour
Brandon Vazquez is one of U.S. Soccer's brightest young talents, but the forward's professional journey has been filled with frustration.
After an eye-catching youth career split between Chula Vista and Tijuana, Vazquez got his big break when coach Tata Martino signed him to Atlanta United of Major League Soccer for the club's debut season. From there, though, Vazquez found himself on the outside — shunned by Martino and struggling for playing time during the most important phase of his career.
"I didn't really have a great relationship with him," Vazquez told ESPN about Martino last summer.
Vazquez left MLS for Monterrey in Mexico over the winter, and he set his sights on North America's biggest prize: the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
Fate threw some familiar foes in his path. First came FC Cincinnati, the team he left in the winter; Vazquez scored in both legs to eliminate his old club from the Round of 16.
From there, the true test awaited: Tata Martino, now in charge of Major League Soccer's star-studded Inter Miami.
For Monterrey, beating Inter Miami would mean everything. It would underline Liga MX's dominance over MLS and prove that even Inter Miami's Lionel Messi, the greatest player in the world, couldn't compete with it.
For Vazquez, beating Inter Miami meant revenge — over the coach and league that wasted his talent.
Monterrey won the first leg 2-1 in the United States thanks to goals from Maximiliano Meza and Jorge Rodriguez. But Messi missed that opening match, and with the Argentine set to return for the second leg in Mexico, the tie remained balanced on a knife's edge.
It was Vazquez, of course, who settled it. When Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender made an error inside his penalty box, Vazquez was their to seize the opportunity and fire the ball into the back of the net. His goal set the aggregate score at 3-1 and pushed the game beyond Miami's reach.
When Vazquez scored against Cincinnati in the Round of 16, he refused to celebrate out of respect for his former club. He had no such compulsions against Miami. Vazquez leapt in the air in front of the home fans and pumped his fists, clearly thrilled to have delivered a knockout blow to Martino's men.
Vazquez was reflective in the press box once the game ended with a Monterrey win. "It is another step on the path that we deserve to be on," he told the press in Spanish.
He was talking about Monterrey, of course. But after years of stops, starts and frustrations getting his MLS career off the ground under Martino's care, you'd be forgiven for thinking he was talking about himself, too.
Vazquez and Monterrey will continue their Champions Cup journey against the Columbus Crew on April 23.
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