The United States men’s national team’s striker situation is in a far healthier state now than at any point during the 2022 World Cup cycle.
A group of former prospects have fully come of age. Folarin Balogun committed to the program late in 2023 and scored at the Copa América last summer, but has struggled in his first 16 months with Monaco of France’s Ligue 1 since a move from Premier League side Arsenal. Josh Sargent of Norwich City is a top striker in the Championship when healthy, and Ricardo Pepi continues to shine when given minutes with Dutch champions PSV.
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Across the Atlantic, Brandon Vazquez has remained in the pool amid the change in head coach from Gregg Berhalter to Mauricio Pochettino. The now 26-year-old finally broke through in 2022 with FC Cincinnati, landing on the MLS Best XI and drawing interest from outside of the league. Ultimately, the Chula Vista, Calif., native left for CF Monterrey of Mexico last winter, positioning him up top at one of North America’s biggest clubs.
After just 12 months, Vazquez’s time in Liga MX is already over. On Monday, Austin FC announced it had spent a club-record transfer fee (around $10million, according to GiveMeSport) to bring him back to MLS.
A day later, Vazquez met with their new head coach Nico Estévez, sporting director Rodolfo Borrell, and USMNT assistant Jesus Perez to determine whether he should be included in the MLS-only squad for the national team’s January camp.
“We all ended up agreeing that, since Austin had made such a big effort to bring me in and such a big economic effort as well, everybody thought it would be better if I hit the ground running with this group here,” Vazquez told The Athletic on Tuesday. “I’m here to get situated as fast as I can with them, instead of starting with (Austin) right before the season starts. Hopefully that way, I can be firing on all cylinders and I can be situated with this group as best possible.”
Strong play up top will be music to Austin’s ears, as the club looks to make the MLS Cup playoffs for the first time since 2022. It would also bolster his case as Pochettino works to determine his best squad ahead of next year’s World Cup in an increasingly competitive field of strikers.
While Balogun struggles for consistency, Sargent works to stay off the trainer’s table and Pepi continues to be more of a rotational figure for PSV, Vazquez made this move to Austin hoping to parlay leading-man status at club level into a World Cup place.
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“We take all that into consideration,” Vazquez says of his national-team possibilities. “Being able to be a big piece for this team was important to me. I was coming to a place that has all the tools that could help me succeed. The training facility here is world-class. The stadium here is world-class. The players on this squad are amazing — the coaching staff, the general manager, the ownership group.
“Everything is in line to help me succeed, be the best athlete, be the best soccer player, be the best everything that I could be.”
Vazquez’s emergence half a decade ago coincided with the rise of FC Cincinnati.
After being acquired by the Ohio club in 2020 having previously played for Atlanta United in 2020, Cincinnati finished last in the MLS table in each of its first two seasons. By 2022, Vazquez had picked up more experience than he was getting in Atlanta, and was a worthy line-leader as the club made its first postseason appearance.
Vazquez had plenty to do with this newfound potency, leading Cincinnati with 18 goals in 33 regular season matches to land on MLS’s all-star team of the year.
It was much of the same in 2023, although Vazquez’s output more than halved as he finished with eight goals from 29 appearances. He also saw Cincinnati reject advances from clubs in the German Bundesliga and Spain’s La Liga, hoping to keep a core together — their team ultimately won the Supporters’ Shield with the best regular-season record in MLS. However, it did contradict a career dream of Vazquez’s to play in Europe. When Monterrey came calling last January, it was a chance to test himself in a different league.
“Going to Monterrey was, I think, the best opportunity for the moment that I was in last year,” Vazquez says. “Of course, there were opportunities that weren’t taken before that because of outside factors that were out of my control. I just try to live day to day. I don’t really think about what should have happened or what will happen in the future.”
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The striker quickly endeared himself to Monterrey’s fans, scoring three goals in his first two league starts and adding goals home and away against Cincinnati in the CONCACAF Champions Cup’s round of 16. He was nicknamed the “Mexican Superman,” a nod to his dual nationality, his goal celebration and considerably athletic physique.
But he became more rotational as the 2023-24 Clausura season (its second half) wore on, at times backing up Germán Berterame and Rodrigo Aguirre. Ultimately, he scored just once in the Clausura’s final 11 matches. Then he remained a peripheral figure in the 2024-25 Apertura phase, starting just seven of 23 games from July to December. All the while though, Vazquez worked to refine his approach in the box thanks to Liga MX’s style of play.
“In Mexico, the refs let you play a bit more,” Vazquez said. “As a forward, you have to deal with defenders being really dirty. I think I’ve learned how to deal with that. I’ve also learned, in the box, how to create space between me and the defenders. That’s something that I’ve added to my game.”
The off-and-on nature of his year opened the door to other opportunities.
In November, Vazquez was notified by his agent that Austin had asked about his availability, after the Texas club had just finished 10th in the Western Conference and missed the final playoff position by five points.
In the brief time between the regular season’s end and their inquiry, Austin had appointed Estévez as head coach mere months after he’d been dismissed by state rival FC Dallas. Estévez honed his approach as an assistant to Berhalter, first with the Columbus Crew and then the USMNT from 2019-21. Vazquez was familiar with Estévez despite not making his international debut until January 2023, and saw his appointment as a major positive regarding a potential move across the border.
“We’ve always gotten along great, and he’s always been very intelligent with how he manages players and how he sees the game,” Vazquez says of his new club boss. “That’s always been interesting for me. When I knew he was going to be here, it was like an easy ‘yes’ for me.”
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Of course, a move to Austin would bring his time in Liga MX to a swift end after just one calendar year.
“I mean, it’s always hard leaving a place and going to a new place and adapting,” Vazquez says, after pausing to reflect. “Transitions are never easy. It’s always hard to leave wherever you’re at. But with that being said, everything here just seemed meant to be. It was a good place for me to keep developing, take a step forward in my career and keep improving every day as a player, as an athlete. For my family as well, it just seemed meant to be for everybody.”
Despite leaving MLS, Vazquez had two opportunities to play at Austin’s Q2 Stadium home in 2024.
The first came during the Leagues Cup in July. He came off the bench late in the first half of Monterrey’s 2-0 defeat to the MLS side, but came to admire the quality of the playing surface despite his club being eliminated in the group stage. “It was fun, man,” Vazquez says. “It was fun coming here, catching up with old friends here in Austin that I’m now teammates with, and playing at the stadium, on this field, seeing the fans here. It was incredible. The quality of the pitch this stadium has is unbelievable. It’s always fun to play on this. You feel like your touch is perfect on every play.”
He returned in October for a national team camp, and was an unused substitute as Panama was beaten 2-0 in Pochettino’s first match as coach.
When Austin came calling the following month, Vazquez told his agent to wait to broker the deal until after the Apertura season concluded.
He described the talks as “a complicated transfer for all parties” but ultimately a deal was reached to bring him back to his domestic league. Ultimately, Estévez’s presence and a squad that was retooled throughout 2024 made it too good of an opportunity to deny.
“I know the players that we have that are going to be around me,” Vazquez says. “We have a very talented team, a very attacking mentality, and I think that that’s something that very much interests me.
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“Just talking to him (Estévez) about the players around me, the kind of formation that we’re going to play, how they want to play, it was just exciting for me. More than that, it was just getting to play with the players that are on this squad. It just seems like there is a lot of success in the future for this team.”
Although Vazquez lauded Austin’s planned proactive approach, whether or not Estévez’s plans will result in winning soccer will have much to do with the club’s new record signing. Vazquez will don the No 9 shirt, a hallowed number for a striker that he was unable to obtain in both Atlanta and Cincinnati.
Austin is betting big on Vazquez, who only has one double-digit goalscoring season in league competition since debuting in 2017 — though that may be due to the fact he’s only exceeded 1,000 minutes in two campaigns: 2022 and 2023. He doesn’t have a specific goal tally in mind to validate Austin’s opulent belief in him. (“If I end up with 14 goals, if I end up with 10, if I end up with eight or 20 or whatever it may be: if the team is winning, I think that’s what’s most important.”) Nor does he seem bothered by any potential pressure as a club’s most expensive transfer.
By missing this January camp, Vazquez hopes to swiftly work into Austin’s plans from the start of its preseason. A clear part of Pochettino’s plans between now and the World Cup, which the U.S. co-hosts with Canada and Mexico but will stage the majority of the matches including the final, he’ll hope to put in a strong season-plus in a familiar competition with consistent starts.
“I’ve dealt with pressure before,” Vazquez says. “I’ve dealt with it my whole career, pretty much. I think I’ve put more pressure on myself than anybody else. I trust in my abilities and what I can do, and I think I’m going to be able to do that here. If I can be my best here, I know I will live up to everybody’s expectations.”
(Top photo: Azael Rodriguez/Getty Images)
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Jeff Rueter is a senior writer for The Athletic who covers soccer in North America, Europe, and beyond. No matter how often he hears the Number 10 role is “dying,” he’ll always leave a light on for the next great playmaker. Follow Jeff on Twitter @jeffrueter
