Brandon Vazquez made his long-awaited return to Cincinnati on Thursday and helped Monterrey place on step into the CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinals.
Vazquez scored the lone goal on Thursday as Monterrey edged FC Cincinnati 1-0 at TQL Stadium. The American forward struck in the 24th minute of the match, which proved to be the lone goal in the affair.
Vazquez’s powerful right-footed shot was blocked by Roman Celentano, but the young goalkeeper could not keep the rebound from trickling over the goal-line. It marked Vazquez’s seventh goal for Monterrey since his transfer to the Liga MX club.
Luciano Acosta and Corey Baird both had offensive opportunities denied, which kept Monterrey clinging onto its advantage.
Despite Rodrigo Aguirre’s ejection in the 70th minute, FC Cincy could not take advantage of the extra man advantage. Sergio Santos had the best opportunity to tie the match late, but Esteban Andrada came to the rescue with his fourth and final save of the night.
Monterrey will host the second leg next week, already holding a slight advantage on aggregate.
Nashville SC 2, Inter Miami 2
Inter Miami used a Luis Suarez 95th minute equalizer to tie Nashville SC 2-2 at Geodis Park in an All-MLS affair.
Despite Jacob Shaffelburg’s brace, the Herons used goals from Lionel Messi and Suarez to earn a road draw ahead of next week’s second leg from DRV PNK Stadium.
Suarez’s header in second-half stoppage time helped Inter Miami rally to stay alive in the tie. Sergio Busquets’ cross was directed home by the Uruguayan, who now has three goals since his winter arrival from Brazilian side Gremio.
Shaffelburg boosted Gary Smith’s squad in front after just four minutes, finishing off Shaq Moore’s pass into the high center of Drake Callender’s net.
The Canadian international doubled his tally in fine style after 47 minutes, sending a right-footed shot into the top-right corner for a 2-0 Nashville SC lead. However, the Herons would find their way back in the match through their top player.
Messi’s stunning left-footed strike only five minutes later cut the Inter Miami deficit in half before Tata Martino’s squad netted the tying goal with only three minutes to play.
The scene shifts to Fort Lauderdale on March 13 for second-leg action.
There are reports that suggest Sargent could be left behind because of a lingering ankle problem. Dave Wagner has been out front about Josh needing to rest that ankle and to continue rehabbing it over the break, so I could see him left at Norwich
Based on current form I’m bringing
Pulisic
Weah
Balogun
Vazquez
Wright
Sargent
You have to wonder about Nashville’s defense–not closing on Messi and then leaving Suarez unmarked in the waning minutes for the tying goal. How can you ignore the 2 best strikers in the league, maybe in history? One bit of good news is the goal scored by Shaq Moore that was waved away by an offsides, which I couldn’t see on the replay. Moore looked like a top flight striker as he weaved his way through the back line of Miami.
“How can you ignore the 2 best strikers in the league, maybe in history?”
It’s not by accident. Messi and Suarez have learned how get left unmarked, so to speak.
Vazquez should be be in the mix for a callup in March. Dude has 7 goals since joining Monterrey. Going to be hard to choose the strikers.
He is from the same age group as Pulisic, Mckennie, De La Torre, Zendejas, Wright.
He is more like a Sargent type, just bigger and probably a better aerial game.
Vazquez is on a ridiculous scoring pace that’s close to what Sargent is pulling off right now with Norwich. Norwich fans main concern is that some mid-or-upper-table Prem team is going to come in for him this offseason, especially if Norwich doesn’t win promotion…so I’d be curious to see if Vazquez is writing his own ticket to a Top-5 league team if he continues to score at his present torrid pace. I personally think he’s good enough, and his size and physicality would present a lot of the same problems for, say, La Liga defenders he’s presenting now with Monterrey in Liga MX, and the fact that he speaks Spanish is huge since cultural acclimation is always the X-factor when you see a player head over to Europe.
Vazquez is absolutely not hurting his future prospects, whatever. And it is highly encouraging that after a long stretch of the USMNT not having any real answers at the #9 spot a lot of players seem to have emerged and are now banging them in for fun. And again, for anybody who didn’t hear me the first 500 times or so I mentioned it, big strikers tend to mature and peak later than speed guys and play longer – often well into their mid or even late 30’s – since their game is not speed-based and savvy, size, and understanding are not qualities that diminish with age. Which means when you see guys like Sargent emerging at 23 and Haji Wright and Brandon Vazquez really emerging at 25, they could well still have 10+ years left on their tires, and Pepi could conceivably have 15 or more years left. I mean, Pulisic is playing right next to a 37-year-old 6’4″ Olivier Giroud at AC Milan, and Giroud is still banging them in. And Pepi’s presently stuck on the bench because he’s behind the 33-year-old 6’3″ Luuk de Jong, who is scoring a ludicrous goal-a-game at PSV right now.
Still hurt my heart a bit though to see Cincinnati lose to Monterrey. Thanks to Vazquez. I mean, yay for Vazquez…but otherwise: boo.
Agreed. So if you take 3 strikers to the Nations league which 3 do you take? Right now I say Balogun, Sargent, Vazquez. Pepi is tge youngest and as much as I think Pepi has a big future, I tend to think he can be the guy for our Olympic team. Now it will be interesting come 2026 because of Fifa stays with 26 man rosters then yiu have the ability to bring 4 strikers. I think these 4 guys are going to be the main 4 who will consistently competing for USMNT callups for the next 8 to 10 years.
I think Sargent will make it, if not as a backup CF, but as a winger. Balo is #1 because what he has done in the past. He is not having a great season.
Wright, he is playing as a left wing-forward for club.
Our current backup wingers are weak in Zendejas and Aaronson.
Easily Wright and Sargent can be the wingers. which leaves Pepi and Vazquez to fight for the backup spot for CF.