Brandon Vazquez is the Striker to Take Austin FC Back to the Postseason

Austin FC's newest DP finally gives the team a striker opposition defenses will fear.

Austin FC and strikers have gone together like peanut butter and mayonnaise.

In four years, no striker donning Verde and Black has had a campaign registering double figures in goals scored. Next season, that should change.

On Monday, Austin FC announced the signing of Brandon Vazquez from Liga MX club CF Monterrey for a reported $10 million club-record transfer fee. Vazquez will be on a four-year Designated Player (DP) contract through the end of the 2028 season with an option for 2029. Before joining Monterrey, the 26-year-old Vazquez played seven professional seasons in MLS and has featured in 11 matches for the United States Men’s National Team.

The bar any incoming Austin FC striker would have had to have cleared is at the bottom of the Dead Sea, but Vazquez should be much more than decent in Austin. He’s most known among MLS fans for his imperious 2022 season with FC Cincinnati where he contributed 18 goals and eight assists. "Yes, that will do just fine," copious Austin FC fans screamed after checking Vazquez's FBRef.com page.

Buoyed by Maxi Urruti’s finishing going supernova in the first half of the campaign, 2022 has been the only season Austin FC strikers combined to score more than 10 goals (Urruti scored nine and Moussa Djitte added four - Djitte’s stunning, 20-minute hat trick against Real Salt Lake to clinch Austin FC’s only playoff appearance still might be my favorite moment in the team’s history). It’s not a coincidence that was the season Austin FC reached the Western Conference final.

Verde strikers collectively scored just seven goals in both the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Despite this anemic production from a position of critical importance, the team only missed the postseason by five points in each of those campaigns. It isn’t a stretch to say improved striker play alone should be enough to secure Austin FC its second postseason appearance in 2025. But what exactly should Austin FC fans expect from Vazquez?

Image via WCPO

What Kind of Striker is Brandon Vazquez, and How Will He Fit Into Austin FC’s Attack?

In the modern game, there are many ways a striker can be productive for their team. A striker can drop off the forward line to link play and combine with teammates, helping drive the team forward - think Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane at his roaming best. For the more sedentary, there’s staying high and waiting to bury chances when they fall to you. Much kerfuffle has been made about Manchester City’s Erling Haaland barely touching the ball, but his 79 goals across 86 Premier League appearances speak for themselves.

And, really, despite the variety of approaches contemporary strikers can use when interpreting their position, the most effective way they can contribute is - as it’s always been - to score goals. Inverted wingers cutting inside and curling in highlight-reel goals have helped ease some of the scoring burden off number 9s, as have box-crashing midfielders ready to rip a poor clearance into the top corner of the net. But still, if you’re a center forward and you’re not regularly scoring goals, I advise you not to check your mentions on social media.

Fortunately, Vazquez is good at the whole putting the ball in the back of the net thing. He may have been relegated to a super-sub role more than he would have liked at Monterrey, but his goal-scoring numbers stayed strong. Vazquez registered .55 non-penalty goals per 90 minutes over the last 365 days which encompasses his entire time at Monterrey (good enough to land in the 88th percentile among Liga MX forwards and forwards from 13 other similar leagues, all stats per FBRef.com). There wasn’t much noise in that production either: he was on .48 non-penalty expected goals (xG) per 90 in Mexico.

As for how Vazquez plays, he’s not a no-touch all-star like Haaland, nor is he quite the creative hub of an attack like Kane. His profile lies somewhere in between those two extremes. Let’s look at his FBRef.com chart from his scintillating, breakout 2022 FC Cincinnati season to get an idea of how his game looks when he’s at his best. These percentiles show how Vazquez compared to other MLS forwards that season.

We know he banged in 18 goals and served up eight assists in 2022, so it’s no surprise to see Vazquez rank high in those statistical categories. Worth noting are his reasonably healthy progressive passes received and progressive carry numbers. For a guy who’s 6’2, Vazquez is surprisingly nimble on his feet and doesn’t have a problem playing with his back to goal and presenting himself as an option for a pinged long-range pass.

What doesn’t show up on this chart is Vazquez’s aerial prowess. He ranked in the 86th percentile for aerial duels won in 2022. Here’s where I’d like to note that only the Vancouver Whitecaps crossed the ball into the penalty area more than Austin FC in MLS in 2024. I can still hear the Q2 Stadium groans from another Verde possession fizzling out due to a cross not finding its target. Vazquez should help with that.

We don’t know if Nico Eztevez’s Austin FC will be as cross-reliant as Josh Wolff’s was. In Estevez’s last full season as head coach of FC Dallas, his team crossed the ball into the penalty area 63 times (the 15th-most in MLS in 2023 and 23 fewer times than 2024 Austin FC). However, with Vazquez leading the line in 2025, crosses should be a much more viable route to goals for the Verde and Black.

Once you’ve stopped your celebrations after looking at Vazquez’s 2022 statistics, you may feel a knot of worry form in your stomach upon looking at his 2023 numbers - his last season in MLS before moving to Monterrey in 2024. Yes, Vazquez was more man than Superman in his final FC Cincinnati campaign, registering just eight goals and two assists. Here’s his FBRef.com chart from his 2023 season comparing him to other MLS forwards.

A few things to note: Vazquez played nearly 400 fewer minutes in 2023 than in 2022. His non-penalty xG per 90 only dropped from .49 in 2022 to .40 in 2023 - Vazquez was a little hot with his finishing in 2022, and he ran a little cold the following season. Still, he generally found himself in good positions to score. Additionally, Cincinnati’s sale of fellow forward Brenner in April 2023 probably impacted Vazquez.

Vazquez was one-third of the three-headed monster atop FC Cincinnati’s attack during the 2022 season. Luciano Acosta pulled the strings from the number 10 position while Brenner and Vazquez fired in the goals (Acosta also had 10 goals himself to go along with the 18-a-piece Vazquez and Brenner scored because he’s not human). Looking at the attacking third touches each player accrued per 90 during that campaign helps showcase their dynamic.

To reiterate: Vazquez isn’t a pure penalty-box poacher, but he was the least active on the ball in the final third of this stellar trio. To an extent, Vazquez's production - like most strikers on this planet - is influenced by the attacking players surrounding him. In 2023, Brenner’s shoes were filled by a combination of Dominique Badji and Aaron Boupendza when he arrived that June. Each only contributed five goals, and neither was the force of nature 2022 Brenner was. So, we can mostly attribute Vazquez's 2023 decline to some wayward finishing, playing fewer minutes, and playing with less attacking talent around him.

What talent will surround Vazquez in 2025? Well, it might not include Sebastian Driussi, as he is rumored to be close to joining the Argentinian club River Plate. In the first edition of the Oak Tree Times, we looked at the likelihood of Driussi returning to his MVP-caliber 2022 form in 2025 (TL;DR: it isn’t likely). But there was still plenty of reason to think Driussi could be a solid 10-15 goal scorer for Austin FC next season. If he does leave, Austin FC certainly has a void to fill - and it would likely look to fill that void with another DP attacker.

If we view this potential decision through the prism of 2022 FC Cincinnati, would Austin FC look to replace Driussi with a chance creator like Acosta or a chance finisher like Brenner? Driussi’s best more resembles the 2022 version of Brenner, as Driussi’s always been more of a second striker than a pure number 10. Their underlying metrics from the 2022 season are similar. Driussi registered .41 non-penalty xG per 90 to Brenner’s .51, and .14 expected assisted goals per 90 (xAG) to Brenner’s .13.

And for what it’s worth, Vazquez’s production declined in Cincinnati after the sale of Brenner while Acosta was still on the team. A Driussi departure might prompt Austin FC to add another goal-scorer to pair up top with Vazquez and hope it has enough creativity in wide areas (winger Osman Bukari could have a big 2025 ahead of him) to provide the required service.

Anxiety brought on by Driussi’s possible exit has taken some of the shine off what otherwise has been a banner week for Austin FC fans. If Driussi is off to River Plate, Verde supporters should trust sporting director Rodolfo Borrell to find a suitable replacement. He’s already done the impossible. Borrell finally found Austin FC a striker capable of firing the team back to the postseason.