Vazquez: Berhalter told me it’s too late to integrate me before World Cup

The ship has sailed for Vazquez’s hopes of making the USMNT World Cup squad

Brandon Vazquez said Gregg Berhalter has informed him that his 2022 World Cup roster hopes are over.

Vazquez has put himself on the U.S. national team radar with a stellar 2022 season with FC Cincinnati, scoring 18 goals and adding eight assists to lead his side to the playoffs.

The 23-year-old, who is also eligible to play for Mexico, is still awaiting his first senior team call-up for either country.

It’s that lack of experience with the USMNT that has proven costly in Berhalter’s eyes, which Vazquez said the U.S. coach relayed to him last month.

“I talked to Gregg right before that [September] camp,” Vazquez told MLS Today, “and he was basically saying that it was a little too late to integrate me and that he feels I made it really hard for him and that I just need to keep proving myself and that I’ll [have] that opportunity in the next cycle. Pretty much was that.”

The ship appeared to have sailed for Vazquez when Berhalter omitted him from that September roster. The USMNT boss said at the time that Ricardo Pepi, Josh Sargent and Jesús Ferreira were preferred in part because they all had USMNT experience.

“For us, it’s comparing him to what we have, comparing him to other guys and then the body of work both with his club and with us,” Berhalter said last month. “And with us, it’s very difficult for him: He doesn’t have a body of work.”

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