Martín Vásquez

Not to be confused with Rafael Martín Vázquez.

Martín Vásquez Gómez (born December 24, 1963 in Yahualica) is a Mexican-born American former professional football player in both the Mexican and American leagues, mainly in the early days of the Major League Soccer. He also played for the national teams of both the United States and Mexico. For Mexico he only appeared in friendly games not recognized by FIFA, which allowed him to make the nationality switch. Together with Andreas Herzog, he is currently Jürgen Klinsmanns USMNT assistant coach.

Playing career

Youth and college

Vasquez and his family moved to Los Angeles at the age of 12. He attended Alhambra High School in Alhambra, California, where he was a high school All-American soccer player. After high school, he returned to Mexico to briefly play for the B side of the Leones Negros de Guadalajara.

In 1980, Vasquez entered the California State University, Los Angeles, playing on the men's soccer team from 1980 to 1983. During his first two years, he spent the college off-season with Cojumatlan in the San Gabriel Valley Soccer League, in El Monte, California.

Club

In the fall of 1984, Vasquez signed with the Los Angeles Lazers of the Major Indoor Soccer League. He then played for the Hollywood Kickers of the Western Soccer Alliance. That fall, he joined the Memphis Storm in the American Indoor Soccer Association, where he scored seventeen goals and added nineteen assists in twenty-three games, ranking second on the league's points list.^[1]

In 1987, Vasquez returned to the Kickers, now renamed the California Kickers.^[2] In 1987, Cachorros de la Universidad de Guadalajara signed the player, based on the recommendation of Hugo Salcedo, president on the Kickers.^[3] In 1990–91, he represented Puebla FC, moving to CD Veracruz in the following campaign.

In 1992, Vasquez joined F.C. Atlas, leaving four years later to return to the United States, with the establishment of Major League Soccer. That year, he was allocated to the Tampa Bay Mutiny, and played for the (soon-to-be defunct) team for a period of two years, rounding off his career with the San Jose Clash in 1998. The next year, he played for the Orange County Zodiac in the USL A-League.^[4]

International

Vasquez played three games with the Mexican national team.one of them being against Colombia and the other two came against Russia, during César Luis Menotti's spell as coach. However, none of the matches he played for his birth nation were FIFA-recognized.

Vasquez received U.S. citizenship in 1996. Subsequently, he was called up to the national team by Steve Sampson, going on to earn seven caps in a two-year span. His debut came on December 21, 1996 against Guatemala (2–2 away draw), in a 1998 World Cup qualifier, and he last appeared in the home 4–2 victory over El Salvador, for the same competition, on November 16, 1997. He started the game, then came off in the 63rd minute for Mike Sorber.^[5]

Coaching career

After retiring from his playing career, Vasquez worked as assistant coach with Cal Poly Pomona and the women's team San Diego Spirit,^[6] which folded soon after. He also coached the Damien High School boy's team for two seasons. After one season as assistant with the Los Angeles Galaxy,^[7] he joined newly created MLS team C.D. Chivas USA in the same capacity, on January 2, 2005.^[8]

Between July 2008 and April 2009, Vasquez worked as the assistant to Jürgen Klinsmann at German club FC Bayern Munich.^[9][10] He left when Klinsmann was dismissed due to bad results.^[11] Vasquez was hired to his first head coaching job on December 2, 2009, at former club Chivas.^[12]

Vasquez was released from his duties following a season which saw the Goats miss the playoffs for the first time since its 2005 expansion campaign.^[13]

Vasquez was recalled by Klinsmann after the latter was named head coach of the United States men's national team as an assistant coach for a friendly against Mexico on August 11, 2011.^[14]

Managerial statistics

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Chivas USA		December 2, 2009	October 27, 2010	700130000000000000030	70008000000000000008	70004000000000000004	700118000000000000018	700126670000000000026.67

See also

References

External links

• Chivas USA coach profile
• Martín Vásquez at National-Football-Teams.com
• MISL stats