It wasn’t a cross that led to Vazquez’s first goal, the first of what he said will be many. Instead, he ran onto a through pass down the right side from fellow rookie Julian Gressel. The Real Salt Lake defender who was shadowing Vazquez inexplicably quit running, leaving Vazquez with only needing to round the goalkeeper and shoot to secure the goal.

Vazquez hadn’t had a chance yet to check his phone after the game before he was interviewed. He only knew he had a few notifications.

It will be interesting to see how much Vazquez gets to play this season. The team has four true forwards: Josef Martinez, who is injured, Kenwyne Jones, who started, Vazquez and recent addition Bryan Rochez.

Vazquez offers skills that are a mix of Jones’ size and Martinez’s ability to split defenders. Vazquez was in Tijuana’s academy since 2012 before being acquired by Atlanta United in Dec. 2016. He has made several appearances for U.S. youth national teams.

“We are happy for him,” team captain Michael Parkhurst said. “He’s been working hard in training. It was nice to see he was composed right there and sealed the game for us.”