COMMERCE CITY — Nicolás Mezquida was once the rookie the veterans tasked with getting coffee. In the middle of the night — right before a game — he’d wake up to a pounding on his door by the big players on the Uruguayan club he grew up supporting needed their caffeine fix.
When he’d hit the pitch the next day, his play lacked the intensity of his jolted elder teammates but together they’d destroy the competition.
The rigors of being a young professional footballer are already a decade behind the now 27-year-old Mezquida.