By GIANFRANCO PANIZO
Jose Francisco Torres had himself quite the 2008, getting capped by the U.S. National Team in a pair of World Cup qualifiers and playing in the FIFA Club World Cup. 2009 has a chance to be even better for the Mexican-American, starting today in South America.
Torres and his club side Pachuca take on Universidad de Chile tonight (5pm, Fox Sports Espanol) in the first leg of a home-and-home series in the preliminary round of the Copa Libertadores. Torres is expected to start in midfield for Pachuca as the Mexican club attempts to qualify for Copa group play.
The winner of the series will be placed in Group 7 along side Brazilian club Gremio, Aurora, of Bolivia, and 2008 Colombian Apertura champion, Boyaca Chico.
Have to echo BNJ’s thoughts. JFT should be starting somewhere in the USA midfield. Unfortunately for Rico Clark and JFT,…Mike Bradley,…who is a decent player is also the coache’s son,…plain and simple.
Furthermore,…it is troubling that so many other Americans Abroad are not even dressing for their teams. All the more reason JFT should start.
Beto,…I for one will not engage you in any sort of dialogue. It is nonsense. Jose wears the Red White and Blue and I will support him 100%! End of story.
JFT should be starting, he is in game shape and is used to the style of mexico. Wish Bob would sit his son, but that won’t happen
Beto…you’re the traitor! Paco is playing for whom he should be.
Torres plays a deep lying playmaker for Pachuca who use a 5 man midfield, typically the CM handling the left side field duties. While not “world-class” (yet!), he does bring to the pool charecteristics not found in the Edu’s, Clarks,Bradley’s of the world. He is a good passer, protects the ball well and his linking is exceptional. Defensively he’s good enough to play deep for a Pachuca team whose success in the region is unparelled in recent years.
——————–Ching———————
Beasley————Donovan————-Dempsey
————Bradley——-Kljestan————
Pearce—————————-Cherundolo
———-Bocanegra——-Onyewu————
——————–Howard——————
Sub in Torres for Bradley 70th
Sub in Adu for Dempsey 80th
Sub in Altidore for Ching 60th
If we want Torres in the match this is basically what I think it is. Wynne/Hejduk may come in instead of Adu and possibly even Parkhurst. Edu cant be forgotten either. I cant believe im saying this so early in Torres’ national team career but I think no matter how things go Torres will get a cap against Mexico.
Here’s a question though: would Torres get a start in the Azteca? Just a thought.
What kind of role does JFT play for Pachuca?
JFT is a traitor !!
Torres should start over Beasley as he has gotten superior playing preparation before
the 2/11 clash. He’s played the full season, then Club World Cup and now Copa Libertadores. This guy is match fit and a far superior footballer than some un-skillfull, poor touch, speedster like Beasley. Plus he’s interchangeable with Kljestan when they overlap their positions between center and left midfield. Beasley would be effective coming in the last 20 mins to wear the Mexicans down if they aren’t tired by then.
I’d love to see him play against Mexico and score a goal.
I just rewatched the US-T&T game this morning on the treadmill. Or at least a good 40 minutes of it. I have been rewatching it for over the past few days. At any rate, I came away even more impressed with the young players and Torres in particular. I realize we lost, but there were two clear offides called against us that were not. One was a lovely through ball where Torres sprang jozy for a clear one v one with about 5 yds between himself and the nearest defender. Torres was all over the field, and while not beasley fast, he certainly looked fast enough. His balls all seem to be perfectly weighted and precise and he seems to have a really good idea of how to create space by a combination of timing and placing his paces. To the extent that he lost the ball, I found that it was usually when someone passed to him when he wasn’t really open. He also seems to have a calmness and confidence. Now we seemed to be in a 4-5-1 that day, with a Edu behind him and with he, Sacha and Freddy taking terms moving throughout the middle, with Beasley out wide. I was really impressed and normally do not care much for playing with one guy upfront.
that would be true and all*
yeah that be true and all…..if jft was on our olympic team…
Beasley is still the speedy option on the outside, and just as you said, Bradley’s probably not too confident about the left back situation.
I think a lot of people will call for Torres on the left just because he is left footed, but that’s really not his place. Torres is a central midfielder. If Torres is to get on the field right now, that would probably push Kljestan over on the left wing like he did in the Olympics one game.
I’m with Arkjayback. At this point someone really needs to explain why Torres shouldn’t get serious consideration for starting on the left side. No he hasn’t appeared in a WC match as DMB has. However, he’s got big experience and he’s getting starting/regular minutes for a good team.
The only reason i can think of for starting DMB on the left is that Bob is not confident in his left backs. And he knows, that if nothing else, DMB will work his arse off defensively. Unfortunately, that doesn’t say much about our confidence level.
i’m loving JFT
Torres’s game experience is going to put him ahead of other US players at some point. Edu, Beasley, Adu, and Altidore aren’t getting minutes. Kljestan’s potential situation at Celtic isn’t guaranteed to be perfect either. Bradley is on again off again with the bottom team in the Bundesliga.
And then you have Torres, getting regular minutes in the Mexican league, and has the chance to be playing in the biggest tournament outside of Europe. He may not start against Mexico, but a start in the Hexagonal looks to be coming sooner rather than later.
btw, great work Panizo, you give me even more reason to check the site a dozen times a day.