U.S. national team midfielder Jose Torres has been out of U.S. national team action for months due to injury, but he was set to return to the fold against Italy next week. At least he was before suffering an injury on Saturday night that appears to have put his national team hopes on hold yet again.
Torres played 90 minutes in Pachuca's 1-1 draw against Tigres on Saturday night, but was forced to play the final 20 minutes with an injury due to the fact Pachuca had already used all three substitutions.
Reports out of Mexico have quoted Pachuca head coach Efrain Flores as saying Torres suffered an injury late in the match and looks unlikely to join the U.S. national team in Italy for Wednesday's friendly.
If Torres is forced out of Wednesday's friendly, he would join Jermaine Jones among national team players injured this weekend. The injuries will likely force U.S. national team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann to make emergency call-ups, with Sacha Kljestan a leading candidate to be called in as a replacement.
As things stand, a central midfield pairing of Michael Bradley and Maurice Edu seems likely to face Italy, though Danny Williams could also get the nod. A pairing featuring an attacking midfielder seems unlikely for a road friendly against a team as strong as Italy.
What do you think of this development? Disappointed to hear Torres is unlikely to play against Italy? Who would you like to see start in central midfield for the United States against Italy?
Share your thoughts below.
What is the FIFA minimum roster? Suit up Klinnsi.
I would tend to agree based on what I have seen, but he probably is showing something in training that he isn’t showing w USMNT and he is still quite young so I was still curious to see him play in this friendly. It is a shame he won’t get the chance.
He is very small and, while he has a good shot, his ball skills do not appear to be as good as an Adu or Mixx. Admittedly, those players are flashier, so perhaps his skills are more subtle. Even so, he made quite a lot of turnovers in his previous call ups and we can only judge him by what we see on the field. We know Klinsy is bright but we’ve already seen him fall for some sub par players like Castillo, Beckerman, Orozco Fiscal, etc. so just bc Klinsi likes him, doesn’t mean he is necessarily the real deal.
Rumor landan Donovan
Might not play due to illness
i think run dmb needs to ge the nod with sasha….he’ll probably call in the likes of pearce for more depth at outside back…. i’d expect spector to get some game time now that chandler is injured unless we put fabian johnson at left back, which i think would preclude klinnsman to call up beasley…lichaj simply hasn’t had enough games to get called in just yet people!
you clearly havn’t watched adu play for the nats..he cam on against panama and had a masterful impact, including the ball over the top to the right wing that donovan ran onto that not many players in the world can make…he started against mexico in the final and was the only player to me in the first half looking to open up the defense and did with 2 assist! Oh, and he killed spain and argentina in friendlies 2 yrs ago..step your knowledge up son!
You’re not gonna be making too many friends around here with those kinds of suggestions. I haven’t been following Bornstein, but I haven’t seen him getting much playing time this year at all. I don’t think the fanbase is ready for either of those names back, although Castillo hasn’t looked bad.
Yup absolutely irresponsible, although would you want to play down a man if the player said he could play? Its a hard decision on the front line, but seems like an easy one from my POV. Growing up watching other American sports its always been hard to wrap my head around the three sub rule. I understand why it exists and definitely prefer seeing the same 11 play the whole game, but I’ve always thought there should be something in place for a situation like this. The rules basically encourage leaving a player in to exacerbate the injury.