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Americans Abroad Wednesday Rewind: Villafana, Alvarado, Ream and more

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Two U.S. Men’s National Team defenders starred in a lopsided win in Copa MX play.

Both Jorge Villafana and Ventura Alvarado went a full 90 minutes on Wednesday for Santos Laguna, who crushed Coras Tepic, 5-0, in Wednesday’s Copa MX clash. After scoring a goal just before the halftime whistle, Santos Laguna fired a barrage of goals in the second half, with three coming between the 67th and 82nd minutes.

Elsewhere in Mexico, Luis Gil earned an extended runout in Queretaro’s 3-0 beating at the hands of Cruaz Azul, while Jose Torres dressed but did not see the field in a Tigres draw.

In England, Tim Ream took the field as Fulham cruised past Bristol City, 2-0. Perry Kitchen and Bjorn Johnsen were not as lucky over in Scotland, as Hearts slumped to a 3-1 Scottish Cup loss to Hibernian.

Here’s a full look at Wednesday’s Americans Abroad:

MEXICO

CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Jose Torres dressed but did not play in Tigres’ 1-1 draw with Pumas.

COPA MX

Luis Gil started and played 75 minutes in Queretaro’s 3-0 loss to Cruz Azul.

Jonathan Bornstein did not dress for Queretaro.

Jorge Villafana started and played 90 minutes in Santos Laguna’s 5-0 win over Coras Tepic

Ventura Alvarado started and played 90 minutes for Santos Laguna.

ENGLAND

CHAMPIONSHIP 

Tim Ream started and played 90 minutes in Fulham’s 2-0 win over Bristol City.

SCOTLAND

SCOTTISH CUP

Perry Kitchen started and played 45 minutes in Hearts’ 3-1 loss to Hibernian.

Bjorn Johnsen dressed but did not play for Hearts.

Comments

    • This was a cup match against lower divisions side he isn’t going to play in LigaMX matches, baring injury. He hasn’t played in a league match since Sept. 25. There is another cup match next week but that will likely be it before the qualifiers.

      Reply
      • Then we’ll take what we can get, I suppose. But I think he was Arena’s number one at LB when he came out with it after the friendlies. So, if that’s the case, any amount he plays, the better.

      • I don’t think it disqualifies him, its not like the MLS guys have a lot of game time under their belt at this time of the year either. He logged more minutes at leftback last night than FJ has since November.

      • Villafana may have exited the January as the best LB option in the camp, but if his playing time situation doesn’t change I wouldn’t discount Garza as possibly overtaking him. Regardless they’re still behind Fabian as the best LB in the player pool and aren’t likely to overtake him unless FJ gets injured again.

        johnnyrazor – Villafana may have logged more minutes at LB than Fabian has recently, but we have more quality options at wide midfield than we do at LB so don’t expect Fabian to be moved off the back-line any time soon.

      • Lost: Garze will have had three competitive games by the the time of qualifiers so I’m not sure that gives him much advantage over Villafana. Jorge showed in the friendlies he can step on the pitch and perform despite having little competitive action over the course of the fall and early winter. If you look at Garza he’s hardly played over the last two years because of injury so hard to give him the match ready advantage over Villafana.

        As far as FJ, I agree the wide midfield is deep and he’s the best LB we have currently. However, I’m still not sure that Arena will play him there. The US needs to do a better job of maintaining possession, and testing the back line of their opponent, if we are going to start taking it to opponents instead of reacting to them, FJ would fit into those plans. It will come down to if Arena wants the best back 4 possible or the best midfield, or the best overall 11.

      • Bruce Arena has already stated he will play FJ where he plays with his club and that was after asking Fabian where he feels he is the most comfortable upon his visit to Germany. Very likely we’ll see Villafana or Garza at LB come March.

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