Washington Post: Torres Chooses USA

Steve Goff of the Wash­ing­ton Post is report­ing that Jose Fran­cisco Tor­res, a bud­ding super­star in the FMF for Pachuca a club that has been the most suc­cess­ful in the CONCACAF region over the past sev­eral sea­sons has decided less than one month short of his 21st birth­day to play for the United States instead of Mex­ico. This is a mas­sive devel­op­ment for the US National Team.

For all my crit­i­cism on air of both Sunil Gulati and Bob Bradley this is a mas­sive coup. Tor­res has played a key reserve role for Pachuca not only in FMF matches but also in the CONCACAF Cham­pi­ons Cup, which Pachuca won in 2006 and 2007. Tor­res is left footed and very good with the ball at his feet: his addi­tion to the US squad instantly improves a lack­lus­ter mid­field attack, and quite pos­si­bly rel­e­gated Freddy Adu to the side­lines for the fore­see­able future. While I cer­tainly would hope this is not the case, as my CSRN Amer­i­can Soc­cer Show co-host believes Bob Bradley “hates Freddy Adu,” and Tor­res is cer­tainly a more accept­able, and tech­ni­cally gifted replace­ment for Adu than any­one cur­rently in the US pool.

Tor­res is one of three Mexican-Americans who have now opted to play for the United States instead of Mex­ico: he is cer­tainly the most accom­plished of the group which now includes Michael Orozco and Sammy Ochoa. Tor­res is the only one of the three, I could have real­is­ti­cally seen play­ing for Mex­ico. A big coup for US Soc­cer, and a job well done to Bob Bradley and whomever helped make this happen.