Jose Francisco Torres Happy With Playing Soccer For The U.S. Over Mexico

We have to admit, we don’t love these stories about players with parents from opposing countries up for grabs to national teams. It’s so awkward. We saw it earlier this year when American-born soccer player Edgar Castillo chose to play for the Mexican Olympic team, and now we have Jose Fransisco Torres. Torres’ pops was born in Mexico, his mom in the U.S., but he’s from Longview, Texas and has played for Pachuca in Mexico since he was 16. So what’s a 5′5 midfielder to do when it comes to international play? Luckily U.S. coach Bob Bradley was wiser than Mexican side head Sven-Goran Eriksson made a huge push for Torres when he was overlooked for the Mexican team. Bradley has made his mistake with Castillo, and didn’t want to do the same with Torres, who had turned down the U.S.’s offer to play for them in the Bejing Olympics.

At the time, [Torres] was concentrating on securing his first-team place with Pachuca and still wondering whether Mexico’s national team would call him up. But Eriksson did not invite Torres, a left-sided attacking player with good vision and solid all-around skills, into camp for its World Cup qualifying matches.

Meanwhile, Bradley, along with Sunil Gulati, president of U.S. Soccer, were actively recruiting Torres. The two had seen another Mexican American with huge potential — 22-year-old defender Edgar Castillo from Las Cruces, N.M., slip between their fingers last fall.

When Eriksson failed to include Torres on his roster for a recent friendly game for Mexico against Chile at the Los Angeles Coliseum, even though the roster featured mostly young, unproven players, Torres made up his mind. Mexico had had its chance; he would play for the U.S.

Their loss is the U.S.’s gain apparently. Despite playing sparingly so far, Torres has been able to show flashes of what they’re looking for. And with the U.S. assured entry into the next round of World Cup qualifiers and Mexico under Eriksson chasing it tail to get there, maybe it’s the right place for him to be.
U.S. scores against Mexico in landing Jose Francisco Torres [LA Times]
Image [LA Times]