Guess Who’s Back?

Sunday’s match against Toronto FC saw an event which many Philadelphia Union fans have waited months for; the return of fan favorite and Colombian midfielder Roger Torres. Torres has not seen the field for a league match since March 24, 2012 due to a knee injury. Coming in Sunday in the 83^rdminute to an enthusiastic crowd chanting his name, Roger’s first touch was less than decent, directly to a Toronto player, but he quickly recovered by feeding a beautiful through ball to a darting Antoine Hoppenot which was unfortunately snubbed out by the Toronto defense. Playing only seven minutes, Torres did not get many opportunities to show off the ball control skills Union fans have grown to love over the time he has spent here, but the fact that Torres did not play noticeably poor during his short time on the field should give Philadelphia fans hope that this major injury won’t be career changing for the midfielder. Although it will likely be a few more months until we see Roger starting, especially with the competition ahead of him, I would expect to see him regularly used as a late sub for Michael Farfan or Freddy Adu.

Roger’s absence in the midfield has allowed players like Marfan and Adu to step up and become a creative force on the field. It will be interesting to see how Coach John Hackworth organizes his midfield as Torres becomes closer to match fit.

Personally, I never really liked Torres as a starter and think he does better coming on early in the second half, where he can use his creative ball-handling on tired defenders to open up passing lanes or to get shots off. Also, the way Marfan has played as of late proves that he is needed on the field. This is the problem with a team that has so much depth; you see many talented players that would likely start at other teams benched. Torres will be joining a bench which already holds many other skilled young players like right back Raymon Gaddis and likely defensive midfielder turned center back Amobi Okugo due to the recent signing of Bakary Soumare.

When all is said and done, I am excited to see what the return of the Roger Torres era has in store. He is a player that is not scared to shoot which has been a major problem for Philadelphia Union until very recently. As Torres is slowly reintroduced to the midfield, Union fans will be watching to see if he is still the creative, offensive minded player that he was before the injury. We saw small glimpses of it against Toronto allowing the Union faithful to hold   the hope that one of their favorites will make a triumphant return to the pitch later this season.

2nd Year, 2nd Round

So two years in and we got eliminated in the second rounds of the playoffs. With a bye to get past the first round the Union managed to slip into the second round of the playoffs. Despite losing to Houston in a series that was not particularly well played their performance this year was extremely impressive.  We were expected to be improved, but did anyone expect us to be in contention for first in the east on the final day of the season? Or to lead the East for a large portion of the season? What impresses me most about this team is this.

MacMath-20

Williams-21 Valdes-26 Tait-21 G. Farfan -23

Okugo-20

M. Farfan-23 Adu-22 Torres-20 Daniel-24

Mwanga-20 McInerney-19

Subs:Pfeffer-16, Nakazawa-23 Richter/Langley/Houapeu-22

If the Union had to start a game tomorrow with players who were at or under the league average age this is what it would look like. There are three players on here who absolutely should be starting. If we add Le Toux, Carroll and Califf into this lineup for McInerney, Okugo and Tait we have a lineup that I might even have preferred to the teams Nowak put out for the playoff games. I was much more upset to see Miglioranzi on the field than I would have been to see MacMath.

MacMath-20

Williams-21 Valdes-26 Califf-31 G. Farfan -23

Carroll-30

M. Farfan-23 Adu-22 Torres-20 Daniel-24

Mwanga-20 Le Toux-27

Subs:Okugo-20 McInerney-19 Nakazawa-23

Obviously my point doesn’t heal the wounds of a poorly played and poorly managed playoff exit, but it shows that the majority of our starters are (well) below the league average age. This team is extremely young and will only get better. Next year they will bring back Keon Daniel, bring back a healthy Freddy Adu who seemed to carry an injury through much of the season, along with just about every other player improving purely by getting a year older and wiser. If they can keep this team together, not the easiest thing in MLS, they will surely be competing at a higher and higher level for the next few years.