Torres still ready for the U.S. call

Twenty-year-old Texan midfielder José Francisco Torres has been with Mexican powerhouse club Pachuca since 2006. Victor Decolongon/Getty Images Luis Bueno's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Luis. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

When the U.S. Olympic team called for Michael Orozco, he answered. Playing professional soccer in Mexico had done little to deter the Southern Californian's Olympic dreams, and the decision to accept the call was simple.

But when the same call reached fellow Mexican league veteran José Francisco Torres, it wasn't quite met with open arms.

"I had chance to play in the Olympic Games but I [made] my decision to stay," Torres said after a recent SuperLiga match. "It was a hard decision, but the owner of the team, the coaches ... we all decided that they needed me and everything so I stayed, and I've got to keep working to take a spot on the first team."

A rising star with Pachuca, the Texan turned down the offer extended to him by the U.S. national team. Essentially, Torres chose club over country, a potential for a starting spot versus a chance at gold. While the opportunity to play in China was tempting, Torres instead chose to continue plying his trade in Mexico.

In many ways, Torres said he felt obliged to show a bit of respect toward his parents' homeland. "I went to Mexico and Mexico has made me the player that I am right now," he said.

Orozco, 22, and Torres, 20, have similar backgrounds. Each was born to Mexican parents -- Orozco in Orange, Calif.; Torres in Longview, Texas. Each player shined with his high school and club but ultimately, neither had much of an opportunity here in the U.S.

After graduating from high school, Orozco took his shot with Necaxa and joined Los Rayos' youth system. Eventually he settled in with San Luis, where he rose through the ranks and established himself as a starter and important cog in the club's defense.

Torres, meanwhile, had an accelerated rise. After a Pachuca scout offered him a deal with the club at age 16, he promptly dropped out of Longview High School and went down to Hidalgo to join Pachuca's youth system. Torres soon stood out in one of Mexico's best talent-producing clubs. By 19, he debuted for Pachuca -- in an Apertura 2006 semifinal match against Toluca, no less. Throughout '07, Torres showed flashes of potential and continually earned more playing time.

"I think it was worth it [to] go down to Mexico and do what I like to do," Torres said of his decision to drop out of high school. "I'd probably still be in college trying to make it to the major leagues. My opportunity was in Mexico. I took it and, thank God, right now I'm doing what I'm doing and I'm on the first team."

Perhaps it's Orozco's own solid footing with his club that helped ease the decision to leave San Luis for the start of Mexico's Apertura '08 season. A starting spot is likely to greet him upon his return from Beijing.

But Torres isn't quite there yet. He has loads of potential -- along with a deft touch and strong work ethic -- but he's just another talented piece of Pachuca's loaded midfield. "If the coach puts me in, he tells me what to do and I try to do it as best I can," he said. "I try to give 100 percent of myself."

Still, that Torres needed to go to a foreign land to realize his talents doesn't exactly speak well of the U.S. national-team system. Torres, after all, was no stranger to U.S. youth scouts and, in fact, was on the right path for an Olympic spot as a youngster.

But after continuously trying and failing to reach the next level, he grew increasingly frustrated. So when Pachuca reached out to him, Torres jumped at the chance.

"When I was in the ODP, the Olympic Development Program, I tried out for the national team but I really didn't make it," he said. "I would go every year and nothing would happen. I decided that, I was 16 years old and I was taking my chance [in Mexico]."

Aside from Orozco, Torres also mirrors another American-born Mexican league player: New Mexico native Edgar Castillo. But if Torres is still in the U.S.' hopes for the future, he'd better not continue along the same path. Castillo, after all, has no shot of ever playing for his native country. The Santos Laguna defender, also missed by ODP coaches, has a pair of caps with the Mexican national team and on Thursday was named to Sven-Göran Eriksson's first-ever roster in charge of El Tri.

Like Orozco, Castillo slipped through the cracks. But Orozco eventually found his way back home, while Castillo is off the U.S. radar forever. Still, Torres said his decision to pass on the U.S. was simply a soccer one. He doesn't look down on those who feel he should have answered his homeland's call and donned the red, white and blue in China.

"Mexico opened the doors," he said. "They gave me the possibility to play soccer."

As far as a future with the U.S. national team, Torres said he would be more than open to the possibility. "If the U.S. ever calls me again," he said, "I would probably take the chance."