GUADALAJARA, Mexico – If Jose Torres wanted to make a point after not making the US national team squad for Wednesday’s friendly against Mexico, he certainly did so on Saturday.
The Texan drilled a left-footed strike from 25 yards that beat Toluca goalkeeper Alfredo Talavera and leveled Tigres UANL at 1-1 in the 51st minute at Estadio Nemesio Díez.
Tigres ended up losing the game 2-1 after a second-half injury-time goal from Raúl Nava, but Torres went the full minutes and put in a good performance in central midfield.
It was Torres’ second golazo in the last 10 days, although the loss dropped Tigres down to 16th in the Liga MX.
With the race for the playoffs in the Clausura 2014 tightening up, the Monterrey club isn’t out the playoff race, with just three points separating it from seventh-placed Atlas.
On Sunday, two Americans who are reporting for USMNT duty, DaMarcus Beasley and Michael Orozco, both went 90 minutes for Puebla in a hard-fought 1-1 draw with reigning Liga MX champions León.
Orozco dealt comfortably with the visitors' attacking threat, but slipped up when midfielder Carlos Peña broke the offside trap to open the scoring for La Fiera in the 49th minute.
The former Philadelphia Union defender did have a hand in Puebla’s equalizer, starting off the attack from which Beasley sent in a dangerous right-footed cross from the left wing that was converted by Luis Noriega in the 75th.
The point means Puebla are still in last pace in the Liga MX table, but they are now five points ahead of Atlante in the relegation table, with four games remaining before a team drops to the Ascenso MX.
In Mexico’s second division, Sonny Guadarrama went 68 minutes and Ventura Alvarado played the full game in Necaxa’s 0-0 draw on Saturday at Delfines del Carmen.
Tom Marshall covers Americans playing in Latin America for MLSsoccer.com. E-mail him at tom.marshall.mex@gmail.com.
