GUADALAJARA, Mexico — The vast majority of American players in Mexico have been getting the miles in their legs in arduous preseason training for a while now and are starting to rack up the minutes in friendly matches ahead of the Clausura 2012 kickoff on Jan. 6.
US international midfielder José Francisco Torres went 50 minutes for Pachuca in their 1-0 loss against San Luis on Tuesday. "El Gringo" played the first minutes since injuring his foot back in September. Torres' Pachuca will meet Atlas on Friday.
In opposition to Torres and Pachuca was fellow Yank Michael Orozco Fiscal, who also went 50 minutes. San Luis face Club León, also on Friday.
On Monday, native Texan Sonny Guadarrama came on for 35 minutes in Atlante's 3-1 defeat to Club América.
DaMarcus Beasley´s Puebla fell 1-0 against Toluca on Wednesday, but the winger played the full 90 minutes.
Up north, Club Tijuana won 1-0 against Veracruz, with Greg Garza playing 58 minutes before making way for Las Cruces, N.M., native Edgar Castillo.
Isaac Acuña has not featured for Club América and could move on, while Jonathan Bornstein is back in training with Tigres UANL after their championship triumph.
Herculez Gomez will start with new team Santos Laguna just after Christmas.
Tom Marshall covers Americans playing in Latin America. He can be reached via tom.marshall.mex@gmail.com.
