Defender nicknamed Sueno breaks through with U.S.
His nickname Sueno means dream in Spanish. Fitting, given the intriguing story of American defender Jorge Villafana .
Born in Southern California, he moved to Mexico and grew up playing soccer in the streets before his family relocated back to Anaheim. He attended a nationally televised Major League Soccer player search — the inaugural Sueno MLS — as a teenager and won the tryout over a talented field. That break launched a career that led to a national team debut in January at age 27 as the Americans kept up their seemingly endless search for a left back in this World Cup qualifying cycle.
“I love my story,” said Villafana, who changed his name from Flores to Villafana a few years ago as a tribute to his mother. “It’s a good story.”
He keeps writing chapters, too.
Bruce Arena, who replaced Jurgen Klinsmann as national team coach in November, saw Villafana in early 2016 when Arena’s LA Galaxy lost to Villafana’s Santos Laguna on 4-0 aggregate in the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals.
“I remember talking to him after the game and asking him, ‘Has the national team ever contacted you?’ He goes, ‘No,’” Arena recounted. “So when I got the job, that’s the first thing I said, ‘We need some help at left back.’ We got him here.”’
Villafana gained a regular starting role at Santos Laguna in mid-March and held it until the Liga MX season’s end in May. He figures to be an integral part as the Americans resume World Cup qualifying against Trinidad and Tobago on June 8 in Commerce City, new followed by a match three days later.
“I’m ready to get to work,” Villafana said ahead of Saturday’s exhibition against Venezuela in Sandy, Utah.
Villafana moved to Guanajuato, Mexico, with his family as a youngster. It was there he learned how to play soccer by dribbling through the streets with his friends. He said he never played on a big-sized field until his family moved to Anaheim when he was a teenager.
In 2007, Major League Soccer launched a Sueno MLS competition in hopes of discovering new talent. The winner received a spot in an MLS academy.
Villafana was going to skip the tryout and instead attend church. But his family kept up the pressure until he agreed to go to soccer.
His uncle took him to the tryout about 30 minutes away, only to be informed that since he wasn’t signed up already, someone had to drop out for Villafana to be included.
When someone failed to show, Villafana made the most of his chance by standing out with speed, ball-handling ability and confidence. at Mexico