SECOND CHANCE
Mature Torres, coach reunite with many goals on their minds
Erick Torres could not get out of Houston fast enough.
If it was possible for him to snap his fingers and be in Mexico without checking his bags and boarding an airplane, he would have done it.
Torres’ career with the Dynamo was crumbling. Last fall, it felt like the only way to get it back was to leave the club that nearly two years before forked over a reported $7 million transfer fee to acquire him.
The Dynamo expected to receive the shiniest rising star in the CONCACAF region. They thought Torres, a forward, would be the biggest reason they would win their third MLS Cup championship.
That was in December 2014. By late summer of 2016, Torres was broken, and the Dynamo were in last place.
Several setbacks had done him in. Torres needed a new environment.
“I was stressed,” Torres said this week through a translator. “I felt pressured because I wasn’t scoring. I felt frustrated because I wasn’t playing. I wasn’t happy in that regard because I knew I could play. I knew I could help the team.”
The Dynamo loaned Torres to Mexican club Cruz Azul FC and included a purchase option in the deal. His struggles continued in Mexico City. Cruz Azul declined its option, sending him back to the Dynamo for year three of his five-year contract. In most cases that might seem like a loss for all involved, but in this one, it might be the biggest win.
Torres had skyrocketed to stardom with the now-defunct Chivas USA during his first two years in MLS, scoring 22 goals in 44 appearances. Fifteen of those goals came in 2014, when Wilmer Cabrera was his coach.
Before either side knew Torres would be in Houston, the Dynamo hired Cabrera
to be their coach. Now that the two have been reunited, hope has been restored. Maybe Torres will not be lost after all.
Torres, 24, said he wants to lead Major League Soccer in goals, including his first in a Dynamo uniform Saturday against Seattle Sounders FC.
He also wants to get back on the radar of the Mexico national team, a feat he believes is possible if he scores.
“You want the talented players to be successful,” Cabrera said. “When they’re not, and they’re having difficulties, you hope to see possibilities for them to come back. That is part of life — some good moments and some bad moments. The key is to use those bad moments to learn what didn’t work and move on.”
Torres’ downfall began before he arrived in Houston the first time. After it had Torres’ signature on a five-year MLS contract, the league offered him to all 20 teams. The Dynamo were the only team to accept the terms of the contract that called for Torres to be loaned to Chivas Guadalajara for six months.
Stuck on the bench
What they could not have expected was that Torres would not play much with Chivas. When he got to the Dynamo in July 2015, he was out of shape.
In addition, Torres was dealing with the aftermath of a sexual assault charge that ultimately was thrown out after the district attorney of Guadalajara had uncovered and reviewed all the evidence. Torres had been cleared of all criminal wrongdoing, but the situation weighed on him.
Out of shape and unfocused, Torres barely broke into coach Owen Coyle’s lineup. Torres appeared in 11 matches, collecting one assist.
“He just wasn’t right when he got here,” Dynamo president Chris Canetti said. “It was a wash.”
If Torres thought his lack of playing time was behind him thanks to a productive preseason in 2016, he was mistaken.
Rather than pick Torres for his one-striker system, Coyle chose Will Bruin. Torres subbed into three of the club’s first eight matches, totaling 46 minutes. It was then, Torres said, that he reached his lowest point.
“The moment I have felt the most desperate or frustrated, was here when I wasn’t leaving the bench,” Torres said. “I knew I could come in and help the team. I knew I could play more and I didn’t play for a good part of the year I was here with Owen.”
Coyle and the Dynamo eventually parted ways. Even that did not free Torres from the bench.
He left the Dynamo several times to join the Mexico Olympic team. That made it difficult to learn what interim coach Wade Barrett was teaching.
When Torres returned from the Olympics, Barrett was in survival mode. He was trying to win enough games to prove the Dynamo could trust him with the coaching position.
Awkward situation
Barrett didn’t pick Torres for the starting lineup until the playoffs were a minuscule possibility.
“Perhaps it is just a young kid going through growing pains, but it wasn’t the right fit for either of the two coaches we had,” Canetti said. “He didn’t get his opportunity, didn’t earn his opportunity.
Numerous things did not align in 2015 and 2016.”
Torres thought he was leaving it all behind when he joined Cruz Azul. It did not take long for him to realize it had followed him across the border. Three appearances into his time there, Torres found himself collapsed on the pitch with a knee injury.
He never played again for Cruz Azul, instead rehabilitating his medial collateral ligament injury. Unable to see him play, it made little sense for Cruz Azul to pick up the purchase option.
But things began to look up when the Dynamo hired Cabrera. Once it was determined Torres would return to Houston, the two spoke again.
Cabrera told Torres he wanted him to come back and be the happy, confident player he remembered from Chivas USA. He also told him he was not going to give Torres playing time just because of their history.
“He is older and more mature now,” Cabrera said. “He is more talented. He has grown in terms of being more of a man on the field instead of the little kid. We’ll see if he can translate that during the regular games.”
Working into shape
Torres has translated it to the preseason by scoring five goals and in most cases earning a spot with the first string. Thanks to a gluten-free diet, he has lost significant weight and looks fit again.
The work is there. The respect from teammates is there. It appears the playing time will be there.
Torres thinks he has a new lease on his soccer life. He might be running out of opportunities, but he believes this is his best one. It is even better than what he dreamed of when he left Houston in September.
“Without a doubt, I always had it in my mind to come back — to come back and reverse all these years,” Torres said. “I have no doubt that this year and the ones to come will be great years for the Houston Dynamo and take the team back to be always on top.”