The last time Roman Torres played at Avaya Stadium, he suffered an ACL tear that kept him out for nearly a year. Saturday’s return wasn’t quite as disastrous, but it wasn’t exactly great either. (Editor’s note: It turned out he played at Avaya last year in another 1-1 tie.)
Torres lasted just about 15 minutes before he went down with what the team is calling a left hamstring strain and had to be replaced by Gustav Svensson. The exact extent of the injury was not known immediately after the game.
“No idea,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer told the media. “We’ll get him home to Seattle and we’ll figure that out.”
After returning from his injury last year to help form a cornerstone of the Sounders’ MLS Cup-winning defense, expectations were high for Torres this year. That hasn’t materialized so far.
Torres looked sluggish and not fully fit during the Sounders’ opening two games and then had to serve a one-game suspension for kicking out at an opponent. Torres was then given last week’s game off against Atlanta United after playing two games with the Panama national team.
The good news is that Svensson has looked very good as the replacement, suggesting the Sounders are unlikely to try to rush Torres back too quickly.