Most of Erick Torres’s 2014 scores have been penalty kicks or poacher’s goals, but having scored nine times coming into tonight’s game, the Chivas USA attacker had still put himself among the league’s leading scorers. Yet if you were to write the Mexican attacker’s scouting report based on this season alone, you’d laud his movement and instincts but have trouble describing him as more than a “fox in the box.”
Only 21 years old, Torres is so much more. Unfortunately for a 10-man Real Salt Lake, they saw first hand what the former Chivas Guadalajara striker can do. Taking a long cross from the left flank just past the hour-mark, Torres’s one-timed volley from just inside the penalty area put RSL behind on two accounts. Not only were they down a man (thanks to Luke Mulholland’s early red card), but Torres’ wonder strike had the Western Conference champions down a goal.
But to call it merely a one-timed volley throws the score into a pile of goals that bear little resemblance to Torres’s strike. With the distance, the height on the cross, this ball required precise technical execution. He had to position himself so perfectly. Even an inch’s error would have probably seen the shot shanked.
And to not only get the ball on goal but right under the ball? Sometimes, you just have to aim and hope, but thanks to all the other quality Torres brought to the strike, that hope came good. Sending a rocket into the top of Jeff Attinella’s net, Torres added another contender to the goal of the year chase.
It’s a goal for which words just won’t do, so check it out, above. In you’re ever wondering if there’s a reason to watch Chivas USA games, remember this Torres goal.