It was a substitution that some of us have dreamed of for months for more whimsical reasons, but on Wednesday night, it turned out to be vital.
When Davy Arnaud made the club's first ever Torres-for-Torres sub in the 84th minute, deadlocked at 1-1 before Verde broke away for a 3-1 win over Seattle Sounders FC, it appeared a bit of a dice roll.
After all, Arnaud was taking out two designated players – Facundo Torres and Brandon Vázquez — and replacing them with Ervin Torres, an 18-year-old homegrown academy-to-first-team player who has played limited sub minutes, and Christian Ramírez, a player picked up on waivers less than five months ago.
The move manifested in a goal less than two minutes later, with Ervin Torres driving into the box and slipping a pass to the lone designated player left on the field, Myrto Uzuni. Five minutes later, he found a pathway to an assist again, this time finding his fellow sub with a pass in front of goal; Ramírez then moved from his posted-up position to notch the insurance goal.
As Arnaud explained, it was evidence of the work the teenager's done to get to this point.
