More people known about Ervin Torres now than they did at the start of the week.
One of Major League Soccer's recent traditions is the annual rollout of its 22 Under 22 list — a celebration of the most promising young players in the league. According to this year's prelude, the list is "voted [on] by an expert panel of select MLS staff, Apple TV talent and dlub technical staff."
Torres is just the second player in Austin FC named to the exclusive list, coming in at No. 19 on the roundup.
Unsurprisingly, Union wunderkind Cavan Sullivan tops this year's list, with Red Bull players Julian Hall and Adri Mehmeti, Chicago Fire and South Africa national team defender Mbekezeli Mbokazi, and Orlando's Justin Ellis (who, like Hall and Sullivan, recently debuted with the U.S. men's national team as the 2030 World Cup roster begins taking shape) rounding out the top five.
Former Austin FC midfielder Owen Wolff's on the list as well. At No. 16, Wolff is three spots ahead of Torres despite what MLS judiciously described as "an injury-riddled 2026."
Other names of the list you might recognize from past Verde encounters include Union defender Neil Pierre, who wowed fans during the August 1-1 draw that looked better with each successive successful Union week; Reed Baker-Whiting, now with Nashville, but part of the Sounders' "five teenagers" squad that took down Verde at home in 2021 (still one of the team's most infamous Q2 losses), and Bruno Caicedo, who started for Vancouver in both of the recent matchups featuring the teams (with Caicedo also very nearly the beneficiary of a Kipp Kelleresque turnover by Brad Stuver that resulted in a free shot on goal, albeit one that sailed over the crossbar).
As Austin FC's press release on the honor noted, Torres is second in assists for Verde, only bested by Facundo Torres, who has eight assists in more than twice the minutes Ervin has played. (Ervin has cleared the 1,000-minute mark for the season, despite only making his Verde debut in April and his first starts during August's Leagues Cup matches and the Dallas match that followed, currently putting him at 15th in squad minutes.)
He's also — like Owen Wolff was before his move to SKC — being deployed by interim head coach Davy Arnaud in a deeper-lying position than where he might best thrive, settling into a recent lineups in a double-pivot-of-sorts (flanked by two wingbacks in a 3-4-3 shape) with the rejuvenated Besard Šabović.
In July, as I were in the depths of mystification over Arnaud's new system, I wrote this about how Arnaud was utilizing Wolff:
One of my questions following Saturday's match had to do with Owen Wolff's relative lack of involvement in the attack. His numbers per Futi were largely encouraging: two potential assists, 45 for 47 in passes, 40 touches in the attacking third, and four progressive passes, but only one pass into the penalty area and one touch in the penalty area. FotMob notes he had 60 touches (third-most for Verde and best for Verde non-defenders) and seven passes into the final third.
Arnaud explained in the post-match press conference that Wolff is having to play more withdrawn, as if Arnaud is a helpless bystander rather than the person in charge of directing Wolff (and the other 10 players on the field) where and how to play. One of the purported advantages to playing with inverted wingbacks is those players moving into central midfield positions allow your actual central midfielders to move up the field and positively impact play in the final third.
With Sánchez and Wolff paired together in midfield, Wolff is the obvious choice to move forward, while Sánchez is the more obvious choice to stay at home. (Sánchez did move into a dangerous position early in the match against Houston to attempt a bicycle kick, but that resulted in him catching Dynamo defender Lucas Halter in the face with an errant foot and getting a yellow card in the process.)
While Ervin Torres has made it into both of the past two matches, positively impacting the win over Seattle, Wolff is still the most seasoned and best chance creator on the team, and if he's being ordered to play deeper in a system using a back three and inverted wingbacks, that sets up for congestion in the middle of the field and a front three of designated players deprived of service — at a time in which two of those DPs desperately need to have their goal scoring vaults unlocked.
Hold that thought; we're going to look at Torres and Wolff side-by-side momentarily.
