John Hackworth wasn’t a big fan of being asked about Roger Torres’ exclusion from the 18-man roster last Tuesday in the U.S. Open Cup.

The question of where the Colombian belongs within this 2013 Philadelphia Union team is a little more complex than a post-game press conference can answer.

There’s the obvious answer that Hackworth offered Thursday at his weekly press conference: That Torres hasn’t done enough in training to earn the opportunity to play more than the 10 MLS minutes he’s gotten this season, last seeing the field in a meaningful match almost three months ago.

When training camp opened, back in late January, there was talk of Torres being in better shape than ever, finally banishing some of his fitness demons. That appears not to be the case anymore.

“I look at it that we have depth at a position that Roger Torres is competing for playing time right now,” Hackworth said. “And the fact is that guys that are in front of him and guys that have stepped in front of him have taken their opportunities and done better with them. At some point, I need to give Roger that same kind of chance, but he has to earn that chance.
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Union boss John Hackworth had plenty to say today at his weekly press conference. Here are some odds and ends...

On evaluating talent in Ocean City:
There were a couple of guys. I think anytime you look at a PDL team like that, you’re looking at amateur players that are looking to be pros, and there’s certainly a lot of talent out there. There were, I would say, three guys that we liked and that we’re going to continue to track and maybe even bring in on trial. I think that’s one of the great things about the Open Cup is that you get these amateur clubs to play professional teams and whether it’s meant to or not, it becomes almost a scouting opportunity for the professional teams and a chance for these young players to really impress and get a chance.

On playing a PDL team:
It’s different, and we obviously with our staff know the PDL very well and we value that whole process. We think it’s invaluable for scouting and preparation for the draft and things like that. But in this case, there is really an opportunity to get a hands-on look at a guy.

On what he's looking for from Toronto Saturday:
My hope is that the game is a little different, but my expectation is that it’s not going to be really any different. I think they have some new players. They added some very quality players on the field, so it’s a different team a little bit for Toronto. I think that makes this a little interesting. I still think you’re going to have two clubs who are really fighting for points, and they’re going to try to go out and get a result and hopefully it’s a better soccer game than it was here, but that’s all we can ask for.

On the midfield chemistry between Michael Farfan and Kleberson:
With Kleberson and Michael, we’re happy with both of them. We think they’re continuing to develop a relationship, and I think that being able to play Michael on either side of Kleberson has been advantageous for us to try to figure out a better matchup for us. So we’ll look at that for sure. We were able to rest both in the U.S. Open Cup for the most part – Michael came on at the very end – but to those guys that have fresh legs and will be available, we always hope that you can continue to get better and those guys that are really important can continue to step up.

On the defense's recent play:
I would be lying to you if I told you that I was really happy with the last couple performances of … I wouldn’t call it our backline though. I’ve said this to our guys in the locker room: We have to be a team in every sense of the word. We have to make sure we do things on both sides of the ball that complement each other, so for me it’s not just the backline that shares that burden. In Montreal, it’s a little bit of a hard one to take when you give up five goals because we certainly were going for it from about 60 minutes on, so that leaves us very vulnerable, very stretched, and we put ourselves in a great position to get back in that game at 3-2 and then gave up a restart. That’s not necessarily our backline’s fault, that’s on our team on a restart like that. And obviously the fifth one – to me, if you lost 3-2 or 5-3, it doesn’t matter at that point. It matters on the stat sheet so people can pick you apart for that, but the bottom line for us is that we’ve got to be a better team defensively in all areas. Our backline certainly takes a lot of pride in that and we have to improve, but it’s our midfield too, our forward, we have to do it collectively.

On preparing for a different Toronto team:
Of course we’re looking at the game film. They’re different as I said earlier because they’ve added a lot of different pieces, and they can literally field a lineup that is 50 percent of guys that weren’t even here when we played earlier at PPL. I think we have to be ready for both, and certainly we’re going to try to play a little different style against them this time. And we’re studying how they played then and also how they’ve played recently. It’ll be an interesting game because it’s a little bit difficult to predict how they’ll play.

On the lack of Union players going away for international duty:
It’s good. Toronto lost a lot of guys midweek to Canada, and a lot of those guys played. I think (Darren) O’Dea went for the Ireland team. They have guys that are coming back, and it’ll be interesting. We played the Open Cup game. For us it’s just the matter of having the full selection from our roster, and that’s good. ... Not for me. I like those choices, because I think that it makes our job tougher, but it means that we have better quality.

On A.S. Roma being named the opponent for the 2013 MLS All-Star Game:
I think it’s really cool. I’m glad that Roma’s going to be the opponent particularly because I have a long relationship with Michael Bradley and to see him come play with Roma here in the states, I think it’ll be fantastic for him and a great opportunity for our All-stars.

For 90 minutes, there wasn't much to write home about in the Union's 2-1 win over Ocean City. Then all hell broke lose in stoppage time in a chaotic finish only the U.S. Open Cup could provide. Some spare thoughts from the men at the center of it all.


Union manager John Hackworth
On Ocean City's performance:
They played a good game tonight. They were a more-than-worthy opponent and made it really hard on us. … Not exactly how we draw it up, but this game is tough. The Open Cup is always this way. You’re going to have battles. It’s the March Madness of the U.S. soccer world, if you will.

On the performance turned in by Leo Fernandes:
I think he looked good. I think out of all the performances we gave tonight, I think Leo’s was one of the very bright spots because he got this opportunity because he earned it. It wasn’t me trying to throw a bone to anybody and saying hey, 'this is the Open Cup so we’ll start a rookie.' Leo was literally what we thought to be the best option, especially coming off Montreal, having some tired legs with Kleberson and Michael Farfan and what not. And his performance was excellent.

On the decision not to include Roger Torres in the matchday 18:
It is what it is. Roger’s got to play better, in both training and if he does that, I’ll give him the opportunity. But we have a lot of competition for that.

On the decision to start the same back four:
The thought process is that this is an event. This is a tournament that is very important to this club and we’re going to put out our best lineup to ensure that we’re successful in it.

On how far the conversation to make changes in defense went:
Not that far. As a staff we talked about it, but there really wasn’t from any of the coaches that we shouldn’t put out anything but our best lineup.

On the fitness of his side after the Montreal game:
You could tell some guys were heavy. We did a regeneration session after Montreal yesterday. We did everything possible scientifically to get us back. And I would say pretty good. You look at a guy like Brian Carroll, who did a tremendous amount of work as always, who scores the goal.

On bringing Jeff Parke back from injury:
We were very cautions with Jeff, so we brought him back very slowly. He was 100 percent going into Montreal. He felt ready, no problems in training, no problem recovering, so that wasn’t a thought for us.

On the challenge of the U.S. Open Cup:
You go into these games knowing that you're going to get maximum effort from your opponents. And it’s frustrating and it’s not easy. They dropped their line off tremendously and put a lot of guys behind the ball. It meant that one of our guys had to make a play, and we had to do it at a speed and a tempo with the ball that was going to meet their energy, their commitment, and we didn’t do that in the first half for sure.

On the reaction to the goal allowed in stoppage time:
I couldn’t believe we gave it up. It was very disappointing. I think it was a silly foul and we talked about yesterday, today, that the only way we though we were going to give it up was if we made some mistakes, gave up restarts or a long ball on a counterattack. For the most part, we did those things well.

Union midfielder Brian Carroll
On his propensity for scoring in the Open Cup:
I don’t know what it is. I just hope it keeps happening. I think we stayed calm after their goal, kept the build-up play. We were able to get a really dangerous chance. It led to a corner kick, Seba puts it in the right spot, I just found my head on it at the right spot at the right time, and it goes off the post and in.

On what goes into a game-winning goal like that:
It’s a little bit of both. But part of it is just being in the right spot, being where your assigned position is and just following through, and the ball just finds you. It’s just kind of a magnet to my head. I was just in the right spot at the right time. Credit to Seba to putting it in that position; it was a dangerous ball.

Union manager John Hackworth was unavailable for his weekly press conference Wednesday, so assistant coach/technical director Rob Vartughian stepped in. Here's what Rob had to say.

On the challenge on heading to Montreal:
They’re obviously a good team. They’ve ahead of us in the table. They’re sitting on 20 points through 10 games, and they’ve got some really good pieces and they’re dangerous. We’re pretty familiar with them. We’ve watched a ton of film on them. They’ve got a guy in (Marco) Di Vaio who’s got six goals who’s up top and they have experience all through the field, whether that’s (Alessandro) Nesta. They’ve got Felipe, who’s a very good player, Justin Mapp, who we’re all familiar with, who’s a very good player. They’ve got some really good pieces, so we obviously started that preparation right after Chicago, and I’ll think we’ll be ready to go once Saturday rolls around.

On where the trip to Montreal ranks:
I think they’re all tough. It’s tough to go into anyone else’s park and play. And this is a good team, it’s an experience team. In terms of where it ranks, I don’t know if I could put a ranking on it so to speak, but our approach has been the same for all the road games, so we’re not going to waver or do anything different than we have in the past and treat it like all the other ones.

On Kleberson's continued place in the starting XI:
We felt good about it. Kleberson was going into his second game, second start, and played a good game. Same for Michael (Farfan). But I would say that about generally all the guys that have been given the opportunity in the midfield. We’re happy for Kleberson and what he’s been able to bring in the two games that he’s played. He’s given us good minutes and he’s given us a little something different than maybe what we weren’t getting, but I think the players around him complement him well, whether that’s Michael, whether that’s Keon (Daniel), whether that’s Brian (Carroll), Danny (Cruz), you name it. That’s been good, and we’ve liked what we’ve seen.
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