Tomorrow night is an important World Cup qualifier against Jamaica, to be played in Kingston, Jamaica. It’s an important game because a win or at least a draw puts us in good shape to not exactly cruise through the rest of this part of qualifying, but at least to have the freedom to try out young players and new strategies in hard fought games and not just meaningless friendlies.

So, I hope for a win.

I also hope to find a good place to watch the damn game in DC because it’s not going to be readily available on television. Any recommendations for which bar to go to? And not the Lucky Bar. That place is too crowded for me.

Mostly, I hope to see Jose Torres justify the coach’s faith in him.

The US Men’s National Team (USMNT) is fast and physical, but sometimes, it’s nice to actually keep possession of the ball for stretches of time. Michael Bradley can do that, sort of, but he’s more of a driving force than someone who can tweak the tempo of a game.

Torres is supposed to be that guy. The problem is, his role isn’t immediately obvious. He’s not a defensive midfielder – he’s not particularly strong in the tackle and doesn’t have that sixth sense for putting himself into opposition passing lanes. He also isn’t a trequartista, that final, killer pass or ghosting into the box to score the odd goal or providing a shooting threat from medium distance.

But even Klinsmann, who is more forward thinking that either of his two USMNT coaching predecessors, keeps trying to shoehorn him into the wrong role.

He’s been played on the wing, where he lacks the speed to be effective or the eye for the cross. Most recently, he was played at the top of a 4-4-2 diamond (or as the ‘1’ in a 4-3-1-2, whichever nomenclature you prefer), which isn’t his spot either because he likes to drop deeper, which leaves the forwards isolated.

The closest thing to Torres is Luka Modric (or at least the Luka Modric of the last several seasons at Spurs) and Xavi (the Xavi of Barcelona; the role he plays on the Spanish national team is a little higher up the field, closer to the forward) – which is not to say he’s remotely close to their quality. They don’t score many goals (not usually anyway; Xavi actually racked up some good scoring numbers last year) and they don’t even get many direct assists. What they do it keep possession and keep things carefully ticking.

Modric’s play especially is illuminating, playing next to a more purely defensive central midfielder, giving him freedom to sit near the center circle and play smart balls out to the wingers. Torres can do that.

On another note, I’d also like to see Freddy Adu given more chances. He is actually better for the roles that Klinsmann keeps shoehorning Torres into. He can keep possession (though he doesn’t set the tempo so well) in either a trequartista or winger role – playing the winger as more of a playmaking winger (think Sebastian Larsson or David Beckham a dozen years ago) who doesn’t burn you with speed, but with calmness and vision and a sense of when to play the ball into the strikers and when to keep it for an extra two seconds.