Soccer Round Up: Odds, Ends, Friendlies, MLS, Arsenal and More.

This is not the greatest time of the year to be an American writing about soccer. Unless you’re an MLS fan. Which I’ve really, sincerely tried to be.

I even watched the Superliga match between the Houston Dynamo and Pachuca on television this week.  The Superliga is an exhibition series between MLS and Mexican first division teams. It pits top teams against one another in a round-robin series of games followed by knock-out, two match format.

The Dynamo won on a nice header, but the game—well, it kind of sucked.

MLS is better than nothing, and the league has figured out how to sustain itself. Every time I watch, I see a couple of very exciting players. For example, I watched the Tottenham Hotspur play the San Jose Earthquakes yesterday afternoon. The game ended in a 0-0 draw. In Gareth Bale, Roman Pavleychenko, and Luka Modric, I thought Spurs easily had three of the four best players involved.

The fourth best, in my opinion, was Arturo Alvarez. Alvarez, a central midfielder, is originally from Houston, born and raised. He plays for the Salvadorean national team primarily because he was never called up to the US Senior team. He has good vision, fantastic touch, excellent spatial awareness and is very, very comfortable on the ball. If I were a European scout I’d consider bringing him in, as he has the kind of game that would translate nicely to La Liga or the Serie A.

That’s just an aside really. I want to like the MLS more than I actually do. As if aware of my conflict, the MLS is taking steps to improve the quality of its skill players, although I’m not sure how I feel about the two big trends in the MLS:

(1) bringing in young African and Caribbean skill players.

(2) bringing in over-the-hill European stars who long for the relative anonymity of America.

There is no doubt that the young, exciting African and Caribbean skill players that so many MLS teams employ have improved the quality of play up front. I will use the Houston Dynamo as an example—Joseph Ngwenya, a Zimbabwean soccer player, scored both Dynamo goals against Pachuca.

The Dynamo’s best attacking player on the night, I thought, was Jamaican Lovel Palmer. Both players improved the quality of the play from Houston, neither player’s involvement advances the cause of developing US youth players.

I understand the tension for MLS managers and bookkeepers—the quality of play has to hold interest, African and Caribbean players are more cost effective, etc. But man, it’s a bit of a worrying trend.

As for the Thierry Henrys, David Beckhams, and possibly Ronaldinhos, well, that’s a dangerous and well-trod path. I’m not recounting any history lessons, but the days in which Pele and Beckenbauer played out their careers in the US did not lead to a soccer renaissance or to a sustained league structure. Just something to bear in mind.

In other news, the Chicago Fire signed Nery Castillo, the 26-year old Mexican forward. He's a strange player who has had a difficult time catching on and fulfilling his potential. There was a time, maybe two or three years ago, when Castillo was considered the most exciting Mexican prospect going.

He can dribble, finish, and has pace. He torched the US defense in a couple of games. I’ve always thought him better than Carlos Vela’s vagina (which is what Carlos Vela will constantly be referred to until he shows the ability to play three matches in a row without sustaining some injury).

Much like Gio Dos Santos, the most recent Mexican prospect, Castillo has played on the margins in Europe, in Greece and Turkey, and failed completely to make an impact in the major leagues—he spent a little time at Manchester City. It’ll be interesting to see how he does in MLS but it’s definitely a good signing for the Chicago Fire.

In more exciting news, Arsenal dominated in its first preseason match yesterday. Jack Wilshere looked great apparently—if you are a fan of the English national team you should write his name down and closely follow his career because if the next generation of English players has a creative center of the park player in it, then that player is Wilshere. It’ll be interesting to see if an English player who comes up through the Arsenal academy (and there haven’t been many of them!) adopts the Arsenal/Barcelona style of play and is able to bring some of that to the English national team.  Take a look at some of these Wilshere highlights:

Sets one up and scores one

Just to prove it’s not a fluke — the kid is amazing

Arsenal also debuted Marouane Chamkh, the French-Morrocan striker upon whose goal-scoring prowess the season’s results will likely depend. Reports are that he looked sharp.

Alright, well, back to it.

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