Suggested pregame meal before your MLS viewing this season: How about Argentinean steak and some of that yummy chimichurri sauce, a specialty of the same country?
Argentineans are all the rage in MLS soccer. Or so it seems.
The league's defending MVP is D.C. United playmaker Christian Gomez, and native defender Facundo Erpen has been a United regular since late in the 2005 season. Colorado striker Nicolas Hernandez, who didn't get on the scoresheet but worked tirelessly in the Rapids' 2-1 win against D.C. United, is an Argentina native, too.
FC Dallas has signed Pablo Richetti, although the Texas outfit remains in wait of the midfielder's work visa. (Steve Morrow's team also has Juan Toja, who is Colombian but last played for River Plate in Argentina.)
Kansas City has just signed 25-year-old attacking midfielder Carlos Marinelli. He is from Argentina, although he comes by way of top-level experience in England, Italy and Portugal (as well as his homeland).
With the Wizards, Marinelli will bring some much-needed spice to a roster that is otherwise stocked with solid players, albeit a collection of rather vanilla ones.
Boca Juniors star Guillermo Barros Schelotto is apparently on his way to Columbus, where Sigi Schmid already has plenty of attacking options. Schmid will most likely use the Argentinean attacker as a winger or withdrawn forward.
Less than a month from his 34th birthday, Barros Schelotto is no longer a starter for Boca, although he remains a fan favorite there. (And he played briefly on two occasions alongside Marinelli, who started with Boca and later spent another short stint there.)
Don't forget, Claudio Reyna's father is from Argentina, and the former U.S. captain and current Red Bulls headliner lived there for a short time when he was a child. And finally, Rapids midfielder and U.S. national team regular Pablo Mastroeni was born in Argentina. He lived there until he was 4.
MINGLING WITH THE PRETTY PEOPLE: New York Red Bulls forward Jozy Altidore is a busy man these days. Not only is he fielding a lot of calls and text messages about his very cool adidas commercial, first seen on last week's ABC broadcast of the Rapids-D.C. United game, he's also rubbing elbows with the pretty people.
Altidore filmed his part in the "Impossible is Nothing" campaign in Los Angeles during the offseason. But he hadn't seen the finished product until last weekend, when the Red Bulls teen sensation watched along with everyone else.
Then, earlier this week, Altidore joined teammate Seth Stammler at the 2007 BR!CK Awards at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square. The BR!CK Awards show (which was shown on CW on Thursday night) is all about people dedicated to doing their part for positive world change. Altidore and Stammler were invited for their role in and around New York and in Haiti, where they took a six-day service tour last November along with hip-hop musician Wyclef Jean.
Altidore and Stammler were among a celebrity list Tuesday that included musicians LeAnn Rimes, Mandy Moore and Jean, actresses Jamie Lynn Sigler, Susan Sarandon, Lorraine Bracco and Hilarie Burton and supermodel Petra Nemcova. Word is that the Red Bulls pair seemed particularly thrilled with the opportunity to spend some time and have their pictures taken with Nemcova, a model from the Czech Republic whose glamorous resume includes the cover of Sports Illustrated's 2003 swimsuit issue.
MENDING FROM INJURY: Expect to see a little more of Clint Mathis this week, as the mercurial journeyman makes his case as the answer for Bruce Arena's forward troubles.
Mathis played 29 minutes in last week's 0-0 tie in wintry Columbus, as Arena made good on his promise to slowly work the former U.S. international into matches.
Arena said later he wanted to see Mathis do a little more with his minutes. But the manager also recognized that at the time of Mathis' introduction, skipper Claudio Reyna had already retreated into a more defensive posture, slowed by a big bruise on his thigh and conserving energy for defense in a tight match.
So what can Mathis do when Reyna is more active on offense, as he was in the first half in Columbus, before the limiting collision with teammate Dane Richards? We should know more this week against FC Dallas. Reyna didn't train on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, but team officials say he should be ready to play by Sunday.
If there's any team that Mathis can feel confident against, it's this week's opponent. He has an all-time high 14 goals against Dallas. That total includes the MLS 2001 Goal of the Year, but doesn't include the laser volley that helped eliminate the Pizza Hut Park bunch from last year's playoffs.
BACK IN THE PLANS: Young FC Dallas midfielder Dax McCarty was stunned last December when Thomas Rongen left him off the U.S. roster for under-20 World Cup qualifying. McCarty had formerly been the team's captain.
The FCD second-year central midfielder now has a big chance to get back in the plans for this summer's FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Canada. McCarty was effective in 24 minutes last weekend against Real Salt Lake. (He replaced MLS debutante Juan Toja, who was OK, but struggled a bit recalibrating for the bounce and speed on RSL's hard artificial turf.)
FC Dallas manager Steve Morrow, continuing to make good on his promise to play the youngsters more, gave McCarty a start Thursday against Los Angeles. He replaced Arturo Alvarez, who didn't have much impact in Dallas' 2-2 opening-day draw in Utah.
McCarty has to take advantage of the time now, for Morrow will soon have another enticing midfield option. Pablo Richetti has signed with the club but still appears to be about two weeks away, at least, from obtaining his work visa. He is back in Argentina awaiting the appointment that will secure the necessary paperwork.
FC Dallas officials are quietly hopeful Richetti can join the club for its April 26 (ESPN2 Primetime Thursday) contest against the New York Red Bulls.
MULLING THE MIDFIELD BATTLES: The most delicious midfield battle in the league this weekend may get a little juicier still. Chivas USA visits Dynamo and word out of Houston is that Ricardo Clark may return to the Dynamo lineup.
Kelly Gray had a big night in replacing Clark during last week's draw with Los Angeles. Without the ball, Gray's positioning was generally spot-on. With the ball, he kept things simple, smartly switching the point of attack when he could, playing out of trouble when forced to and recognizing the right moments to initiate faster counter attacks.
Still, Clark is among the league's best at that spot, and Dynamo manager Dominic Kinnear is likely to go with the U.S. international if he's healthy. Clark missed last week's MLS match, as well as the return leg of the CONCACAF Champions' Cup semifinal, with a knee injury.
Dynamo will need all the veteran presence it can muster against a midfield that keeps getting better. Not only does Chivas USA have the solid Jesse Marsch and dynamic attacker Amado Guevara, the Los Angeles side also has emerging force Sacha Kljestan.
Kljestan posted a strong two-way match in helping Preki's MLS coaching debut turn out favorably, 2-0 over Toronto FC. Kljestan, lined up nominally on the right but quite mobile in the Goats' fluid four-man midfield, had a goal and an assist and looked sharp throughout.
FYI: Six previous meetings (regular season and playoff) have produced 22 cards, including three ejections. That's a lot.
A PHILOSOPHICAL STRIKER: Chivas officials are definitely aware of Ante Razov's impending milestone. His next goal will be No. 100 in regular season play as Razov joins Jason Kreis and Jaime Moreno as the only MLSers to reach that marker.
But team officials are being mum about what exactly they will do to honor Razov's accomplishment.
It's always a little awkward, these milepost goals. No team wants to over-celebrate the moment, aware that the club could lose the match, which puts everybody in the uncomfortable pose of raising a triumphant fist in a losing cause.
The impending milepost goal has brought out a side of Razov that fans might not have known existed. Not only is he a high-level striker, he's also a statistical philosopher, apparently. As media members have queried Razov about No. 100, he keeps playfully throwing a question back at them. "Why, for the purposes of milestone goals, is everyone counting only regular season strikes?"
And he's got a point. In tallying up the globe's all-time leading scorers, goals are goals, whether scored for club or country, in cup finals or in league play. Of course, the statistical tradition of U.S. sports is generally to tally up regular season and playoff achievement on separate ledgers.
ANOTHER DEFENSIVE HEADACHE: The "watch out for" list is growing for Real Salt Lake opponents.
Freddy Adu had his moments as a left-sided attacker in the opener against FC Dallas (a 2-2 tie that no one in Utah was happy about, after having won the better of play most of the afternoon.) And sophomore attacker Mehdi Ballouchy, lined up where Adu wants to be, in the central attacking midfield role, spent the sunny afternoon showing why he won the spot. Ballouchy was industrious and crafty, spreading the ball around and helping create the team's second goal.
But teams probably knew that. What's new is the threat from distance that Jason Kreis offers.
Kreis lined up at defensive midfielder, a role he played a few times last year for John Ellinger's team. And Kreis didn't have a bad afternoon at all, winning his share of tackles and generally distributing cleanly from that spot.
His blast from 22 yards led to Real's second goal, as Jeff Cunningham was at the right spot for the rebound. Obviously, any defensive midfielder is going to collect the ball in some spots where the strike from distance is available. It's just that Kreis remains one of the league's best from long range. And with defenses aware that they must step out quickly to meet the challenge, Cunningham, Adu and others will be looking for their opportunities to pop into the spaces vacated by those onrushing defenders.
Steve Davis is a freelance writer who has covered Major League Soccer since its inception. Steve can be reached at BigTexSoccer@yahoo.com. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
