Arturo Alvarez To Play For El Salvador

I just seen on ESPN that he will play for El Salvador in the Hex and found this link

http://www.laprensagrafica.com/index.php/deportes/futbol-nacional/12442.html

&

http://www.elsalvador.com/mwedh/nota/nota_completa.asp?idCat=6429&idArt=3229694

its a dam shame i wanted him to play for the USA he should of been given the same chance as Robbie Rogers

too inconsistent.

there's a reason why his coaches keep trading him away.

Good move for the kid, because he was never going to break into the USMNT.

Wonderful for him. I wish him well, except against us.

Bad for the US -- he's a quality player. True, he was never going to break into the team, but he should have. Once again, our coaches have let us down.

Rogers should be getting a whole lot of time on the field now too but, for some reason, Beasley (in poor form, as always) keeps getting starts. I hope Holden doesn't decide to leave us and play for Scotland too. (Yes, I've seen the article where he says that he wants to play for the US, but if you never get the chance ... Hopefully he'll get some meaningful time during the hex.)

Good luck to Arturo. I would be willing to bet that he scores many goals for El Salvador and some of them will be against us.

Nothing againts the players of El Salvador but i think Alvarez will be there best player so far

Good for Arturo. Perhaps he should have been given a chance here or there with USMNT, but he really was inconsistent. Another good year to show off his stuff was needed.
I'm not sweating this too much, or seeing this is as a major gaffe of the USMNT... although i'm sure many on BS will believe the world is falling apart again...

Holden is cap-tied to the USA

He's past his 21st birthday and has represented the USA at the Olympics.

Um, good luck to Alvarez but this isn't a big loss. For those of you saying he should be getting looks with the full side - what are you basing that off of?

Funny how player dependent the BS reaction can be. We are a fickle lot.

I have no idea.

Is he a decent player in MLS, yes. Would it have been nice for his to represent the US? Yes. Would have gotten caps with the full USMNT? Probably. This kid was in the dilemma players like Gbandi were in. Not good enough to be a consistent participant for the USMNT, but has opportunities to play an important role for a national team like El Salvador. Arturo waited quite a long time for an opportunity and it didn't come. His last real chance was the Olympic qualifying tournament, which he didn't end up participating in.

This isn't like the Neven Subotic situation at all. This was a kid who wanted to play for the US, but WE decided we didn't want him. Decent player, nothing special. There's a reason he's been passed around MLS like an STD.

Why do you say the coaches let AA down? I have to believe at least one (or more) of the coaches that AA has had in the last few years did and said "all the right things" to get the most out of him. The rest was up to him. Good luck to him with El Salvador.

I know you keep hating on Beasley, so it does no good for me to discuss him. In case you hadn't noticed both Rogers & Holden are attending Camp Cupcake, and I expect both (barring injury) to get significant minutes against Sweden.

Well, we can add to the list another player who'll be missing from his MLS team on these Fifa/Hex dates in 2009.

I'm intrigued to see what an El Salvador side featuring Eliseo Quintanilla and Arturo Alvarez can do in the Hex.

My guess is "not much." But I wouldn't mind it if they found some way to take some points off of the other four teams.

I don't see why people are surprised or even remotely upset about this. Is losing Alvarez going to cost the MNT anything in the longrun? Doubtful. The truth of the matter is that there are better players in front of him and he wasn't being called up for a reason.

Best of luck with El Salvado AA.

hugo perez played for usa and not el salvador..

if alvarez was a hugo perez, then i'd have 2nd thoughts..

Not a huge loss for the US, at least not right now.

It might end up being a 'Ramon Nunez' situation -- a player that's too inconsistent for US coaches and fans but, at times, can produce some brilliant play. It would've been nice to have him in the stable for potential future development and use (i.e., who can say if we'll need a left-footed winger in the next 4 or 5 years), but that's not fair to him.

Wiki says: "On January 14, 2009, Alvarez announced that he had decided to play for El Salvador, although it is yet to be determined if he can do so as he may in fact be cap-tied to the US."

Yes, and it wasn't just Bradley who passed on Alvarez. It was a litany of youth coaches, U-20 coaches, U-23 coaches, Arena and Bradley. This kid has always been on the fringes of our squads. Close enough that he didn't accept the Sallies callups years ago. There's always been somebody who was slightly better or had slightly more potential. Not getting called into camp cupcake this time pretty much told him all he needed to know about his prospects. That meant he wasn't going to get looked at this cycle, and it would be at least 2011 before another chance came.

Best of luck to him (unless he's playing the US). May he score a brace against Mexico, and rip off a jersey to reveal DOS A CERO on his t-shirt.

Kids like Alvarez are going to explore their options, and this kind of thing is going to continue. It wouldn't shock me if Quavas Kirk played for T&T shortly.

Seems like I'm actually with the majority here. Here was a decent (if, as many have reminded us, inconsistent) player with nice skills, a player that's always been in the back of our minds, Nats-wise. It's nice, it does say something about him and is flattering to us that he stuck it out hoping for a spot for so long. But he was unlikely ever to make the breakthrough aside from Camp Cupcake and whatnot, and would likely have been a minor role player if he had, there are just too many guys ahead of him. I can't blame him for wanting what will probably be a key role for El Salvador considering he might never get any sort of role with the US.

I think this was the right decision for both Alvarez and the USA, frankly. Good luck to him, and El Salvador just got themselves a new key player.

I thought he hadn't appeared for the US on any level. He has been called into various camps, but surely that doesn't mean a thing.

I guess I could be wrong.

Again, from wiki: "Alvarez has represented the US in various youth levels (U17's, U18's, U20's). He has also participated in various matches and training camps with the U23's, but has as yet, failed to be selected for the men's national team."

He's over 21.

He'd have had to represent us in Concacaf qualifying for WYC, U20 WC, or Olympics or their finals to have been cap-tied, no? I don't believe there are any other "official" matches that would've provisionally tied him to us.

Or am I forgetting something?

Not a surprise. It was highly unlikely that he was going to have any chance to make the USMNT on a consistant basis. He has always been borderline.

Having watched him twice with the Quakes, I like him, but have never thought of him as international quality.

I am more than sure Alvarez appeared in qualifiers for the U20 WC. This may cap-tie him to the USA.

Here's an appearance:
http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_142159.html
http://www.ussoccer.com/common/stContent.jsp_79-05cqt.html

don't know if that did in fact cap tie him, or if Fifa might somehow allow him to go play for El Salvador now.

although he appeared in U20 WC qualifying in 2005, he doesn't look to have been on the final squad that went to Holland for the tournament.
http://www.ussoccer.com/common/stContent.jsp_79-YNTU20Mfwy.html

You are right.. there is no way he can play for El Salvador

He is over 21 and has represented the USA at an official Youth Tournament

CASE CLOSED

http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_142159.html