The Portugal League gets scouted by a ton of other Euro Leagues, he is in his 1st year in a 1st division league he shouldn’t be so quick to make a move unless he isn’t happy or receives a better offer from somewhere else.
El Salvadoran-American, Justin Portillo, officially signs with Real Salt Lake: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019...sign-midfielder-justin-portillo-real-monarchs
Ik his Dad, older brother, and cousin. He went to my little brothers school, Grace King and played for his club, Louisiana Fire. He's the definition of hard work.
Awesome story he worked his way up from the minor leagues, hope that he can find success in the MLS and play for the NT in the future.
Some quick updates. Dennis Pineda played the first half of the Santa Clara vs. Nacional game, he had to be subbed off due to injury after getting hit in the face as he was going after the ball. His team won 2-0. Nelson Bonilla started in Bangkok United 1-1 draw over his former club Sukhothai FC. Bryan Tamacas hasn’t had the beat of luck over in Paraguay for the last few games he wasn’t on any of the list of available players until this last one where he was part of the bench. Now I’m not sure if it’s been injury or that he isn’t keeping up like they had hoped. Sadly I haven’t kept up with the rest of the guys in Guatemala. The last I remember was Jaime scoring a match date or two ago.
Arturo Alvarez retired today from club and national team today. I wonder why he did give a try in Costa Rica's, El Salvador's, Colombia's or Peru's soccer league. I feel like he could still add some depth and experience to the national team for the next 2 or 3 years.
It’s been one amazing ride! Thank you @MLS (@SJEarthquakes, @FCDallas, @realsaltlake, @ChicagoFire and @HoustonDynamo) @fcpf, @MOLVidiFCEng and @LaSelecta_SLV pic.twitter.com/ZNUytoNBKU— Arturo Alvarez (@artieart10) March 1, 2019 He should have stayed in Europe maybe one more year honestly.
I'm surprised he never played for FAS at the same time Arturo never truly embraced El Salvador from the beginning. He only came because USA never gave himna chance and after the match fixing truly became detached and only answered call ups when it was convenient. I would say though he was the best Salvadoran player of the 2010 decade. 1.Alvarez 2.Zelaya 3.Alas
Your two paragraphs are very contradicting lol. He was easily one of our best players after the 2013 ban, and kept the team somewhat less unstable. That doesn’t sound like someone who doesn’t embrace ES. He has represented several USA junior sides, so they absolutely gave him a chance he just wasn’t good enough to represent USMNT. Their loss was our gain. With that said, 33 is relatively young to retire and I would have liked him to play further and be a part of the 2022 WC cycle. Nonetheless, he was one of ES’ best players and had a good career. It’s just a shame he was in the midst of a very turmolous national team.
He had a very unfortunate career in that when he really could have helped injuries plagued him. His mistake was coming back to the states knowing the volatile system he was never going to be a featured player like most of the older European players. Also he probably avoided El Salvador because he knew of the ongoing debt issues that plague the league, I mean right now Alianza is the only one that can pay players on time and maybe Tecla.
He did fine at Chicago Fire, didn’t he? It says a lot about his work ethnic if he could be without a club for around a year and still manage to get signed to an MLS club; while in his 30’s and a few of his NT teammates could only aim for NASL or USL. Maybe he felt the ES league wasn’t beneficial to his career?
Honestly it wasn’t probably not at the asking price he would command. As for MLS he was off to a good start but as the season wore on Chicago relegated him to the bench and that was that. Even for his hometown club the Dynamo he was always going to be more of a sub and even then Boniek was always going to be the go to guy on the offensive end, if Cabrera was looking for that spark.
He actually had his personal best year in the MLS that season with the Fire. He probably should have went back to Europe after that.
To me Alvarez is disappointing because he always showed he could potentially have a decent career but injuries, constantly shifting clubs led to a very inconsistent career. At this point even a player like Nelson Bonilla has achieved more at club level then he did in my eyes. The way he retired abruptly and at the start of the MLS season which leads me to believe he wanted to sign on for another year but couldn’t find a club that fit. His salary for his level of on the field production never matched. There where guys earning way less then he did that did a lot more. It would have been nice if he had a send off game with the national team or some kind of send off game this way he has basically retired as a journeyman that never really found his place. Even with the national team I can think of a few good games here and there but I wouldn’t put him as the best of his era
His best time came in Hungary but then he wanted to leave he should have stuck it out maybe one more season. But then again the Hungarian league went through some problems of its own soon after he left so maybe it was for the best. What hurt him was that he didn’t have a place ready to go as soon as he departed. I remember the rumors of Cadiz and some other clubs yet nothing ever materialized.
Meanwhile Bonilla scores his first goal of the season which ended up being the game winner. 1101863960045793280 is not a valid tweet id The defenders being slow has been my main criticism of the Thai League.
MLS Round 1 news: Neither Cerén nor Portillo played in the Houston Dynamo vs RSL match. Game ends 1-1. Ruso came on at the 86th minute of the Colorado Rapids vs Timbers match. Game ends 3-3. Fito did not play in the LAFC vs Sporting KC match. LAFC won 2-1. PS. For those that care, we have 7 Salvadoran-Americans in the MLS: Gilbert Fuentes (SJ Earthquakes), Eriq Zavaleta (Toronto FC), Amando Moreno (Chicago Fire), Joshua Perez (LAFC), Danilo Acosta (Orlando City), and Cristian and Alex Roldan (Seattle Sounders). I won’t be posting any further updates on them, of course.
Christian Roldan is not eligible anymore but his brother Alex is, I think that Danilo Acosta chooses Honduras before El Salvador imo.
MLS Round 2 has a potential Salvadoran matchup between LAFC (Fito) and Portland (Ruso). Houston (Ceren) will play Montreal, and RSL (Portillo) will play Vancouver. He isn’t, but he counts as a Salvadoran-American nonetheless. FWIW, since that post Joe Corona has joined LA Galaxy. Acosta hasn’t been capped by any senior national team yet, so ES can still try to pursue him and Alex Roldan. Guatemala would be sure to try and entice Alex as well, while Mexico could also make a play for Amando Moreno.
Moreno is never playing for Mexico.. He's not good enough. Danilo is holding out hope for US and then he was born in Honduras.. So that's his logical second choice.