Pietravallo the symbol of the Red Bulls' woes

When the television camera panned to the Red Bulls' sideline during the second half of New York's 2-1 loss to Toronto on Saturday, Juan Pietravallo was seated firmly on the bench. As he has most of the season, the Argentine defensive midfielder failed to make an appearance. While many players come and go from Major League Soccer with few minutes of playing time to show for their efforts, Pietravallo remains perhaps one of the biggest busts in league history.

Consider the fact that coach Juan Carlos Osorio praised Pietravallo as ideal when he was signed in July 2008. "When I looked at the need to find an anchorman or a defensive midfielder, I think I chose the right place to go, which is Argentina," Osorio said last July. "[Pietravallo is] a guy who breaks the play, regains possession and gets to distribute the ball."

He certainly can't do those things from the bench, and it is equally unlikely that he gets the job done when he is on the field. Pietravallo has played just three games (two starts) this season, which puts him 17th on the roster in terms of action seen. He has registered a single assist in his MLS career (during a wild 5-4 loss to the Rapids in September) and has four yellow cards and one red card to his credit. In short, he's been a waste of valuable space.

Consider the fact that Pietravallo is raking in $205,000 guaranteed this season (he sure isn't spending it on haircuts). He also is one of four defensive midfielders on this team (Alberto Celades, Seth Stammler and Luke Sassano are the others), and his cap space is killing a team that is at the bottom of MLS. Osorio now has a player who is nothing but a detriment on the field and is an albatross of a salary, prohibiting other moves from shoring up this team. But it was just bad luck that Osorio signed Pietravallo and guaranteed the second year of his contract, right?

Not so much.

The Red Bulls are Pietravallo's 10th club since he began playing professionally in 2000, a series of globetrotting moves that has taken him from Argentina to Spain and back to Argentina before moving to Greece and then the Big Apple. The fact that the player's passport has more stamps than most philatelists should have been cause for concern when he was in contract negotiations with New York technical director Jeff Agoos and Osorio. And now, his signing might be their death knell.

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If New York doesn't win Saturday against expansion side Seattle, a club that throttled the Red Bulls 3-0 in its debut, Osorio and Agoos might be out of jobs. After all, it's Agoos who remains the constant from the Bruce Arena tenure and has managed to hold on to his job after a horrid start in which the team registered nine points in 15 games. And after numerous roster moves and shakeups over the past year, this is finally Osorio's team, built with players he brought in.

It is a team that now is in last place and shows no signs of changing anytime soon, except for maybe its coach.

Quote of the week

"I have a hard time believing the reason for tonight's performance was lack of leadership. We played last Saturday [and won without Landon Donovan] in Toronto, and certainly nobody was questioning our leadership then. ... I just think, in all fairness, the better team won." -- Los Angeles Galaxy coach Bruce Arena following his team's 2-0 loss to Real Salt Lake.

Stat of the week

This week saw the Confederations Cup get underway. Despite FIFA's Vince McMahon-esque penchant for hype, the cup still is just a glorified series of friendlies. But with that being said, it is a great opportunity for the U.S. national team to grasp the atmosphere of South Africa one year before next summer's World Cup. It also is a great opportunity to showcase MLS.

For your consideration: 15 players on the national team roster for the cup either have played or currently are in MLS. Not too bad of an advertisement for the league.

Quick kicks

With their loss in Toronto, the Red Bulls have dropped 20 road matches in a row, a new MLS record.

If you're having a hard time remembering when Los Angeles last lost, there is a reason for it. Before falling 2-0 to Real Salt Lake on Saturday night, the Galaxy had gotten points in each of their past 10 games.

Remember all that preseason talk about the strength of the Eastern Conference? Consider this: Statistically, five of the top six goalkeepers in the league are from the Western Conference. And we all know a hot goalkeeper can carry a team in the playoffs.

Talk about playing in the clutch -- Houston's Stuart Holden is the only player in the top five in the league in both game-winning goals and game-winning assists.

Speaking of the Dynamo, the orange-clad club is playing as tight defensively as any team in the league. If you were to triple goalkeeper Pat Onstad's goals-against average (.62), it still wouldn't be more than San Jose's Joe Cannon's (2.00).

Kansas City looked impressive in its 3-1 win over New England, but the Wizards scored a treble of goals for the first time since a 3-1 win over the very same Revs in October.

Kristian R. Dyer is a freelance writer for ESPNsoccernet. He is the associate editor of Blitz magazine and also writes for the New York City daily paper METRO. He can be reached at KristianRDyer@yahoo.com.