Playmaker Marcelo Gallardo has emerged as a class acquisition as D.C. United has rebounded from an atrocious start to '08. Scott Bales/Icon SMI

By Ridge Mahoney, Special to SI.com, Soccer America

A survivor of many passionate, sometimes fierce, battles in league and cup matches for Boca Juniors, Guillermo Barros Schelotto has angered the likes of Toronto FC coach John Carver by his posturing and diving, and he has yet to utter a complimentary word about MLS referees.

He's also tormented MLS defenses numerous times with precise chips, incisive through balls and deadly set plays and won midfield duels with fierce tackles. By moving thousands of miles north to trade Boca blue-and-yellow for Middle America black-and-gold, Schelotto left behind more than a decade of passion and glory to toil in a league still occasionally referred to as "MSL," even in a wildly more visible era marked by the arrival of David Beckham.

"Every day it's better, but it's very different with Argentina," says Schelotto, who left Boca last summer to sign with MLS and has a rudimentary command of English. "But I like the soccer, I like the city, I like the people, I am very good here."

He has brought guile and flair to America's "Hardest Working Team," which itself symbolizes a gritty persona that the league is trying to shed, layer by layer, by importing larger numbers of foreign players, most of them South American, and many of those Argentine.

Steeped in toughness and schooled in skill, exported by the hundreds to dozens of countries and many of the world's biggest clubs, Argentine players possess the qualities that are vital to flourish in foreign lands.

"He's an aggressive game player," Columbus right back Frankie Hejduk, who has tangled with many top-tier players during more than a decade of play for his club teams as well as the U.S. national team, says of Schelotto. "He comes to play. There's a reason he was a legend at Boca. He's a great addition to our team and has made a world of difference for us."

Yet to be determined is if Marcelo Gallardo (D.C. United), Carlos Marinelli, Eloy Colombano and Claudio López (Kansas City), Matías Mantilla, Javier Morales and Fabián Espíndola (Real Salt Lake), and others can not only transform the image of MLS but make a difference for their teams. With an increased allotment of eight international players per team, not all of them will start, or even stick on a roster past the contract guarantee date of July 1.

But the track record of Argentines leaving home is a good one, partly because they know the value of landing in the right spot and squaring away the personal side of a move.

"I try to find the best place where I want to be, and I've managed to do that everywhere I go," says López, whose impressive résumé lists Racing in his native country and Valencia and Lazio as well as Club América in Mexico. "As far as picking a favorite, I don't have a favorite, because I tend to find a place where I can be comfortable and adapt easily. Besides family, I like to fish, I like to hunt, and hang out with friends and eating out. That's always fun."

New wave

Argentines first came to MLS in its early years but other South Americans, such as Carlos Valderrama, Óscar Pareja and Leonel Álvarez (Colombia), Marco Etcheverry and Jaime Moreno (Bolivia) and Eduardo Hurtado (Ecuador) were usually far more influential. The talented Argentines who couldn't make it to Europe either stayed in their native country or were snapped up by teams in Mexico or Central America. The recent arrivals have changed all that.

"The thing that I say about him is there's no one better in the league at the weight of the pass of a ball," says Hejduk of Schelotto. "You notice it in practice, being with him every day. There's no one that does it better since I've been in the league. The closest guys, maybe, Valderrama or Etcheverry. He's right up there with them for sure."

By nabbing Christian Gómez from Arsenal de Sarandí during the 2004 season, D.C. United found the missing piece for a team that was already very good, and with Gómez setting up and scoring goals in an attacking midfield role, D.C. won its fourth MLS Cup.

A rather dreary procession of Argentine players passed through MLS before Gómez arrived: Sergio Miguez, Silvio Rudman, Daniel Peinado, Marcelo Herrera, Leonardo Squadrone and Alejandro Farias, among others. Some of them, like ballyhooed "King of Goals" Sergio Galván Rey, arrived with great fanfare, flopped in MLS, then returned to South America and restored their former glory. Galván Rey had talent, so what was missing?