There was every reason for Major League Soccer optimism at Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio this past weekend. The weather was fine, the crowd of 23,309 was great, and the scoreline was just dandy: MLS All-Stars 4, Fulham 1 (that’s Fulham of the English premier league, you understand).

Celebrating its 10th year of existence, MLS was looking good, and euphoria was in the air. Giving his state of the league message, Commissioner Don Garber inevitably piled it on a bit: “We’re no longer outsiders in the world soccer community,” he announced. “We’ve become central to the aspirations and future of the world’s game.” Barely had one time to digest that sweeping declaration before Garber nailed up another triumphant claim: “The USA is quietly becoming a power to be reckoned with … our [MLS] teams can stand tall on any given day against any team in the world.”

On he swept, dwelling proudly on the fact that the American national team is now ranked sixth in the world, ahead of England, France, and Italy … and at that point, Garber’s feet hit the ground again, as he remembered that there were members of the Fulham delegation in his audience, and he punctured his own rhetoric with the aside, “I say that with a smile, guys. FIFA ranking is not an exact science.”

Quite so. As they used to say of the Holy Roman Empire – neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire – FIFA rankings are neither exact, nor scientific, nor believable. But for a minute or so, it seemed acceptable that Garber should puff up the MLS plumage and indulge in some harmless public preening.

After all, MLS has survived for a decade, and so much of what he said happens to be true. Thanks to MLS owners – and in particular to Lamar Hunt, whose devotion to soccer goes back to the formation of the old NASL in 1967 – there are now “soccer-specific” stadiums. Not merely on the drawing boards, but in bricks and mortar. The All-Stars played in one in Columbus (privately built with Hunt’s money); the splendid Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., has been operating for over two years, and a third stadium – Pizza Hut Park – will open next week in Frisco, Texas. Next year, Chicago will join the ranks, and there is even plenty of on-again, off-again talk of a MetroStars stadium in Harrison, N.J.

MLS has unquestionably raised the level of play among American players – that buoyant FIFA ranking owes everything to MLS. And Garber, reporting “more and more interest in investing in MLS,” says there will be two expansion teams added in 2007 – one almost certainly in Toronto – bringing the league up to 14 teams.

The achievements are formidable. They show a league strong enough to withstand a dose of reality. So, let me return to Garber’s boast about the strength of MLS and its players. It needs to be said that the MLS All-Star game was hardly what it seemed. Fulham looked a very tired team indeed (they are supposed to be getting in shape for their season) and provided weak opposition for the MLS players (who are in the middle of their season).

In a sideline interview during the game, All-Star coach Colin Clarke was not to be fooled, remarking: “If this were a boxing match, they’d stop it now.” This was not a case of the All-Stars being surpassingly good, but of Fulham being just plain feeble. As a test of the MLS talent level, the game was a resounding flop. There was something else about the All-Stars that might give Garber & Co. pause for thought: Among the starters were four Americans and two foreigners who played, and failed to make the grade, in Europe.

That the caliber of American players has improved is unarguable. But that it is nowhere near where it should be – and could be – is equally beyond question. Of all the statements in Garber’s keynote address, surely the most remarkable came when he dealt with the matter of youth development: “We believe that we haven’t even scratched the surface of the talent in grass roots across the country.”

I can’t chide Garber with exaggeration on this point; if anything, he is understating the case. A look at the All-Star starting 11 tells the story. Not a Hispanic name to be seen. There were two Hispanic players on the bench – one Argentine, one Honduran. In other words, what 10 years of MLS has singularly failed to do is to develop homegrown Hispanic talent.

The potential in this area is staggering. Garber knows this – he mentioned the need for MLS clubs to go “very deep into the local youth ethnic soccer communities” (my italics). But does Garber also know that it is his clubs, and the coaches of those clubs, who are the biggest obstacle to progress in this area?

Of MLS’s 12 coaches, seven are of European origin. Four are American-born. Only one is Hispanic – Colorado Rapids coach Fernando Clavijo. Even Chivas-USA – sworn to use only Hispanic players – has a European coach!

The inevitable result of this heavy bias against the Hispanic style of play is a league whose teams play a largely European-style soccer. Chivas-USA is the exception, and it has been struggling to adapt to the overt physicality of MLS play.

Alongside MLS, we have the colleges – where Hispanic players are rarities – and the standard white, suburban, soccer mom youth scene. That is the set up that composes what is generally called “organized soccer” in America. It is one that makes it highly unlikely that the distinctive style and skills of young Hispanic players will receive the same devoted attention given to their Anglo counterparts.

The lead in creating a development system whose coaching can accommodate all styles of play can only come from MLS. But whether it can come from the current group of rather ordinary, hidebound MLS coaches, I strongly doubt.

I do not mean to rain on MLS’s 10th-anniversary parade. The achievements of the league are considerable. But in the vital area of recognizing, encouraging, and nurturing the massive treasure of Hispanic talent in this country, it has failed, and it continues to fail.