[2] He had a career as a football player with Deportes Iquique in his country of birth[3] and with American clubs such as Washington Stars,[4] where he coincided with Mark Pulisic, the father of Christian.
[5] In 2006, Alvial was the manager of the USL Puerto Rico Islanders, recruiting players such as three-time Argentine national title winner Gustavo Barros Schelotto and Chilean international Arturo Norambuena to join his team.
On 11 January 2008, though still hired at Chelsea, Alvial joined the FC Dallas coaching staff for a short period of time to evaluate players at the Major League Soccer (MLS) level.
He was linked to convincing the Argentine Legend of Boca Juniors, Guillermo Barros Schelotto to the Columbus Crew for only a salary cap of only $150,000 the first year.
Alvial was also linked to getting Marcos González and three-time Chilean national title champion Milovan Mirošević to sign for the Crew.