Hmm, are you suggesting there is a community of North American players or what exactly are you saying?
I am suggesting that playing PES 2009 online using the 'official' Konami servers is about as much fun as sticking needles in your eyes. Believe me, even if you are playing your next door neighbours, PES online with konamis servers is a complete tradegy.
However, their is a program called 'Hamachi' which allows you to connect to other computers online with PES 2009 as though they were on a LAN network. It works really well and compared to playing through Konami's servers, the games run like a dream. However, getting a game is a bit more of a pain in the arse....
Hence my suggestion to build up your community first, then arrange to play each other on Hamachi.