The Soccer Weblog

image: mlnet.com

I'd been looking forward to the MLS All Stars vs Chelsea game. A great chance for domestic US soccer's best to take on a proper team, and a nice little shop window for MLS players.

Unfortunately, through scheduling and injuries, the All Star game will be missing a few stars. Landon Donovan and Pablo Mastroeni are both injured while Taylor Twellman and Clint Dempsey (THE current MLS hot property) have an MLS fixture to fulfil against chivas USA.

Before you blame MLS for this crazy scheduling, allow Commissioner Don Garber to explain:

"This was a real tough one for us. The original Chelsea game was scheduled for last weekend and the MLS schedule had all teams free. When Chelsea was forced to move the date by the English Players Union (because of vacation time after the World Cup), we had a tough decision to make: not do the game at all or do it when all but two teams were available."

So, the final MLS All Star Roster looks like this:

Keepers: Joe Cannon, Troy Perkins

Defenders: Bobby Boswell, Chris Albright, Jimmy Conrad, Eddie Robinson, Facundo Erpen

Midfielders: Richard Mulrooney, Ronnie O'Brien, Freddy Adu, Dwayne De Rosario, Christian Gomez, Josh Gros, Ricardo Clark

Forwards: Jaime Moreno, Brian Ching, Nate Jaqua, Alecko Eskandarian

Could be worse, but doesn't inspire much excitement does it? Soccernet's Kristian Dyer argues that this is All Star In Name Only, while Dan Loney of American Soccer News sums up the game as "Freddy Adu and a bunch of social climbers against Pure Evil. I can't believe I'm going to watch. But I'm actually looking forward to the damned thing. Maybe I've got some sort of tumor or something."

They may be right, but this is still a game worth tuning in for. There's no doubt the MLS side will be keen to impress (especially Freddy) and for that reason alone this game will be worth watching. Think of it like a David vs Goliath cup tie and cheer for the underdog.

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