American All-Stars: A Look At The Many Phases of The MLS All-Star Game
Hot take: the Major League Soccer All-Star game is stupid. I’ve never liked the idea of essentially prostituting MLS’ biggest names against a huge international club like a Real Madrid, Juventus, or Bayern Munich (sorry Arsenal) for profit. The All-Star game is usually a mid-week match in the middle of the season, with MLS regular season games being played the weekends before and after – if nothing else, it’s a totally unnecessary travel day. I know All-Star games are a core tenet in American sports but, come on – if there’s one thing I actually agree with Euro-snobs on, it’s how much of a waste of time this game is.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way…
On a warm August night, in the two thousand and twenty first year of our lord (Don Garber), a United States soccer team played a Mexican soccer team in Los Angeles, California. Oddly enough, the team representing the U.S. won. Sound familiar?
The MLS All-Star game has taken on many shapes over the years. Similar to other U.S. sports leagues, it started with the traditional American format: the coaches of each MLS team selected the best players from the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference, who would face each other in a friendly played in various stadiums around the United States. This format lasted from 1996 until 2001 (except 1998, I’ll explain later) and was used one final time in 2004.
In 1998, MLS experimented with an “MLS U.S.A. v. MLS World” format. This match pitted the best U.S. MLS players against the best non-U.S. MLS players in one of the most American places in the U.S. - Orlando, Florida. Though it was good idea, the league didn’t have nearly the international presence it does now. In the end, the U.S.-based side, which featured an influx of successful Americans who had returned from successful careers abroad, destroyed a World team that was highlighted by Jorge Campos and Carlos Valderrama by a score of 6-1.
“The 2002 MLS All-Star game pitted the MLS All-Stars against the US Men’s National Team, who were World Cup Quarterfinalist at the time and had a team filled with stars, such as Cobi Jones, Landon Donavon, Alexi Lalas, DaMarcus Beasley, and many others.”
2002 was the first year MLS experimented with an All-Star game that featured a big international club. The 2002 MLS All-Star game pitted the MLS All-Stars against the US Men’s National Team, who were World Cup Quarterfinalist at the time and had a team filled with stars, such as Cobi Jones, Landon Donavon, Alexi Lalas, DaMarcus Beasley, and many others. The MLS All-Stars pulled off a magical upset win against the USMNT, which propelled the All-Star game to it’s current format: in 2003, MLS invited Liga Mx’s CD Guadalajara to compete against the MLS All-Star’s, which was first foreign club to participate in the All-Star game. Oh, and MLS won that one, too.
Beginning in 2005, MLS started hosting high profile European teams for the All-Star game. English Premier League club Fulham was smashed by the MLS All-Stars 4-1, which sparked a four-year win streak for MLS, beating Chelsea, Celtic, and West Ham in subsequent years. This All-Star format was meant to show MLS’s biggest names to a global audience, which led to MLS inviting bigger clubs, such as Manchester United, A.S. Roma, Tottenham Hotspur, and Atlético Madrid. For the European clubs, the All-Star game would cap off their preseason tours, often played in soccer-specific stadiums all across the amber waves of grain, (although the 2008 edition was played in Canada). One memorable moment from this era of MLS All-Star games brought was watching Harry Kane’s Tottenham Hotspur lose to the MLS All-Stars with a beautiful Rocky Mountain backdrop on a late summer afternoon. The last version of this format - as of now, anyway - took place in 2019, with the MLS All-Stars suffering a 3-0 defeat to Atlético Madrid.
After this week’s All-Star Game, a new tradition has been born between MLS and Mexico’s topflight soccer league, Liga MX. After years of competing against each other in the CONCACAF Champions League, Leagues Cup, and several other competitions and exhibitions, the two leagues have arranged to meet once again. This time, the Liga MX All-Stars traveled over the border to play the MLS All-Stars. Goals by Liga MX’s Jonathan Rodriguez and MLS’s Jesús Murillo cancelled each other, out as the game was tied after 90 minutes and would be settled by penalties. MLS goalkeeper Matt Turner did his thing, saving two penalties and effectively winning the game, eventually being awarded the MLS All-Star game MVP, just in time for his call up for World Cup Qualifying.
“MLS goalkeeper Matt Turner did his thing, saving two penalties and effectively winning the game, eventually being awarded the MLS All-Star game MVP, just in time for his call up for World Cup Qualifying.”
The MLS All-Star game may be tacky, but it is also pushing MLS to compete against bigger international leagues, clubs and players, some of which face the toughest competition in the world. One thing this game has showed, time and time again, is that MLS is not some throw-away retirement league – it’s a league that is evolving and growing, much like American soccer is. Though I still think it’s stupid, I also understand the significance of the game and what it means to the league, the sport and American culture.
