All For Nothing?
Andrew Dixon looks at the position of the MLS All-Star Game in a crowded schedule and wonders where it fits with the rise of the SuperLiga.
By Andrew Dixon
MIAMI, FL (July 10, 2008) USSoccerPlayers -- The soccer world has taken its collective breath over the past couple of weeks. After the Champions League Final in May we were dazzled by an incredible Euro 2008 title with more talking points, dramatic goals and big time performances than any tournament in recent memory. Perhaps after all that we needed a break.
Major League Soccer has been quietly humming right along, however, with teams like DC United and Galaxy FC finding their stride and the Revolution on their way to grabbing its first Supporter’s Shield. The US Open Cup, thankfully, still appears to be relevant after the latest round of matches. Just ask Cuauhtémoc Blanco how much he wanted to win or how disappointed FC Dallas was to lose.
The second edition of the Super Liga is set to start next week with only the Houston Dynamo struggling for from, giving MLS and decent chance of winning an international tournament for once.
Tucked in the middle of all that is the annual MLS Summer Showcase, its night of stars, its Mid-Summer Classic, the MLS All-Star game.
Yeah, I forgot about that one too. I’m sure I’ll watch, as I always do, but it’ll probably also be doing household chores or something. I’m finding that with each passing year this game means less and less.
Yes, it’s a way to honor league performances thus far but its increasing irrelevance, especially in light of these other competitions makes This Grown Man question its future.
All-Star games, of course, have a long tradition in American sports. Baseball has been playing its game since 1933 and there’s always an argument about who is or is not deserving of playing. As a basketball fan, I’ve watched the NBA All-Star game since I was a kid. The target practice that is the NHL All Star game and the Excuse To Go To Hawaii (aka the Pro Bowl) all have their loyal audiences.
So it made sense, especially in the early days of MLS, to promote the league’s talent through a similar all-star game in a format familiar to those fringe fans that the league was trying to attract.
The game itself has had a history of inconsistent selling points. The inaugural was an East-West affair at Giants Stadium that was also the front end of a double header that included Brazil’s Olympic team (featuring Ronaldo and Bebeto) against a World All Star team that included George Weah, Lothar Matthaus and Jurgen Klinsman.
Given that headliner, it's not surprising that over 78,000 people showed up. Only 24,000 came back the following year for All-Stars only.
1998 was the “Salvage Our Pride” match where the league’s American players, many of whom were on that cringe inducing ‘98 World Cup team, faced off against the league’s foreign players and beat them by like 245 goals.
The League celebrated the US’ quarterfinal finish at the 2002 World Cup by having some players from that squad play against MLS All-Stars, but that one ended up being delayed in the first half by a thunderstorm.
The first real interesting twist came the following year when they played famed Mexican side Chivas of Guadalajara in a well-contested 3-1 game. Sensing this was a better option than the traditional east-west affair, the league started lining up other foreign sides to play.
As formats go, it's a solid one. Bring a team that’s just getting its legs under them for the upcoming season, have their coaches say nice things about the quality of the league and beat them to demonstrate the League’s quality.
The first of these was against an awful Fulham side, brought in mainly because of MLS Alums Brian McBride and Carlos Bocanegra. Last year, Celtic were similarly overrun and only a saved Eddie Johnson penalty kick kept the scoreline from being worse.
Where it worked was the win over Chelsea two years ago. Chelsea came in with one of the best coaches in the world, sporting an all-star squad of some of Europe’s best players and not only did MLS beat them with a wonder strike from Dwayne DeRosario, they shut them out.
This year we have West Ham United to get excited about. West Ham? Now I suppose that many of the top teams weren’t in a rush to get over here as many of their players were going to be involved in Euro 2008. When the available option is a club featuring the likes of Bobby Zamora and an aging Freddie Ljungberg, maybe East-West gets revisited.
Oh, I’ll watch and likely so will most of you. It's that blind loyalty MLS preys on for these sort of "events." That doesn't mean I'll pay attention, and if I do, it’ll be from the back of the couch as opposed to the edge of it.
Is the League running out of ideas to make the All-Star Game relevant? With the prospect of SuperLiga, the US Open Cup, the CONCACAF Champions League and, oh yeah, MLS Cup Playoffs, where does this game rank in the hierarchy of things MLS fans should look forward to? Is it that important to have something that casual fans can identify with that we add one more match for some of the top players in the league?
I understand the need to honor our top players and increase the visibility of the League both here and abroad. With each passing year, we seemed to have exhausted every possible format and still the game means little more to me than it did when the shootout was still in fashion. MLS needs to find a way to makes this game relevant or let it be.
Thanks to the other tournaments, we now have other ways of demonstrating the quality players we have without a high profile pick-up game copied from other North American sports.
If I’m in the mood for All-Star games, I’ll wait for another testimonial. Then again, this is just One Grown Man’s Opinion.
Andrew Dixon is a soccer writer based in Miami and a weekly columnist for USSoccerPlayers. Contact him at: golnoir@golnoir.net
