MLS All-Stars Defeat Chelsea 3-2; Really a “Message” to Europe?
Posted on July 27, 2012 4:13 am
The guys discuss the MLS All-Star victory over Chelsea (2012), 3-2. Does this game really send a message to Europe about hoe MLS has improved? Also, who were your players of the game? Wondolowski, Henry, Beckham, Pontius, Beitshour, Morrow, Alonso, Demerit? On the Straight Red Card.
Without a doubt MLS has improved by leaps and spades, yet nothing can truly be gleaned the game other than the player’s respective performances. It was nice to see Wondolowski vindicate his goalscoring record by repeating the feat against “better” opposition. However Chelsea are in the midst of preseason, trying to build fitness and assess a new group of players. Against a diverse assortment of MLS’best, there is no real way to gauge the quality of the league as a whole. MLS is best left judged – relative to its foreign counterparts – by its clubs’ performances in the CONCACAF Champions League. In other words we must prove we are better than the Mexican and South American leagues (or otherwise win the World Cup) for MLS to deserve acclaim abroad. In Europe, fans from different countries bicker over which country plays the best football, but the cumulative results of their domestic clubs in the Champions League (and Europa as well) go as far to settling the debate as possible.
Did Al Hilal’s win over Manchester City send a message?
These friendlies mean absolutely nothing…
^^^^
This. The only “message” sent is that games like this fill stadiums and make money. They don’t mean anything relative to competitiveness of anyone versus anything.
How hard would you play in a meaningless game while on vacation?
Sure it sent a message: “follow the money”.
How about BPL all stars VS MLS all stars? exactly, no it does not send “a message” too them, how about a full chelsea squad, in season form that won the CL against say, MLS’s best side which is now the quakes.
No, we have not proved a point, esp. barely defeating a out of season B- chelsea squad that probably used a buttload of reserve players mixed with a few names. i doubt those 3 goals would come in against the likes of petr cech.
so, in a nutshell. NO, no message has been sent. If it did, than it got lost some where over the Atlantic ocean.
5-2, and 4-0, versus Man Utd, becomes a nice 3-2 win for MSL vs Chelsea. And the lesson gleamed by MLS…? KNOW YOUR LEVEL.
Don’t go arranging high profile Allstar showcase games, with the like of Barca, Real, Man Utd, Milan, Juve, Bayern etc..because you think it brings greater kudos for the league.
Beatdowns from the cream of Europe’s real elite doesn’t do anybody any favours.
Isn’t Chelsea the defending Champion of Europe? Isn’t that level too high for MLS? Chelsea is not high profile????? What a retarded post from Bat Fink.
It comes down to styles as was said in the video.
Exactly. It would have been the same if the MLS Allstars faced Mourinho’s Porto side of 2004.
Being a cup comp, the UCL winners aren’t always the best club around, and Chelsea as the 6th best team in the EPL were most certainly not the best team around.
MLS did well, but Chelsea are not the power some would have you believe.
7:20….if that guy says it, you can bet the farm that whatever the point is, it is wrong.
LOL, i was curious whether you were talking about Brett or Derek and it turns out it took 2 seconds to realize you meant Lalas
Nothing but a meaningless pre-season friendly.
So retrarded since it’s mid-season for MLS.
What is retarded is that Chelsea have played together for years, but somehow MLS All Stars had a total of 2 practices, which you classify as in-form. Yeah, that is what I thought….
Having a meaninlgess circus show in the middle of the season is retared and makes MLS mickey mouse.
Face it, you are an MLS hater. They can’t do anything right. So go hang out with those stupid racist Mexispazzos.
No, I’m a fan of a local club in US which is a MLS club.
I hate when MLS does Mickey Mouse stuff.
It’s an american league and the all-star game is an american thing. Of course it happens at the end of the season generally, but to highlight MLS against top teams around the world we need to do it during their offseason. We could go back to the East vs West, but i doubt it’ll pull as well and generate as much publicity. Perhaps later in MLS’s life when it’s even stronger and more popular we can go back.
I was glad to find out that no one from Chicago made the team. Save them from the extra wear and potential injury.
I missed this game. I am definitely getting old. How did their respective defenses play. The reason I asked was I remembered one of these games when Arena coached the apostate years ago. His team beat the foreign team. It looked like the foreign team played a keep from getting hurt defense. But Arena’s defense was a high pressure one at times.
Now I am sure both coaches said it would be a low pressure defensive game. Then Arena told his guys to put defensive pressure on the team. That is how we won. From that moment on I was an Arena fan because he was a sneaky bastard. at least that is how I remember that game.
I thought Chelsea tried, but not to their potential. Their manager stated that these friendlies are about picking up match fitness.
So the message I’m getting:
If MLS wins/ties: “It’s just a friendly! It doesn’t matter, and they were using their backups!”
If MLS loses: “See! MLS is weak! I knew it! This is Proof!”
The message is the same either way… The MLS hasnt improved 1 bit… It will take a whole lot more than buying washed up Euro stars & playing summer friendlies with European clubs that are just coming off of vacation; for the MLS to improve. A whole lot more.
Hasn’t improved one bit? At all? Since 1996?
Well, it’s a good thing that there’s no quantitative way to measure your hypothesis.
As a matter of fact: maybe there is! I will use the very lousy CONCACAF Champions league… The MLS sends what? 4 participants every year (highest I beleive) and yet in all these years, only 2 MLS clubs have won that comp & not even a case of 2 MLS clubs winning it multiple times… No a case of 2 clubs giving the MLS a grand total of 2 titles in that comp… and again, remember, this is a competition that is in many ways as much a joke as the MLS is!
Would u like me to get into the area of player development?
Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore, Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, Michael Bradley, Herculez Gomez…absolutely – no good player has ever been produced by this league.
And you know what? I give up. You’re right. If we’re not the best in the world after almost two decades of trying, we’ll never be. So let’s just give up. Tear down MLS. I mean, we had a good run, a few kids watched, we had a little dog and pony show, but we put a lot of time into it, and we’re still not at the level of the leagues that have been there for forty years. So it’ll never happen. We’ll never make a World Cup. We’ll never win a game even if we get there as a nation.
Jim Rome was right. Soccer will never make it here. Let’s quit now before we humiliate ourselves further.
So 5 good players in close to 20 years qualifies as player development… and of those 5-10 good players (who in my opinion are mostly just above average players): how many will start at the top clubs in the world today? Probably none! I didnt in any way, shape or form suggest that the league should fold. I want it to develop. All I am saying is, they have been using the wrong formula for too long & are either too blind or too arrogant to c that they are failing miserably & should consider doing things differently… things like “re-shaping” the league format for 1 will be a good start.
to be fair, Dempsey will likely ride out his contract and have a wide variety of top sides to pick from next season. Michael Bradley has a great chance to start for Roma this season given his play and how each game he’s developing nicely. Howard started his career abroad as gk’er to Man U, but currently is highly respected at Everton.
MLS is no where near a top league, so stop comparing expectations of those who have top leagues. This past year at CCL, it was Santos who consistently knocked MLS sides out, which is nothing to sneeze at. Santos is a great side and they have far more $$ to spend on players and player development.
MLS has certainly improved and you’d be blind if you say otherwise. Again, no one is saying we are a top league, simply saying the quality has improved.
If AS Roma to u is a top European club, then I honestly dont know where to start… Howard yes: great career. Again u really didn’t answer my question! 5-10 players in 20 years: does that really qualify as an improvement? And i will reiterate my opinion, none of those 5-10 will start at a top notch club today! Now I am really hoping here that when u say Santos, u are talking about Santos Laguna… and if that to u is a great side… then once again, i wont even know where to start (I hope u get my drill here… Santos FC of Sao Paulo is indeed a top notch side.. they dont play the CONCACAF champs league though… they play the Copa Libertadores- a competition the MLS doesnt take part in!
In the past decade Roma has placed 2nd in serie a maybe 5-6 times. They are juve or ac Milan but they have a recent history of doing quite well
My point is mls has improved. No one is saying they are a dominant league that develops top talent. And yes the santos team currently is a quality side.
There back ups are better then our starters no?
Just meaninlgess. Period.
Prove in CCL.
Funny when I coached our season was made up of league games and friendly games. None of those friendly games were friendly
were your players risking millions by going all out in these friendlies?
I just noticed this. Have you ever played the game? When you don’t go all out. That is when you can get hurt. Especially, when your opponent does go all out.
Common people! Be reasonable! It didnt send a message to any1! Not especially when u have to take an “all-star-team” & struggle in a friendly against freaking Chelsea lol… What if it was a competitive game against say Barca, Real, AC, City, freaking PSG, or United? Or better yet, let’s even out the scale & say a competive MLS all-star vs UEFA all-star… Now tell me again what the message will be at the end of that game.
Yeah, a REAL game. We’ll get right on joining MLS in UEFA.
The message is that MLS is a mickey mouse league having a meaningless circus show right in the middle of it’s season to accomodate a Euro club.
You want to send a message?
Beat Mexicans in real matches, win CCL.
All the mexicans will be moving here before long, and will become citizens. That when we will win the WC
But they will represent Mexico, so you’re screwed.
How ’bout you get your own people to win things for you? if you didn’t have black and Hispanic athletes fighting for you, you’d have nothing.
Btw, this “allstar game” was 100% meaningless. Prove your strength in CCL, where you get crushed every year.
Those are our own people. So, unless only white people do it, it doesn’t count? Quit talking out of your racist ass.
Yea dude USA is a melting pot so they are “our” people.
They’re not your people if they refuse to play for you. Get a life and stop mooching off of others.
Using Champions Leagues (UEFA or Concacaf) to prove the relative abilities of leagues is almost as ridiculous as using an all-star game to do it. All Champions Leagues prove are the relative abilities of the top clubs in the leagues, which do not define the leagues themselves. Barca and Real Madrid are amazing. The rest of the Spanish league (while still quite good) should not be judged by how those two clubs do in Champions League.
The top leagues typically have seven teams in European competition, eight if they win a fair play spot. So although far from a perfect way of judging the relative merits or leagues, it’s equally not just a test of the strengths of Barca and Real.
As for the “All-star game”, I didn’t even realize it had been played until I saw this blog posting, so it certainly didn’t send a message to me.
And Barca and Real are Superclubs…Galaxy aside, MLS realizes that it makes economic sense to promote parity, even if it does sting come CCL time.
The Galaxy have done pretty bad in the CCL as well.
I remember when the Spanish league was know as a dirty league. Play there you were apt to get your leg broke. That was when the Italian league was know as the best league in the world.
Was a message sent when Thailand, esentially a Thai League All-Star team (correct me if I’m wrong), drew 1-1 with Liverpool?
Probably not, because that match, like the MLS All-star game, was too obscure to send any message to anyone.
The only message sent out was that Alexi Lalas is a moron.
… but then we already knew that
: So I suppose it reinforced that lol
It’s no more of a message than losing the past 2 seasons was. It’s a meaningless exhibition game.
Lalas actually made it to Seri A in Itaian league as a player. On announcing who listens to announcers? I turn off the sound and listen to Doors Cds when I watch games. Do you need someone to explain what your are seeing when your watching a game?
Even The Soft Parade?
You cannot petion the Lord with Prayer!!!!!!!!
We Americans do often overestimate the importance of these friendlies, especially when we win them. However, I don’t think that the answer to that is to underestimate them instead. I don’t think any one friendly sends a message, but it may contribute a small bit to the overall message that various things, especially Americans playing in Europe, send.
How soon we forget 2005.
I’m with Henry on this one. I think what the game really said was the league is improving. The play is improving. I thought the MLS guys looked impressive. The win was nice. But again, I agree that if there was a “message” not many in Europe are really listening anyhow.
Who cares we won. Cosmos won a lot of friendlies against foreign opponents.
Has an exhibition game EVER sent a message to anyone?
No message, but it was nice to see guch good play from guys I hadn’t heard of two years ago.
The only message it sends is that MLS is such a fake league they’re willing to do anything got attention such as stopping their games halfway thru the season to play some meaningless game.
“The only message it sends is that MLS is such a fake league they’re willing to do anything got attention such as stopping their games halfway thru the season to play some meaningless game.”
Yup. Just like that fake league Major League Baseball.
And the NBA and NHL.
One win or one loss does not make a message. However, what if we win the all-star game for the next 5 years in a row against “top” competition… that might begin to change perceptions and yes would likely be more of a “message”, because sure enough if the “top” teams win 5 in a row people would declare that the message is the mls blows.
Neither team really looked like they wanted to be there.
To give out a Cup trophy for this meaningless game, is the height of Mickey Mouse. This league is the very definition of Mickey Mouse.
Having this mid-season game is stupid. Giving out a trophy for it is even stupider. But the league is not Mickey Mouse.
Yea EPL is soo mickey mouse because they give a trophy out for the community shield…
But that’s just a dish. This one was bigger.
And no one said the ASG is what makes this league Mickey Mouse. It is just 1 of a litany of reasons.
You have no reading comprehension.
Don’t change your words after the fact and then accuse someone of not reading them. Your comment was that “giving out a Cup trophy[Ed. note: not actually a 'cup trophy'] for a meaningless game is the height of Mickey Mouse.”
Then it was pointed out that several of the top leagues in the world give out a trophy for a meaningless charity friendly. At which point, rather than admit an inch, you doubled-down on the douchebag and lost a mile.
It is far better to win then to lose. The weak coach looks for excuses for a loss. All coaches rather win then lose even friendly games.
Mickey Mouse or not the chances are pretty good your not good enough to ever play in it okay Goofy.
Chelsea alone has a larger payroll and generates more money than the whole MLS. People seriously need to understand that these teams aren’t good just because good players fall out of the sky and land in Chelsea uniforms especially Chelsea right now.
Chelsea has a payroll of like $400 million
Red Bulls and Galaxy have like $15 million each.
All it takes to be good is money to bring in the staff and players to be competitive. You can’t be competitive if the best teams and leagues spend and make 100X more than you.
Bravo right and they still won
there’s absolutely zero chance of them having a $400 million payroll. I’d be shocked if it was even a third of that. I think youre confusing player value with yearly salary, even then.
By and large it makes almost no difference to MLS what “Europe” thinks. If any message was sent, it’s to people here who might be on the fence about whether MLS is worth watching (and there are probably a fair few of those, since the All-Star game gets about triple the ratings of an average MLS game), and to that extent, it really isn’t about the scoreline (unless it’s a blowout and then that’s a bit embarrassing). It’s much more about subjective judgements as to whether there’s talent on display that’s worth a ticket to see. Different people will come to different conclusions on that, but I’m guessing for the most part this year’s iteration went fairly well.
errrr……………..no
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