[R] Guevara The Only Latino Starter For The MLS ALL STARS Guevara was the only latino playing for the MLS All Stars and he was looking confident despite being his first All Star Game, not to mention his first MLS season. Guevara had good ideas in the start of the game, he was trying to connect with Clint and Preky but they were in another planet, and apparently so was Boob Bradley after knowing that this is like a USA vs. Mexico match and takes out an attacking creative midfielder (Guevara) for a more defensive midfield type boricua (Armas) I think that was a pretty dumb move I think he should of took out preki considering hes like 40 and was apperantly showing tiredness.
Given that there were 7 subs allowed (and from Bradley's sub decisions), who started doesn't matter a lot. B/c Bradley basically put 2 different teams out there (first half and second half). When your second half team has Razov and Ruiz as strikers, that's not too shabby. Which, speaking of Ruiz, he didn't start, but he is Latino. One last thought--in the baseball all-star game, some managers have been accused of pulling their own players early (to rest them) or using pitchers of key opponents for longer periods (or even using them when they didn't have to). I'm not arguing conspiracy here, only that maybe Bradley, besides wanting to win the match, also wanted to rest some of his own guys (such as Pope, Mathis, Guevara) after 45 minutes. From a club perspective, having your players not go the full 90 and avoid injury would be a real relief.
If anybody was being ethnically selective, it was Chivas. How come you are not complaining about them? Or is putting 11 Hispanic starters on a team not considered discrimination, but just putting 1 Hispanic starter is discrimination?
Plus, Cienguegos played the second half. Basically, every hispanic player on the MLS All-stars either started the match, started the second half and played the entire second half, or played most of the second half. Zach Thornton is the only MLS player who didn't get PT.
Only a conspiracy if MetroStars play Columbus next. Hey Dude played the full 90, didn't he? Ah hah! There you go. So the only player who didn't get on the field is black. What does that mean? Seriously, I did wonder about why no keeper change. Seems to me that one of the honors of being on the all-star team is getting onto the field.
Who cares. The term latino or hispanic is pretty contrived anyway. It doesn't descibe people with a common social backgroud, language or even overall physical appearance.
If I was doing the game I would have let Guevara play to the 60 minute. Only because I like his game. Don't care what nationality he is does not enter in on a coaching decision. He is a player that's it nothing else matters.
Armas replaced Ryan Nelson. It was Donovan who replaced Guevara and if you watched you saw him play more effectively going forward as the MLS All Stars came alive in the second half. It was a good move by Bradley for a couple of reasons.
Bradley and Thornton have a great relationship. It was Bradley who put him on the team as the late replacement when he could have picked someone else. I imagine Zach was completely aware of the thought process. I thought maybe we'd see the "standing ovation for Hartman" substitution made right at the end, but I think Bradley only was allowed seven subs, and he'd used them to get all of the field players into the game. Maybe he was saving Martino and Thornton to sub in until the very end. If Hartman took a knock, enter Thronton. If not, let Martino have a few minutes to run around. No snub to Zach.