The Other All-Stars (Garber/Olsen picks)

Not bad, but I'm not overwhelmed. In my opinion Alonso has been having an off year, and I would not have picked him. I'd argue Beckerman has not been as consistently good as the last few years. But then who to pick who is qualitatively superior to them? Morales?
The point may be not who is "superior" to them, but who would make a more complete team out of the All-Stars. There is a dearth of creative players in the middle, and this team could have used somebody who can surprise the opposition. Freddy Adu, or Nguyen, might have been kinda useful here.
But then, why bother to make a team complete when it's just "All-Stars"? I wouldn't be surprised if Seattle gives Chelsea a much stronger game than the MLS bunch will be able to muster.

 

I don't get how Eddie Johnson makes it, over Cooper, Saborio, Koevermans, Bruin or Sene.

Otherwise, I don't have any qualms. I get the two D-mids that were picked, because who of Donovan, Beckham, DeRo and Zusi was going to play defense?

 

Obviously this was never going to happen, but I'd prefer that instead of an allstar game that MLS would put a roster of the most promising young players up against Chelsea to:
A) expose the future of the league to Europe
B) show the young players top level soccer to give them something to strive for
C) have a bunch of MLS players who would actually be interested in something other than not getting hurt play in the game.

I'd be more inclined to watch this than the MLS popularity contest winners get killed by the European competition and not even care for the most part.

 

They are obviously favoring current form. The last month, EJ has been fantastic.

Koevermans season may be over after a bad knee injury so he would not have been considered.

 

I like the nod to the long-term veteran (Corrales) and the hometown guy (Valdes) - the right kind of Commissioner's Picks IMO.

 

Nice gesture including Corrales. Only 96er left, and this is his first MLS All-Star appearance. Good thing his team is doing well and he's picked up 5 assists, because that makes it justifiable from an on-field standpoint as well.

 

Interesting idea to get the young players involved. (perhaps an MLS U23 team v some UEFA club, or club reserves would be good. Although, that's not very "marketable," and the GA team travels most off-seasons for that kind of experience.)

And, as for (possibly or likely) seeing the MLS All-Stars "getting killed" by the European opponent, prior to the last two years, the MLS All-Stars had a quite decent record and did beat Chelsea (not that these game results matter).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mls_all_star_game

And realistically, I think the fans, Olsen and Garber all made acceptable to very good picks in 2012.

 

True, but you could run them as a doubleheader and have both, against either two different clubs or a first team and a reserve team.

 

Yes, they certainly could do that.

And other leagues like the NBA, MLB and NHL all have a "young-stars" type game/competition as part of their "All-Star Break." So I wouldn't put it past MLS also trying to set up some in-season "young stars" type competition in some future season(s).

Although, MLS has to deal with a lot of other summer clutter and these ASG festivities and events (while marketable and good exposure for the league in some ways) do come with additional congestion and player over-use concerns. And realistically, in 2012, the USA U-23 team could/should have qualified for the Olympics, so a "young MLS All-star team" could have been very thin (or not all that top notch) if the US team were busy in Great Britain when MLS's All-Star break is scheduled.

Overall, it (a "young players' ASG") is probably no worse an idea than the current full ASG in itself -- but I do think the young players probably get more benefit and experience out of the week-long trip that the GenAdidas team takes overseas during the winter than they hypothetically would as the opening act game to the ASG in the summer.

 

Instead of a youngster game that nobody watches around ASG time, hasn't MLS essentially put together a rarely seen youngster team to play in Europe during the off-season?

 

yes.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2011/12/02/mwanga-bruin-headline-generation-adidas-tour-team

 

I had my last post sitting around in a tab without refreshing at work. My bad for missing yours.