Tweaking All-Star Game
Opinions rising to pit East, West rather than play European team
The Major League Soccer AllStars wandered around the Exploria Stadium locker room after Wednesday’s 3-0 loss to Atlético Madrid in search of as many signatures as possible for jerseys, nameplates and other items to commemorate the event.
The game itself will not be mentioned much because of the final score, but the experience as a whole allowed the league’s best players to be around each other for four days.
The latest edition of the MLS All-Star Game played in front of a sold-out crowd in Orlando Wednesday night also served as a reminder of how much talent there is spread across the league.
Four years ago when the MLS All-Stars last defeated a European opponent, Kaká and David Villa were the only international superstars in the starting lineup.
On Wednesday, Zlatan Ibrahimovic , Carlos Vela, Wayne Rooney and Nani were featured in MLS coach James O’Connor’s starting XI and the reinforcements included Josef Martínez, Gonzalo “Pity” Martínez, Diego Rossi, Jonathan Dos Santos and Bastian Schweinsteiger.
It is clear the level of talent across the league is growing, and with the additions of established superstars and burgeoning young players from around the world, the idea of going back to an Eastern Conference versus Western Conference MLS All-Star Game format was thrown around.
“Absolutely. I hope so,” San Jose Earthquakes forward Chris Wondolowski said of the potential move away from scheduling top European teams as opponents for the MLS All-Stars. “I definitely understand the whole idea and science behind [the current format]. You have to be able to get out there, get it across the world and get it as many interested, and I know that this [format] does this.
“But having the East versus West, we can start having the talent and skill out there to be entertaining enough. It’s a little bit different when guys are only playing 45 minutes or 30 minutes. It takes away from that, but at the same time, tackles were flying, guys don’t want to lose and they are competitive. Hopefully it can be a little more of a fun game.”
Figuring out what is best for the MLS All-Star Game is difficult because of the draw European teams bring.
“We brought in Atlético Madrid,” Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando said. “They filled the stands, and the fans loved it. When I did the East vs. West, it was in a football stadium, Spartan Stadium.”
“Will we go back to that? I don’t know, but this is a good event for fans and look at this locker room, and it’s what the fans probably want.”
The last East versus West AllStar Game was played in 2004 and it was used for five prior events as well, while the current model has been in place since 2005.
Of course, this is a much different league now, but in order to make the switch, the players think some motivation has to be added to the event.
“I think if you put something on the line. Maybe the MLS Cup or who knows? But if you put something on the line, a nice kitty, you’re going to get a good performance,” Rimando said.
“Whenever you put something on the line, guys are going to fight a little bit harder, be a little bit more organized. But when you go into friendly games, nobody wants to get hurt, and that’s the good thing about tonight. You have a lot of guys back home, coaches, GMs that are in the ear of these coaches that still have a season to play.”
Wondolowski added, “We were throwing ideas around. I like the idea of whoever gets the top seed out of the East or West gets to host MLS Cup, kind of like the World Series. That way, it still means something.”
After some problems, Major League Baseball stopped awarding the winner of its All-Star Game home-field advantage in the World Series.
If the MLS Cup host incentive was added, there could be some cases during which zero players from the conference winners are on the MLS All-Star team. For example in 2015, the Portland Timbers had zero all-stars and went on to win MLS Cup
Los Angeles FC would not have had that problem since it boasted four all-stars this year, but the Philadelphia Union, the firstplace team in the Eastern Conference, only had Andre Blake on Wednesday’s roster.
Given the limitations to the MLS All-Star Game roster size, the amount of teams in the league and the ability to put the best players on the field, there are always going to be teams without representation that could go on a late surge and host MLS Cup.
Smaller adjustments could also be made to the current format in order to make it easier on the players. More time between games around the MLS All-Star Game could be considered.
Some players took part in games on Saturday, flew to Orlando on Sunday and in some cases did not train until Tuesday before playing on Wednesday. Now most of them are going back to their clubs to play on Saturday.
“I just think it’s a bit tough,” Wondolowski said. “We had a game Saturday and then another game this coming Saturday. Trying to balance that all and have a competitive team and try to get the most out of guys, but it’s just a friendly. Maybe if there was some more time in between, or we build a bye week in, you could give a little more.”
Even though MLS has not won since 2015, bringing over popular European clubs still carries value in the eyes of the players, and maybe if some of those travel tweaks were made, the games could carry a bit more excitement and allow participants to be fresher to take on squads that have played together for a long period and have spent close to a month in preseason workouts with each other.
“I think either way, you would have success,” FC Dallas midfielder Paxton Pomykal said. “I know other sports play East versus West, and we play versus one of the top teams in the world. I kind of like the format the way it is right now.”
Blake added, “I have no problem playing against those teams coming over. It’s a different challenge, and it’s actually a bunch of MLS stars coming together to see how quickly we can jell to play against a team that’s been together for a while, so that’s a challenge which I don’t mind taking.”