First 11 players named to 2009 All Star Match

Well the first 11 were announced for the upcoming All Star match, you can watch the announcement here (http://www.mlsnet.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=5569673) and here they are:

Kasey Keller
Chad Marshall - William Conde - Geoff Cameron
Guillermo Barros Schelotto - Freddie Ljungberg - Shalrie Joseph - Stuart Holden - Dwayne De Rosario(won’t be there has a Champions League match)
Conor Casey - Landon Donavon

I am not surprised as these picks come from votes from fans, GM’s, players, and media, so while the top fan vote getters almost were exclusively from Seattle, only two crash the actual lineup. The coach now gets to pick 5 more players and the commish gets to pick two more for the total of 20 who will dress for the match. I would expect that you will see a few more players from Houston named by Kinnear names like Ricardo Clark, Pat Onstad and maybe even Brian Ching. I would expect that he will also pick up a few big names to keep the crowds happy, Blanco, Angel, McBride are a few names I would be surprised don’t make it. My question is will he pick Clint Mathis, tied for 2nd in assists and playing as well as he has in a very long time?

I expect that Don Garber will be oh so boring and pick David Beckham who will have played like 3 matches since coming back to the league and if Kinnear doesn’t pick Mathis, Garber would be wise to. How would it look for him to get boo’ed out of the stadium prior to the start of one of the leagues crown jewels?

This will be a great couple days in Salt Lake City as Everton comes to town, if you don’t have tickets yet then click the image up above and it will help get you on your way to the match. I am a bit concerned about one aspect of the match, so this year RSL season ticket holders were told that their “gift” would be All Star match scarves, but I have a sneaking fear that everyone in attendance will get one and that would be a bit disappointing as that would mean there really wasn’t a “perk” for season ticket holders.

The only other disappointment that I have about the All Star match is lack of quality merchandise, now the stadium store at Rio Tinto has more than the MLS website but just over two weeks away from the match and I can get one of two shirts or a hat. No jerseys yet, nothing with the Everton logo, a bit disappointing if you ask me and an opportunity lost to start capitalizing early on the event. I will give some credit where it is due, I saw a poster advertising the match on the train yesterday and I will try to get a picture of it.

OFF MY SOAPBOX

This entry was posted on July 13, 2009 at 3:55 pm and is filed under The soapbox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.