MLS All Star XI Revealed: Seattle Gets Toronto’d

By: Laurie | July 13th, 2009
   

The MLS All Star XI for the July 29 game against Everton was revealed today. This would be, again, the eleven players chosen by fans, the media, players and coaches/GMs as MLS’s best options to take on a non-big-four EPL team in preseason form.

The results? Seattle got Toronto’d.

Last year it was Toronto fans who packed the voter picks with their guys; six of the voter-chosen eleven were gents from BMO.

Sadly for Toronto fans, the All Star XI is only 25% picked by fans. The remainder is media (25%), players (25%) and coaches and GMs (25%.) When the final votes were tallied last year, precisely zero Toronto players made the XI. (Although the coach did later throw Toronto fans a bone by using one of his picks to add Toronto player Jim Brennan.)

This year, same story, except that the new Most Passionate Fans on the Block were the ones stuffing the ballot box. Most recent reports before voting ended were that eight of the voter-picked XI were Seattle Sounders.

Results today, however, show that the other 75% of the voters don’t share Seattle’s soft spot for players like James Riley.

Unlike Toronto last year, though, Seattle got a couple of picks. The other voters apparently do have soft spots for goalkeeper Kasey Keller and midfielder Freddie Ljungberg, because they both made the cut. (As a Seattle fan, I might argue that holding midfielder Osvaldo Alonso or central defender Jhon Kennedy Hurtado have had stronger seasons thus far than Ljungberg. But Ljungberg has been solid, plus he creates that whole Butts-in-Seats thing, so I’m not going to quibble.)

Next step in the process is that All Star coach Dominic Kinnear will pick five players, and MLS Commissioner Don Garber will pick two, thus creating the final roster. Those players will be announced next week.

(My guess is they’ll throw at least one bone to hosts Real Salt Lake. Kyle Beckerman, anybody?)

The All Star XI, from the back:

Kasey Keller (Sounders FC)
Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew)
Wilman Conde (Chicago Fire)
Shalrie Joseph (New England Revs)
Geoff Cameron (Houston)
Stuart Holden (Houston)
Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus Crew)
Freddie Ljungberg (Sounders FC)
Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy)
Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids)
Dwayne De Rosario (Toronto FC)

What do you think? Any glaring omissions? I find it interesting that Ljungberg and Schelotto are the only DPs on the list. No Juan Pablo Angel (not surprising this season,) no Luciano Emilio, no Cuauhtemoc Blanco. And, of course, no David Beckham. This tells me that we’re past the starstruck phase in MLS, and play is now winning out over names

A good thing.


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  • With Beckham, Pat. With Beckham. ;-)
  • pat
    where are the red bulls in this team? o wait sorry just joking
  • Montero. Yeah. Apparently coaches don't like him?
  • Lee
    I can't believe nobody has mentioned this:

    Fredy Montero
  • Knuckles
    How many butts in seats can Ljungberg really claim responsibility for, though? He's not really a household name in the States like Beckham.
  • Alex
    wheres the player whos played for the biggest clubs in the world????
  • Don't get me wrong, Alejandor, I ADORE James Riley. It's just that he's not a name that's going to get chosen outside of Seattle.
  • TGos
    Quick, who is leading the league in points scored (2x goals + 1x assists)? Hint: he's not on the list above.

    No worries - while we Sounders fans do like to gripe, we'll take a snubbed but healthy Fredy Montero for the stretch run.
  • Alejandor of the Interwebs
    Riley would be worthy his side of the field has been pretty quiet all season. Teams have been working their way up the other side of the Seattle defense all season, as they cant seem to settle on a player in that back position.
  • I humbly accept my award
  • HPD
    You got it all wrong. Toronto learned it's lesson. The fans will never vote for our players to play for the All Stars like we did last year. The circus came and went. That was a waste of time. From now on - The playoffs matter - nothing else.

    Next year it will Vancouver and Portland. And so goes the merry go round.
  • Alan, you are hereby receiving the Most Ironic/Humorous Comment Award. Unless you are serious, in which case you are banished for life. :-D
  • What no Beckham?
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