Toronto Does Their Best to Pack the MLS All-Star Team

By: Laurie | July 4th, 2008

Non-Toronto fans, I warned you this would happen. Did I not warn you?

Way back in May, when the balloting for the MLS All-Star team opened up, I pointed out that Toronto fans can be quite…zealous in their fandom. And I warned you that this was likely to translate to a similar zealotry in their voting habits. When the rules say that they can vote ten times a day, every day? They take that kind of thing very seriously up there.

As I said in May:

And I strongly recommend that you vote your full allotment, each and every day, especially if you’re not a Toronto fan. Because we all know about those Toronto fans. They have socialized medicine up there, so they don’t have to worry about keeping their jobs like we do, so they have nothing better to do on their employers’ dime than to just go online and vote all over the place. Which means that if the rest of us aren’t careful, the All-Star team will be packed with players like Danny “Jaws” Dichio. Is this what we want?

(Haha! Just kidding Toronto fans! You know we love you here at The Offside. Especially when we are wearing our nonpartisan, main-page-writer hats.)

(When we’re wearing our utterly partisan, LA Galaxy fan hats, though? Your streamers piss us off.)

(But this is the Main Page. So… Hugs! Kisses! Vote Dichio! Or not! Whatever!)

Did I call it or what? Toronto fans have managed to get six Toronto names on the list of the fifteen top vote-getters. That’s 40% of the players. And yes, Danny “Jaws” Dichio is one of the forwards.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m sure these guys are completely worthy and deserving.

But what I want to know, Toronto fans? How the hell did you remember to vote every day? I think I voted something like twice. Total. What did you do, set your alarm?? Stick little post-its on your mirror saying, “Don’t forget to vote!” Program your computers to take you to the MLSnet website first thing every morning? Do you people have no lives?

Okay. Deep breaths. Better now. However you did it, congratulations.

(But your streamers still piss us off.)

A quick recap of how the All-Star team is picked:

Fan voting counts for 25% of team selection.
Coaches and managers count for 25%
Players also count for 25%, and
Members of the media get 25%

So the final roster will probably look a little more balanced.

Final results will be announced July 10.

The results of the fan voting, from MLSnet, the MLS website:

Final Fan Voting Results
Top Vote Getters by Position and Percentage
Forwards :
1. Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy) 19.58%
2. Danny Dichio (Toronto FC) 7.32%
3. Juan Pablo Angel (New York Red Bulls) 6.70%
4. Alejandro Moreno (Columbus Crew) 6.31%

Midfielders:
1. David Beckham (Los Angeles Galaxy) 10.96%
2. Cuauhtemoc Blanco (Chicago Fire) 7.31%
3. Dwayne De Rosario (Houston Dynamo) 4.87%
4. Amado Guevara (Toronto FC) 4.60%
5. Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus Crew) 4.11%
6. Maurice Edu (Toronto FC) 3.96%

Defenders:
1. Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew) 7.89%
2. Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC) 5.65%
3. Jim Brennan (Toronto FC) 5.51%

Goalkeepers:
1. Greg Sutton (Toronto FC) 18.44%
2. Matt Reis (New England Revolution) 13.50%

Top Ten Overall Vote Getters*
1. David Beckham 4.79%
2. Landon Donovan 3.61%
3. Cuauhtemoc Blanco 3.19%
4. Frankie Hejduk 2.13%
5. Dwayne De Rosario 2.13%
6. Amado Guevara 2.01%
7. Greg Sutton 1.99%
8. Guillermo Barros Schelotto 1.80%
9. Maurice Edu 1.73%
10. Robbie Rogers 1.61%
* The percentage shown is of fan votes (not ballots) cast by fans for all players. Because there are up to 11 votes on each ballot, a player receiving a vote on every ballot (if every ballot had 11 players selected), would be shown above as earning 9.09 percent of the total votes. As a comparison, David Beckham received a vote on 39 percent of all ballots submitted.