The Game MLS Wants You To Forget

MLS All-Stars versus Real Madrid what 2017 All-Star Game that was awesome a pack Soldier Field in Chicago a late goal to tie it a PK shootout what was wrong with that nothing actually because I'm not talking about that game I'm talking about the other time the MLS All-Stars played Real Madrid and that was not awesome let me explain okay so you can separate the MLS All-Star Game into two categories or two different eras if you will MLS versus each other in the first few years and MLS versus the world ever since versus each other most of the time was East versus West Conference versus conference proven method in American Sports and it was fun it did its job but after a while the game sort of got out of hand with score lines like nine to four and six to six yeah entertaining I feel like a lot of goals with backlines that aren't really trying but it was clear that this format had run its course and they needed to try something new in 2002 MLS began to experiment with the MLS All-Stars taking on the US Men's National Team it was a great idea capitalizing on the momentum that the O2 World Cup team brought even though it wasn't really the real US Men's National Team because there weren't any european-based players in the roster and some of the starters on this day weren't even on the World Cup team but it was still a fun event and something to build off of 2003 is when the All-Star Game really embraced its new format MLS All-Stars versus Chivas Guadalajara of Liga MX and now the game really meant something playing a Mexican club Pride was now on the line for MLS and a whole new audience was now unlocked in this match no longer was it just die hard fans paying attention to the all-star game now you add Outsiders taking a look and paying attention this is a good thing especially when the MLS All-Stars prevailed three to one and what ended up being a massive success for the league by 2003 standards so what's the Encore for 2004 Real Madrid holy [ __ ] okay MLS ain't [ __ ] around anymore I mean hey Chivas is cool but Real Madrid like this is David Beckham Ronaldo zadon like this is gonna be huge but that game never took place in fact MLS didn't face any International opponent in 2004 they went back to East versus West for the All-Star Game here's what happened Real Madrid crapped the bed at the end of the 0304 season somehow losing its last five matches and dropping them all the way to fourth place in La Liga this meant that they were not automatically placed in the group stages of the champions league and they now had to play an extra qualifying round and to prepare for that Champions League qualifier Real Madrid opted to play two matches in Japan in the preseason rather than going on a full U.S tour the All-Star game was set for July 31st a date MLS can't really move while Real Madrid's qualifier for the Champions League was set for August 11th a bummer for sure but I would hope that even the most die-hard MLS fans would recognize that the UEFA champions league is kind of a bigger deal than the MLS All-Star Game so that's why we got East versus West in 2004 because MLS had just scrambled after Real Madrid backed out in the last minute and there just wasn't enough time to book another International opponent but MLS still wanted this game to happen badly because it would be the ultimate promotion for this league in 2005 they would finally get his chance to take on Real Madrid not for the official MLS All-Star Game the opponent that year was Brian McBride's at Fulham FC but instead MLS sent over a select group of players to Madrid on August 23rd for the trafeo Santiago bernabeo a annual preseason match between Real Madrid and an opponent from a different country it's kind of like the pre-season finale for Real Madrid before the important games actually start now usually it's against one of the biggest clubs in the world or at least the biggest Club from the country participating the New England Revolution were in first place at the time were considered to represent mls in 2005 but for some reason it was decided to send an MLs All-Star team to go instead let's see who would stand a better chance against Real Madrid an established team who's better playing together all season or a group of individuals who've never played together spoiler alert it didn't go great and I'm not saying the refs would be favorites in this one either but come on this MLS select All-Star team was completely set up for failure the first thing to point out was that this game was on a Tuesday with everyone playing on the previous Saturday that's already an extremely quick turnaround in normal circumstances but now in this case the players played on Saturday for their MLS team then had to fly to Chicago then fly to Madrid get one trading session in where I imagine they all had to have crazy jet lag and then game day on Tuesday bring on Real Madrid and that's not all some players didn't find out they were going until mere days before the game took place yeah imagine training all week to play the Kansas City Wizards and then find out on Friday oh yeah after this game you're gonna fly out the next day to go to Spain what so everyone in the locker room kind of knew that they weren't gonna win this one but the players despite the tough conditions and the brutal travel Arrangements most of them were happy to be there because this was after all a once in a lifetime opportunity for most of these MLS players but damn MLS could you at least include names on the back of the jerseys Real Madrid were better than MLS oh yeah I know shocker right [Music] toying with their opponents being flashy and MLS wasn't really able to get anything going offensively but 20 minutes the game was scoreless and you can at least say hey MLS is putting up a respectable fight here and then David Beckham got a free kick and he yeah that's what David Beckham does that's fine one zero I mean if MLS can keep it that way until half time they can regroup they can put some fresh legs in there and run all those Springs free and that's two yeah you know when you watch MLS week after week you can kind of forget just how much better the best players in the world are especially when you get the opportunity to see them side by side that that's not a shot at MLS by the way because like I said these are the best players in the world there's no shame in getting burned by Ronaldo in 2005. two nil at halftime not great but also not horrendous second half was more of the same MLS just not getting anything going and Real Madrid continuing to make them look silly Ronaldo burning the MLS backline again to make it three nothing the best teams and the best players make it look easy admittedly this looked pretty damn simple before the game FC Dallas midfielder Ronnie O'Brien said in the locker room as long as we don't lose by more than three goals that'll be a win for us okay that's our measuring success now huh don't lose by more than three okay well pressure's on now MLS at this point everyone on this All-Star team has to be exhausted they're probably not having fun anymore they're ready to call this game but not real Madrid they still have some fireworks I mean look at this through ball volley this is ridiculous Gucci with the cutback puts it away and it's foreign you know what I think is funny all of the big guns are still in the game for Real Madrid you know how in some All-Star games teams will just play a certain lineup for 45 minutes then do a massive sub basically bringing on a whole new team in the second half yeah no I get that you gotta put on a show s but it's pre-season put on some of your subs and then some nine minutes later a little give and go and Raul with the cheeky flick over negromando hey at least it wasn't Matt racing goal this time I mean I think he suffered enough with their first four goals five nil final which amazingly at the time was the biggest home Win For Real Madrid in a studio Santiago bernabeo history that record thankfully has since been broken the MLS players in Hell MLS fans should not have any Shame about this result because I mean what did you expect to happen it's hard enough to win an All-Star Game in North America let alone on the other side of the world where you only have two days of rest from your last game and which one of those days was spent traveling all day so why would MLS agree to something like this well exposure I mean 2005 it was a different time MLS still wasn't doing great it was still losing a lot of money but the chance to go up against one of the biggest clubs in the world on Fox Soccer Channel yeah you don't really pass up that opportunity but in the end an All-Star team consisting of the best players of your league getting blasted 5-0 is not a great look to the critics and it makes you wonder how is David Beckham was still convinced to come over to MLS just two years later the Spanish media they were not exactly impressed with MLS at the time either I found this article on El mundo.ias and I translated it to English maybe the most brutal line of all in this article read when there is no rival it is like playing against a group of young boys and it is that the selection of Major League Soccer was a team simulation it is true that these are players recruited to come play in Spain but the image given by Steve Nichols team was regrettable okay I mean good game to you guys too this game was just fuel to the haters but thank God it happened in 2005 or there wasn't really any social media because you can kinda pretend like this game just doesn't exist after a while if you stop talking about it but if this game this get played today Twitter would never forget and they would be blowing up after a result like this the see this is where the US 17 can't have players playing in MLS see this is why am I think promotionality yeah MLS doesn't really talk about this game too much anymore I mean like for good reason like why would they it's kind of like their most embarrassing moment on the big stage even if it happened when the league was only 10 years old but I also think there's a reason why we haven't ever seen something like this before there's a reason why MLS doesn't send out these select teams to go play anyone else it's because it's too hard on the players logistically it's asking too much of them and when the MLS season now has 34 games plus Leagues Club Plus US Open cup plus CCL yeah this [ __ ] ain't never gonna happen again

Channel: DannyTRadio

Views: 155,219

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Id: vneoU3N1nm4

Length: 12min 54sec (774 seconds)

Published: Thu May 11 2023