Avoiding the Drop

Some sports might have cared that Major League Baseball’s All-Star game is today. They might have paid attention to the fact that the day after baseball’s midway point is the only day on the U.S. calendar where none of the major sports have anything scheduled (football, hockey, and basketball are on hiatus, while baseball gives their players a travel day), and used that void in news to try to trump up their event.

Those sports are not Major League Soccer, who announced their own 2009 All-Star roster yesterday.

Here’s the starting eleven that will face off against Everton on July 29th (note that, because Dominic Kinnear is the coach and gets to do whatever he wants, the U.S. will be running a 3-5-2 for the All-Star game):

Kasey Keller (SEA)

C. Marshall (CLB) – G. Cameron (HOU) – W. Conde (CHI)

G.B. Schelotto (CLB) – F. Ljungberg (SEA) – S. Joseph (NE) – S. Holden (HOU) – D. DeRosario (TOR)

L. Donovan (LA) – C. Casey (COL)

Those are ranked, left to right, by number of votes; they’ll probably line up differently.

Of course, as with any All-Star game, it’s often more interesting to see who was omitted than it is to see who’s in. In this case, the biggest ommissions that I can see are as follows:

1) Chivas USA: No Chivas USA players made the roster, in spite of the fact that they boast the second best defense in the league and as recently as last Friday were ranked second in the Western conference.

2) Fredy Montero: Montero, who was the star of the MLS season opener, enjoys a weird double role. Amongst fans and the media, Montero was the most voted for striker. Amongst players and coaches, he received less votes than Brian McBride.

3) Jhon Kennedy Hurtado: As the fourth most voted for defender, the Seattle defender was screwed out of the bonus money he’d have gotten for being named to the All-Star team by Kinnear’s unorthodox formation. Incidentally, the midfielder that was added because of said formation – Dwayne De Rosario – won’t even be playing in the All-Star game; Toronto FC will instead be meeting the Puerto Rico Islanders in the first round of the CONCACAF Champions League. The beneficiary? Probably either Cuauhtemoc Blanco or Houston’s own Ricardo Clark.

So does this roster reflect the best of the MLS, or is it a result of fans and the media not knowing what they’re talking about? Who should be on? Who should be off? Let us know in the comments.