Thursday, July 28, 2011

MLS All-Star Game at RBA: The Hangover Part II

So, yeah... about that All-Star Game. We won't go in depth with a full report. Suffice to say that the MLS All-Stars got their asses handed to them over ninety minutes by one of the world's best club teams. We sincerely hope the league got a nice fat payday out of it because after two consecutive one-sided blowouts the "ASG" is looking more and more like an exercise in futility. MLS fans emerge from it demoralized, while Eurosnobs are provided with yet another reason to ignore an inferior product. The rest of the American sports universe probably doesn't care one way or the other.

First Touch Online does a great job of explaining why the All-Star Game - and other meaningless "summer friendlies" - need to go the way of the dodo as the league continues to mature. Will anyone at the league office listen? Doubtful. In fact Don Garber is already planning the next several editions of the "Midsummer Classic" (we use quotation marks for a reason). So we have that to look forward to.

A few more notes from last night:
  • Sporting Kansas City President Robb (Two "B"s) Heineman hates "NYRB" because Hans Backe left Omar Bravo on the pitch for more than 80 minutes. Either that or the because the chardonnay in his luxury box at RBA wasn't chilled properly. Or maybe both. What does he like? Drug cheats under Federal investigation and ridiculously derivative club names.
  • More horror stories are emerging about Delaware North's handling of concessions at Red Bull Arena. Anyone who has been to an event in Harrison can attest to their utter incompetence. We've been beating the drum on this for a while, but it doesn't seem to be improving. What's the point of aiming for sellouts if your building and staff and unequipped to handle them? Chris Heck should make finding a new vendor one of the top items on his agenda.
Finally, in Red Bulls news, the team departed for London this morning to participate in yet another meaningless competition, the Emirates Cup. I did a Q&A with a PSG supporter/blogger over at Once a Metro, which you can find here if you're so inclined.
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