Kaka, David Villa, Giovinco, Schweinstieger all on the same team playing against Real Madrid. Sound like a dream? It's real and happening now. It's the Major League Soccer All Star game. Throw in a couple of America's best, Altidore and Bradley, and it's quite the lineup.
I wouldn't be surprised if when Sergio Ramos tackled Kaka, he didn't whisper in his ear, "so how's the golden retirement in Orlando going?" Or did Toni Kross say to Schweinstieger, "do these people in Chicago still think you're going to help them win the World Cup? Don't they know you only came here to pretend to play good football? Oh, and have you explained the World Cup thing yet?" And Isco to Giovinco, "what happened? You could be in my position. What did you come waste your time over here for?" And any Real player to David Villa, "Calm down. You're not playing for Barca anymore. And we don't care about this match anywhere near as much as you do anyway."
All Star games are an amusing, to me, staple of any major North American League. Whereas in the other sports, baseball, hockey, NFL, basketball, it's the best players from each conference or league that play each other, MLS is smart enough to know that having their best play one of the most recognizable teams in the world will draw a much bigger crowd. The feeling of it being an exhibition is just too prevalent, though. The MLS players all have matches on the weekend so even though they want to make a point against the real stars, especially David Villa, they are also under instructions to take it easy. And so Madrid, or whichever team it happens to be in a particular year, are probably caught between trying to put on a show of how good they and knowing that they can't really go all out against a team that is not really a team.
So what happened? I don't know because I gave up after a half hour. An exhibition only has any enjoyment value if you're there. It's worse than a friendly, for everybody except David Villa.
"Daddy, why does he have David Villa on his shirt and not just Villa?"
"Because he's the opposite of Kaka and Isco, the one name players. He is always known as David Villa."
Was he always? Am I not mistaken that when he played for Spain he was D. Villa? Today he probably wanted to be known as David Villa, who used to play for Barcelona "and when I see that white shirt of Real al I want to do is win...WIN!"
In other news, Scotland's incredible champions from last season, kept the naysayers (yours truly included) away for a couple more weeks with a 1-0 win away to Rosenborg that puts them in the "you're almost there" round of the Champions League.
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