Galaxy’s Cienfuegos to Start in July 9 MLS All-Star Game

Midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos of El Salvador was the only Galaxy player selected Wednesday for Major League Soccer’s second All-Star game, to be played July 9 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

Last year, a league-high six Galaxy players were selected for the initial All-Star game, which the Eastern Conference won, 3-2, before a Giants Stadium crowd of 78,416.

“On a personal level, I feel surprised and grateful for being the only player selected from this team,” Cienfuegos said. “But I think there are other good players on this squad.”

Washington D.C. United, the defending MLS champion, led all teams with six selections. The 22 starting players were selected by a vote of league coaches and assistant coaches, who were not allowed to vote for their own players.

All 22 players are current or former national team players. Fourteen are foreign and eight are American.

An additional seven players per conference will be selected later by the respective All-Star coaches, D.C. United’s Bruce Arena of the Eastern Conference and the Kansas City Wizards’ Ron Newman of the Western Conference.

The starting lineups for the All-Star game, which will be broadcast live on ESPN (4:30 p.m. PDT):

Eastern Conference: Walter Zenga, Alexi Lalas (New England); Jeff Agoos, Eddie Pope, John Harkes, Marco Etcheverry, Raul Diaz Arce and Jaime Moreno (Washington); Roberto Donadoni (New York/New Jersey); Carlos Valderrama (Tampa Bay), and Robert Warzycha (Columbus).

Western Conference: Mark Dodd, Diego Sonora, Alain Sutter and Damian (Dallas); Richard Gough, Preki, Vitalis “Digital” Takawira (Kansas City); Marcelo Balboa and Chris Henderson (Colorado); Mauricio Cienfuegos (Los Angeles), and Eric Wynalda (San Jose).