The Fans Have Spoken and It’s Far From Good
Once again, Major League Soccer’s concept of allowing fans to vote for the starters in its annual All-Star game has backfired.
Last year, it was a computer glitch that allowed votes to be cast automatically over and over again, skewing the outcome despite salvage attempts by the league.
This year, deserving players have been ignored, and players who are injured and have seen little or no playing time have been included.
For example, the Colorado Rapids’ John Spencer and the Miami Fusion’s Diego Serna didn’t make the starting 22, even though the forwards are tied for the league lead in scoring.
On the other hand, Washington D.C. United midfielder Ben Olsen made the East starting lineup, but has been sidelined all season by injury.
“Some of the selections and, more importantly, some of the deserving players who were not on the list, will probably provoke some debate during the second half of the season,” said Ivan Gazidis, the league’s deputy commissioner.
“We made a very conscious decision a few years ago to bring this to the fans through fan voting. I think what you’re seeing with some of the selections is teams that have done a good job in getting their fan vote out, and that’s obviously to the detriment of teams that don’t do such a good job.”
The starting lineups for the July 28 game at San Jose heavily favor players from D.C. United, Miami, the Dallas Burn and the San Jose Earthquakes.
No players were included from the Tampa Bay Mutiny, New England Revolution or even the defending champion Kansas City Wizards.
The remedy will come Tuesday, when the coaches--the Chicago Fire’s Bob Bradley for the West and Miami’s Ray Hudson for the East--select reserves.
The Galaxy was one of the teams that did a lousy job of motivating its fans to vote. As a result, Mauricio Cienfuegos was the only Los Angeles player voted onto the West team. It is inconceivable, however, that Bradley will fail to include forwards Cobi Jones and Luis Hernandez among the alternates.
Then again, Hernandez stomped on Chicago playmaker Peter Nowak last season, causing the Mexican striker to be banished from this year’s U.S. Open Cup.
It might be payback time.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber also can help correct the inequities in the voting when he announces today which players he has picked to take part in the All-Star game.
How many picks does Garber have?
“Nobody tells the commissioner how many he can or can’t have,” Gazidis joked.
“Traditionally, it’s one per team, but he may pick more than one per team if he feels that’s warranted.”
Regis Leaning
MLS is dangling all sorts of incentives in front of U.S. national team defender David Regis in an attempt to lure him away from FC Metz of the French first division.
Regis has been tempted but has resisted.
“He still has not signed with Metz,” Gazidis said. “We continue to have talks with him and his agent. I think it will be finalized one way or another in the next two or three days.”
Colorado and Kansas City have expressed interest in Regis, who has been a starter with the national team since the 1998 World Cup.
San-Teen-O
D.C. United rookie Santino Quaranta has quickly made his mark in MLS. He has played only 492 minutes but already has five goals and one assist.
The league’s youngest player, at 16, might break a record or two if he keeps it up.
“He’s in some pretty elite company,” Gazidis said. “He’s on a pace to challenge our rookie records for points and goals in a season currently held by Clint Mathis, who got 20 points on five goals and 10 assists in 1998 for the Galaxy.”
