So one of the world's best teams handled a group of players who were thrown together two days before the match. Well isn't that a shocker? Not in the least, but that is the MLS All-Star Game for you. The best teams from Europe come to the United States for preseason and play a group of MLS players with no cohesion in a friendly that ESPN does their best to convince us is important. The match doesn't matter in the slightest, but the MLS All-Stars were still probably hoping to do better than last year when Manchester United defeated them 5-2 in Houston. Instead, it went worse, with the English Premier League champions rolling past them 4-0 thanks to goals by Anderson, Ji-Sung Park, Dimitar Berbatov and Danny Welbeck.
MLS All-Star Game 2011: Manchester United Dominates All-Stars In 4-0 Win
It took all of 20 minutes for United to first exploit the disjointed MLS side. Berbatov was given far too much time at the top of the box and he and Wayne Rooney were able to play the ball with each other before the MLS defenders tried to close them down. By the time the MLS team bothered to cut down space it was far too late, Anderson had all the space in the world to make a late run into the box and when he did he got the ball with a clear shot at goal. The Brazilian slotted the ball home and United were ahead, 1-0.
Just before halftime the Red Devils doubled their lead and it was all Park's doing. He received the ball just inside the box and turned quickly to face goal. Sean Franklin looked to close him down, but he was outclassed by a brilliant Park. The Korean undressed the Galaxy defender, clearing himself enough face to fire on goal for another United tally.
Berbatov wanted to do his best to match Park’s brilliance and did. United, showing off the quality that is to be expected from a Premier League champions, knocked the ball around with ease. It was a beautiful sequence that led to Berbatov holding off a defender and chipping the keeper beautifully. Unfortunately, it bounced off the crossbar, but it came back to him, he chested the ball down and finished for the Red Devils’ third of the evening.
The final goal of the match didn’t quite belong, but it did symbolize the MLS team’s unfortunate evening. Welbeck was at distance and cut back to let a shot go that was always unlikely to beat the keeper. When it started going wide of the goal it was even more unlikely to score, but it deflected off of Geoff Cameron’s knee and in for the final goal of the match.
The MLS team wasn't nearly as bad as the scoreline might suggest. They had their chances with MLS with David Beckham forcing a top notch save, Chris Wondolowski coming close and Omar Bravo missing an empty net, but United were better than their patch work side. There were fireworks, stars and some brilliant play at Red Bull Arena as yet another fun, yet unimportant All-Star Game came to a close with the European challengers on top.
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