The Streak Is Broken. Who Da Blame?

The MLS All Stars lost their first game to foreign opposition last night after winning five straight. The 1-1 draw sent the game to PK's and the Toffees prevailed. Some people may blame Freddie Ljungberg for the loss by missing his PK in the 6th round (including myself at first). But as I thought about it, I realized that a whole lot of these "All Stars" made mistakes or could have made plays to win the game for MLS. Here are some off the top of my head. Watch the highlights below to see for yourself.

1) Stuart Holden - A Gold Cup Final like mental breakdown gave Saha the Toffees only goal of the game.

2) Blanco - The guy had a great opportunity to shoot in the 21st minute that ended up killing a good attack. He also put in a weak free kick that Howard saw all the way. I guess his 30 yard run up doesn't work as well as it used to. Blanco never seemed to find the "magic" that he is known for.

3) Brad Davis - I know he scored the goal but it was a tap in. That doesn't excuse him from a whole night's worth of poor corners, poorer crosses and a MISSED PK! At least he scored on his chance...which leads me to the next player.

4) Landon Donovan - Easily the most explosive player on the field last night, the guy failed to score on an open goal off a great feed from Ljungberg. It was a Diego Forlan at ManU epic type miss. Howard can thank the post for the MVP trophy.

5) Commissioner Garber - As bad as it would have been to put David Beckham on the squad, DB7 is still a better player than a lot of guys on the All Star team. It would have been nice to have the Englishman's service from the wings, corners and on free kicks. And what's with the 7 sub rule? It didn't help having a limping Javi Morales out there for the end of the game. It made Landon have to move back to midfield and further away from the attack. That's not what we want out of our most dangerous player.

6) Davey Arnaud - Honestly, the guy didn't do anything out there. I hardly noticed him...until he missed his PK attempt.

7) Kasey Keller - He was mostly untested but he had his hands on Phil Neville's penalty kick and I originally thought he was going to parry it wide. I guess the guy has weak wrists because Neville's shot didn't look that hard.

8) Freddie Ljungberg - You could blame him for the loss, but he put in a very good 90 minutes and looked like the MLS's best player until Landon came in. His shot was weak, but now the Sounders know not to have him as their PK shooter. 0 for 2 for Freddie, which is probably why he wasn't in the original 5 shooters.

Watch the highlights below and let me know what you think.


English language highlights here. Full replay is available on ESPN360.com