When the all star game comes around this year, the New England Revolution’s Steve Nicol will be in charge of the MLS all stars that will face Scottish Champions Celtic.  The Revolution head coach got the job because his team has the most points per game in the league right now.  The job would have been given to Bruce Arena had the Revolution not beat Toronto FC this weekend.

I used to not really enjoy the format of this all star game, but since the MLS all stars beat Chelsea I’ve been a fan.  With a small league it works for me.  The single all star team will draw just as many fans as 2 all star teams will, but their opponents will bring some more attention to the game and also make it a little bit more competitive.  You can always argue that Chelsea was (and Celtic will be) in pre-season playing a meaningless game, but no European team is going to want to come into the US and lose to an all star team from a league most of them probably view as second rate to wherever they are coming from.

Well that can’t last too long, because soon those big clubs will not have any reason to come to the US and lose to the MLS all stars.  Then what will we be left with?  The regular old boring no-defence east vs west  completely meaningless just like baseball or basketball all star game.  I don’t want that, so I hope the all stars take it a little easy on Celtic.