Major League Soccer

Arena scrambling to put together U.S. roster for All-Star game.

By Gary Davidson
SoccerTimes

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Tuesday, July 9, 2002) -- Major League Soccer and United States Soccer Federation officials hope that as many as 15 members of the U.S. World Cup team will be available to play the MLS All-Stars August 3 at RFK Stadium. Privately, they concede the number might be as few as 11.

Of the 23 players on the U.S. World Cup rosters, 11 came from MLS. The rest play for teams in Europe, most of which will start training for the 2002-03 season later this month.

U.S. coach Bruce Arena will spend the next week or so assembling a roster. He also has a pool of eight healthy World Cup alternates, only one of whom is based overseas, to fill in openings as he puts together a team of probably 18-20 players. MLS will grant Arena whatever leeway he needs to bring in additional players.

MLS director of communications Trey Fitz-Gerald said the league timetable would have Arena submitting his roster early next week with an announcement of the MLS All-Stars following a couple of days later.

"There's a gray area because we don't know what guys are going to be available to play on August 3," he said. "A lot of circumstances enter into that -- guys who are fighting for spots with their European clubs. If there's a White House visit, maybe there's a few guys who come over (from Europe) who wouldn't have been able to."

Meanwhile, MLS is conducted four-pronged All-Star voting with balloting by the media, coaches, players and fans each accounting for 25 percent of the final results. Fans can online by going to the MLS web site.

Arena will get the first choice of players. The MLS All-Star team will be comprised of the top vote-getters not on the U.S. team.

While many of the top MLS players will be representing U.S., Fitz-Gerald said the league All-Star team would be appropriate since it would consist of players who have spent the entire season in the league. "The guys who deserve to represent MLS are the guys that were playing games in March, April, May, June and July," he said.

The 3:30 p.m. (ET) match will be televised on ABC.

Gary Davidson is SoccerTimes managing editor and can be e-mailed at editor@soccertimes.com.