It was a great night of festivities at PPL Park when the MLS All-Stars took on Chelsea FC for the second time in history. The match went well for the All-Stars, who won 3-2 for their first victory since 2008 against West Ham. Two players who had a huge hand in the victory were two of DC United’s finest: Chris Pontius and Dwayne De Rosario.
De Rosario, who had the honor of captaining the MLS team, went all 90 minutes and provided the assist to teammate Chris Pontius for the second half equalizer to make the score 2-2. After receiving a through-ball from David Beckham, De Rosario laid it off to Pontius who finished near post for his first All-Star goal. Even sweeter was Ben Olsen getting the win as coach.
Other MLS goals were scored by Chris Wondolowski and Eddie Johnson. Both strikers are competing to be called up by Jurgen Klinsmann and helped their case on Wednesday night.
But at the end of the night, it was Chris Pontius who was named as the MVP. As soon as it was announced, Twitter broke out in rage which was laughable. Although some good points were made. Wondo has had a great year and opened the match scoring in the first half. Johnson got the crucial match winner in the 91st minute, and Jay DeMerit was fantastic at the backline. But Johnson’s goal probably came after the votes were tallied up meaning everyone thought Pontius’ goal would be the last scored for MLS, and DeMerit plays defense which is sometimes overlooked in a match where five goals are scored. Lastly, Wondo had the early goal, but it was the only shot he took (according to the match stats). In the 45 minutes he was on the field, Pontius was one of the best players for MLS. Therefore, his MVP Award can be justified.
DC United Women win Eastern Conference
DC United Women won both weekend matches over Virginia Beach and Charlotte Lady Eagles. The score was 3-0 against both clubs and gave DC United Women the Eastern Conference Championship in only their second year of existence. They will advance to the W-League Championships located in Ottawa this weekend. Their first match is against the Ottawa Fury on July 27 at 7:30pm.
PSG Rolls Into Town
DC United will take on Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday July 28 at RFK Stadium. It will be part of the World Football Challenge and will possibly feature the debut of Zlatan Ibrahimovic (got it the first time without spell-check!) in a PSG uniform. The match will kick off at 7:30pm. You can find out more information here.
(image courtesy of DC United)
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