Lost in the madness of the U.S. men's national team's start of World Cup qualifying, the MLS international break and Euro 2012 is the fact that MLS All-Star voting has begun and is in full swing.
The MLS All-Stars will take on UEFA Champions League and FA Cup winner Chelsea at PPL Park in a little more than a month with an eye on snapping a three-game losing streak after a loss to Everton (in penalties) and two losses to Manchester United.
Fans can vote for the All-Star team in a multitude of ways, ranging from online on the league's website and texting until July 2, to voting via Twitter on Thursday and Friday of this week. Six players were selected from each of the league's 19 teams to make up the ballot. SBI will share our All-Star picks at a later date, but what we want to know from you right now is who makes your starting XI for the MLS All-Star team?
The players selected for the All-Star ballot and the leading vote getters as of the latest tabulation are after the jump:
MLS ALL-STAR BALLOT
CHICAGO FIRE
Sean Johnson, Marco Pappa, Sebastian Grazzini, Pavel Pardo, Dominic Oduro, Gonzalo Segares
CHIVAS USA
Dan Kennedy, James Riley, Osvaldo Minda, Nick LaBrocca, Juan Pablo Angel, Alejandro Moreno
COLORADO RAPIDS
Matt Pickens, Omar Cummings, Drew Moor, Jeff Larentowicz, Martin Rivero, Jaime Castrillon
COLUMBUS CREW
Andy Gruenebaum, Chad Marshall, Eddie Gaven, Emilio Renteria, Milovan Mirosevic, Sebastian Miranda
D.C. UNITED
Bill Hamid, Perry Kitchen, Dwayne De Rosario, Nick DeLeon, Maicon Santos, Chris Pontius
FC DALLAS
Kevin Hartman, George John, Hernan Pertuz, Brek Shea, Daniel Hernandez, Ugo Ihemelu
HOUSTON DYNAMO
Tally Hall, Geoff Cameron, Bobby Boswell, Andre Hainault, Brad Davis, Will Bruin
LOS ANGELES GALAXY
Josh Saunders, Todd Dunivant, Landon Donovan, David Beckham, Juninho, Robbie Keane
MONTREAL IMPACT
Donovan Ricketts, Matteo Ferrari, Nelson Rivas, Felipe, Davy Arnaud, Bernardo Corradi
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION
Matt Reis, A.J. Soares, Benny Feilhaber, Shalrie Joseph, Lee Nguyen, Saer Sene
NEW YORK RED BULLS
Ryan Meara, Heath Pearce, Joel Lindpere, Dane Richards, Thierry Henry, Kenny Cooper
PHILADELPHIA UNION
Zac MacMath, Carlos Valdes, Sheanon Williams, Freddy Adu, Gabriel Gomez, Lionard Pajoy
PORTLAND TIMBERS
Troy Perkins, Eric Brunner, Diego Chara, Jack Jewsbury, Kris Boyd, Darlington Nagbe
REAL SALT LAKE
Nick Rimando, Jamison Olave, Nat Borchers, Kyle Beckerman, Fabian Espindola, Alvaro Saborio
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES
Jon Busch, Steve Beitashour, Marvin Chavez, Rafael Baca, Steven Lenhart, Chris Wondolowski
SEATTLE SOUNDERS
Michael Gspurning, Jeff Parke, Osvaldo Alonso, Mauro Rosales, Fredy Montero, David Estrada
SPORTING KANSAS CITY
Jimmy Nielsen, Aurelien Collin, Roger Espinoza, Graham Zusi, C.J. Sapong, Kei Kamara
TORONTO FC
Milos Kocic, Ashtone Morgan, Torsten Frings, Danny Koevermans, Joao Plata, Ryan Johnson
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS
Joe Cannon, Jay DeMerit, Young-Pyo Lee, Davide Chiumiento, Sebastien Le Toux, Camilo
LEADING VOTE GETTERS (As of June 18)
GOALKEEPERS
- Dan Kennedy, CHV
- Jimmy Nielsen, SKC
- Nick Rimando, RSL
- Kevin Hartman, FCD
- Andy Gruenebaum, CLB
DEFENDERS
- Aurelien Collin, SKC
- Jay DeMerit, VAN
- Jamison Olave, RSL
- Geoff Cameron, HOU
- Nat Borchers, RSL
- Jeff Parke, SEA
- Young-Pyo Lee, VAN
MIDFIELDERS
- David Beckham, LAG
- Landon Donovan, LAG
- Dwayne De Rosario, DCU
- Kyle Beckerman, RSL
- Brek Shea, FCD
- Graham Zusi, SKC
- Freddy Adu, PHI
FORWARDS
- Chris Wondolowski, SJ
- Thierry Henry, RBNY
- Fredy Montero, SEA
- Kenny Cooper, RBNY
- Robbie Keane, LAG
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Who is most deserving of making the MLS All-Star team? Which players give MLS the best chance at beating Chelsea? Are there any players that did not make the ballot that you think merit All-Star recognition?
Share your thoughts and your ideal MLS All-Star team below.
The best DM in the MLS is not in the top 7? It’s a joke right?
There are some advantages to. Like not having the ballot stuffed for Seattle’s entire starting XI
That’s my vote, not my actual formation…
Actual starters:
——Wondo——
Henry——–Kamara
—–DeRosario—–
—Zusi—-Alonso—
HainO-Parke-Collin-Beita
—–Gruenebaum—-
———-Wondolowski———–
Henry———————Cooper
——————————–
De Rosario—–Zusi——–Kamara
——————————–
Parke—-Borchers–Collin-Beitashour
———-Gruenebaum———–
That implies that you DO know about those other positions, but your picks indicate otherwise…
Any All-Star lineup without Dan Kenney, Beitashour, Olave, DeMerit, Lee, Alonso, Zusi, DeRosario, Sene, and Wondolowski is auto-fail (Henry has missed too much time, he goes on the bench).
So basically the entire starting 11 should be set aside from one midfielder. Voting should just be “choose your fourth midfielder”…
For fun do you even remember what happened at last years game when there wasn’t even a question about whether he earned his spot?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuvYPCqLBA4
Goal 3: Punked by a shoulder challenge then trotted to enjoy the off the crossbar alleyoop from a front row seat
“for a minute it looked like Geoff Cameron was going to defend that” -Lalas
Goal 4: OG
thats what IM saying…
speaking of USMNT he’s actually played BETTER for them then he has in Houston thus far this year..my guess is that its probably
due to the fact he hasn’t been tested much as the one real time he was “tested” he blew it.
Just saying..
Look I hope he LEARNS the position and BECOMES a force but there is no sense in pretending he is playing anywhere near an all-star level at CB
http://www.mlssoccer.com/video/2012/05/19/goal-sene-scores-his-second
yeah ok
he got stripped twice last game vs fcd in front of all those scouts no less. The first one he was able to get the ball back the second one was a turnover- break.
Hes been getting stripped, making bad back passes, and doing a myriad of other suspect actions in the back. Matt Doyle of mls.com pointed out all of this in a soccer podcast a few weeks ago noting that Camerons poor play has been his (Doyles) biggest surprise of the mls season thus far. This is all very Ream esque but I guess I should shut up and believe that despite all this he’s the best CB.
..But I wont as we CANNOT afford mediocre players to reside in the center of our back-line.