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Edu, Boswell, and Franklin selected as MLS All-Star replacements

MauriceEduUnion (USATodaySports)

By TATE STEINLAGE 

Maurice Edu, Bobby Boswell, and Sean Franklin are MLS All-Stars after all.

The league announced Saturday that the Philadelphia Union midfielder and D.C. United defenders will join manager Caleb Porter’s squad as replacements for Seattle Sounders defender Chad Marshall and LA Galaxy teammates Omar Gonzalez and Robbie Keane.

Reports surfaced Friday that the LA Galaxy were working to get Gonzalez and Keane withdrawn from the Aug. 6 friendly against Bayern Munich because of their Western Conference clash with the San Jose Earthquakes two days later.

According to the Goal USA report, Galaxy All-Star forward Landon Donovan will still be “involved in a limited role.”

Chad Marshall is still recovering from a July 26 rear-end car accident that left him with back spasms and forced him to sit out of his team’s 3-0 loss to the Galaxy Monday.

“Given the limited minutes that Omar and Robbie would need to play due to having a game on Friday and the injury to Chad, I felt we needed to bring in Sean, Bobby and Maurice to provide us with more cover in the back,” Porter said in a release. “This will also allow us to manage the other players’ time so everyone is ready for their matches on the weekend.”

The full 23-man roster for the All-Star game can be seen below:

GoalkeepersNick Rimando (Real Salt Lake), Bill Hamid (D.C. United)

Defenders: Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), Aurélien Collin (Sporting Kansas City), Bobby Boswell (D.C. United), Sean Franklin (D.C. United), Michael Parkhurst (Columbus Crew), DeAndre Yedlin (Seattle Sounders FC)

Midfielders: Osvaldo Alonso (Seattle Sounders FC), Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Tim Cahill (New York Red Bulls), Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders FC), Will Johnson (Portland Timbers), Diego Valeri (Portland Timbers), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City), Maurice Edu (Philadelphia Union)

Forwards: Jermain Defoe (Toronto FC), Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy), Thierry Henry (New York Red Bulls), Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy), Obafemi Martins (Seattle Sounders FC), Erick Torres (Chivas USA), Bradley Wright-Phillips (New York Red Bulls)

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What do you make of the roster shake up for the All-Star game? Good for LA to sit out their players with a game two days later? Did Porter pick the best replacements?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. It is time to get rid of the all star game. The coaches don’t want it and it is a waste of time. It makes our league look worse to the rest of the world. Our BEST players practice for a couple of days to play against one of the best clubs in the world who play together all the time and of course we don’t look good. No matter the result it just looks as the league grabbing our best players for all 19 teams to play one team. For what? It just doesn’t look professional. This type of thing should only be done in the off-season, but of course it can’t because our season is different from everyone else’s.

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    • I disagree completely. All stars games are useless and we represent the only country infatuated with them. Give me meaningful international club competitions.

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    • I was looking at the pictures while out to eat and I thought my eyes were deceiving me. Is that the official number?

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      • Yup. That’s what the place holds and it was clealy bursting at the seams…. probably could’ve had 120k if they had the seats.

        Does anybody know — has the USMNT ever thought of staging a competitive match here? Not that we don’t have a ton of great venues already. It’s not exactly a “modern” venue, but it seems like you can get a rowdy 100k+ crowd in the Big House for a middle school science fair. And unlike the Rose Bowl (second biggest among venues hosting top level soccer), it would actually be a pro-USA crowd. Maybe we could crowbar the opener for the Copa 2016 here? There a reason why not?

      • I don’t think they can get a big enough pitch in there for a meaningful international game. They were maxing out the width and it was about 66 yards. 10 yard hashes for corners were just about a yard off the penalty box. Unfortunately, I think it is just too tight. FWIW, I was about 40 rows off the field on the North end .

      • My compliments on a very sensible answer. Intuitively I can’t really visualize it, after seeing the tennis court we played on in Antigua & Barbuda, but I’ve no doubt you have done your homework. Many thanks.

        What did you think of the atmosphere? Looked incredible…

      • It was interesting because I’ve been to louder games with less fans (USMNT qualifiers and matches in Europe) but the sheer number was impressive. Wasn’t any organized singing or chanting because there were not any real organized supporters’ sections just pockets around the stadium. Everyone responded to big plays, the goals, the star players leaving or entering the games, and of course the wave….but it wasn’t one of those matches that was just buzzing with intensity from the crowd or where you feel like you are in the middle of a cauldron on full boil.

  2. Edu is correct choice, should’ve been chosen above W. Johnson anyway, assuming Johnson was Porters choice and not fan voting pick

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    • The only valid reason I have for that is there are too many forwards. However Edu was not the midfielder I would’ve liked to be called in.

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