By DAN KARELL
If the latest reports are correct, next summer’s Major League Soccer All-Star Game opponent will be one of the biggest in league history.
According to a report in the Munich Evening News, German giants Bayern Munich will travel to the United States to face the MLS All-Stars in 2014, becoming the first ever German side to play in the annual summer friendly match. If true, it would be the second consecutive year that the MLS All-Stars face a new team from a new country, after AS Roma took down the All-Stars, 3-1, last July in Kansas City.
MLS has yet to publicly comment on the report or on the next opponent for the MLS All-Star Game.
The match, which will be played in Jeld-Wen Field in Portland, Oregon, has not been schedule yet because of the World Cup, with Bayern wanting to bring their best squad to face the MLS All-Stars. As such, it’s likely that the match could be pushed back into August instead of its usual time of late July.
The location of the All-Star game is interesting due to Adidas’ U.S. headquarters being located in the city. Adidas is the main sponsor of both MLS and Bayern, and it’s global headquarters are located in Herzogenaurach, Germany, about 115 miles north of Bayern’s Allianz Arena.
Back in October, the Munich Evening News and BILD reported that Bayern are set to open an office in New York in the next few months, seeing the possibilities for new revenue streams in the United States.
The last time that Bayern traveled to America was in 2004 as part of the Champions World series, defeating Manchester United, 4-2 on penalty kicks, in front of 58,121 fans at Soldier Field in Chicago.
Bayern have yet to comment on the latest reports.
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What do you think of this report? Do you see Bayern coming to face the MLS All-Stars? Excited to hear this report? Do you believe that MLS could compete with Bayern? How would this affect the league’s growth?
Share your thoughts below.