MLS All-Star Game Gets Some Buzz With Popular Opponent

A “standing-room-only crowd of about 21,000” is expected for Saturday’s MLS All-Star Game at Toyota Park, which will feature a team of MLS All-Stars playing against Premier League club Chelsea, according to Len Ziehm of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. The game “long has been a sellout.” The expected 21,000 is “about the crowd that attended the Fire’s Grand Opening match at Toyota Park, but the makeup of the crowd Saturday will be different.” Fire President John Guppy: “For the Grand Opening, the fans were for the Chicago Fire. For Saturday, they’ll be the fans of soccer. ... We’ve sold tickets to people all over the U.S., and we’ve got people flying in from Poland, the United Kingdom and Canada. People from at least 30 states bought tickets” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 8/3). ESPNSOCCERNET.com’s Frank Dell’Apa wrote the game “is the most attractive matchup for the event since the initial” All-Star Game in ’96. MLS players “are eager to participate against Chelsea,” and spectators and sponsors “are curious” (ESPNSOCCERNET.com, 8/3). ESPNSOCCERNET.com’s Jeff Carlisle: “In past years, watching the MLS All-Star Game has ranked right below ‘yard work.’ ... Yet this time around, the good folks at MLS HQ have gotten it right” (ESPNSOCCERNET.com, 8/3).

TOURING CAR: A doubleheader Sunday at the L.A. Coliseum features Revolution-Chivas USA and FC Barcelona-Chivas de Guadalajara, the first match of Barcelona’s three-game U.S. tour that is being promoted by SUM. USA TODAY’s Ridge Mahoney notes the “expected attendance of 90,000-plus will be counted in MLS crowd figures” (USA TODAY, 8/4). Barcelona will play Club America at Reliant Stadium on Wednesday as part of a doubleheader with Galaxy-Dynamo. Dynamo President Oliver Luck said that ticket sales “had reached more than 50,000 as of Thursday morning.” Luck: “We are expecting a crowd of 60, perhaps 65 (or) 70 thousand people.” The attendance record for a soccer match in Texas is 69,582 for Mexico-U.S. in ’03 (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 8/4).