SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The days when Major League Soccer would use its summer All-Star Game as a measuring stick against elite European club teams is over. Sure, MLS still invites a super-team to play its opponent every season -- this year it is famed north London club Arsenal FC -- but now the game is more spectacle than sideshow. And visiting teams know they have to be on their game to complete with the best of MLS.
We know, in fact, that the history of this game is in favor of the MLS," said Arsenal head coach Arsene Wenger at the MLS All-Star Game introductory press conference on Tuesday.