Xhaka, 23, could make his debut for Arsenal when they take on the MLS All-Star team on Thursday in San Jose.
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However, coaches don’t want their star players leaving the team.
Fans can tune into the match Thursday with pregame coverage beginning on ESPN at 6:30 p.m. CT followed by kickoff at 7 p.m. Adrian Healey (play-by-play), Taylor Twellman (color) and Monica Gonzalez (sideline) will have the call from the Earthquakes’ second-year home, where the stars of MLS will try to secure the league’s ninth win in 13 all-time matches against global clubs.
It’s about time the MLS All Stars went back to playing each other.
“We want to win every time we step on the field”, said Earthquakes goalkeeper David Bingham, who will make his first all-star appearance. West games. It took a detour starting in 2002 by having a league-wide team play the USA national squad. The 21-year-old Sounder and U.S. Men’s National Team member is among the league leaders in goals scored with seven.
The American landscape was empty when MLS launched 20 years ago.
In 2004 the MLS All-Stars faced each other in one last East-West competition. These players are out there to show [well].
MLS All-Stars will be looking to prove themselves against English and European giants Arsenal on Friday.
The teams are always at varying stages of preseason fitness and the MLS players themselves aren’t about to risk injury in an exhibition.
Predicted score: My MLS homerism is showing here, because I think that the MLS players will do what they’ve done recently and come out guns blazing; the combination of MLS players being in mid-season shape and Arsenal being a bunch of kids and fresh-off-vacation senior players probably means a 2-1 or 3-1 MLS win.
Arsenal continue their preparations for the upcoming campaign with their second pre-season game against the MLS All Stars in San Jose. “Such as [Aaron] Ramsey, [Mesut] Ozil, [Olivier] Giroud and [Laurent] Koscielny”.
“It’s another game in a long line of great opponents for MLS to be testing itself against the best clubs in the world”, says Chris Alexopolous, ESPN’s lead soccer producer and a veteran of every ESPN soccer event since 1998.
Whether or not the Gunners win Thursday is meaningless. They’ve played one preseason game and are missing half their starting lineup.
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Indeed Arsenal, which was chosen as the latest invitee for Major League Soccer’s annual All-Star game, faces a scramble just to find sufficient fit center-backs for the contest.
