Arsenal were victorious in last night’s MLS All-Stars Skills Challenge in Washington D.C.
Auston Trusty scored the winning point for the Gunners as he successfully hit the crossbar in the final challenge after the hosts had mounted a stirring comeback.
Trusty was one of two Americans on the Arsenal team taking part. The other, Folarin Balogun, fresh from switching international allegiance, received a standing ovation from the capacity Audi Field crowd. They were joined by Jurrien Timber, Kai Havertz, Jorginho, Marquinhos, Rob Holding, Alex Runarsson, Aaron Ramsdale and Jakub Kiwior.
Even though the #MLSAllStar squad had a few attempts right on target, Kai Havertz ran away with the touch challenge for Arsenal. 🎯 pic.twitter.com/X2xd3mBJcP
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 19, 2023
Mikel Arteta’s players, wearing their new neon away kit, took early wins in the shooting and touch challenges but were pegged back in the cross and volley challenge. Kiwior then sealed a win in the passing challenge to put Arsenal 4-1 ahead.
With a shutout and some spectacular goals, the #MLSAllStar side wins the cross & volley challenge. 😤 pic.twitter.com/c2EGoPAGsn
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 19, 2023
It got tense during the crossbar challenge when the MLS All-Stars successfully hit the woodwork four times; each earning a point.
Thankfully, Trusty, who spent last season on loan at Birmingham City having made his name in the MLS, saved his neon pals from embarrassment with the final kick of the evening. As we’ve always said ‘Trusty the process’.
#MLSAllStar ties it up late in the crossbar challenge, but a familiar face ultimately finds the winner for Arsenal. pic.twitter.com/7Y6rWHjlHD
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 19, 2023
If this was an amuse-bouche, tonight Washington D.C. gets to feast on real football. Well, sort of.
Even Wayne Rooney, coach of D.C United and the man in the home dugout tonight, admitted the All-Star concept is not one that will ever work in England.
Facing the media alongside Mikel Arteta in a pre-game press conference, the ex-England striker said: “It’s a huge game here but I think in England the rivalry between teams, between the cultures, [they] will complain about the players playing too much and I just don’t think it will work.”
Arteta was a little more diplomatic: “I’m very excited. Tomorrow’s experience is going to be great. It’s going to be a special, very unpredictable game. Obviously, we’re going to change a lot of players as well, but it’s great to be invited and to be part of this, and hopefully we can give something back to the fans here.”
He added: “I love the idea. For me as the Arsenal coach to play against the MLS All-Stars is great. I love the experience but if you ask me the other way around, depending when it was in the middle of the season, probably I wouldn’t be that happy to lose my players. But I think it’s great for the players to gather together and play in the same team. If I was a player for sure, I would want to experience that so why not in the future it can be done.”
The big talking pre-game talking point from an Arsenal perspective is whether new boy Declan Rice will get a run-out. The club’s record signing has been eased into training with some sessions on the bike but is getting up to speed.
“We just wanted to manage him. A lot has happened to him in the last five or six days, a very hectic schedule. He had a few training sessions that were really good, but prior to that, he didn’t do much before he joined us. So we wanted to just manage him. He trained today with us, he was in good form and he’s fine.”
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If you’re looking for more highlights from last night, click here.
Three straight preseason wins and then the community shield to be our first trophy this year. Please.
I’m ok with not winning in the preseason, it’s more about trying stuff out. Definitely get that community shield tho, that’s the one team we still need to prove to ourselves we can beat, would do good for our confidence.
The American capitalists know how to make shit loads of money with all these marketing non sense. No wonder there is no relegation / promotion in any of the sports out there in the US.
Hey, at the end of the day, it is all about entertainment. Their Culture their Rules.
English model, every town or neighborhood can have a team at whatever level, American model, only individuals who purchase a franchise from the league can have a team and that team stays in the league forever. One model based on the collective, the community, the other based on the individual. I like the European model, more to play for at both ends of the table. One based on sporting goals the other based on money, although money is disrupting the sporting model in the EPL.
You mean like a salary cap so all teams can be competitive? Look at the past few winners of the super bowl, its not necessarily about the richest club (cowboys havent won since the 90’s) and NE had a lower wage bill when they won a bunch of times, its about making smart choices in the draft and in free agency. Don’t talk about things you have no clue about.
I think you have missed the point when you say “all teams can be competitive.” The hard salary cap and draft in the NFL do promote greater competitiveness among a closed set of super-rich owners (of course that is only possible because the players cannot simply sign with Juventus or Bayern instead, and because there is an exception to American anti-trust law). It also allows teams to remain hopelessly uncompetitive for decades with no consequences (eg, Detroit Lions). Another reason North American sports *seem* more competitive is that winning the league is irrelevant; what counts is getting into the “post-season”… Read more »
I’m an American so do one.
I remember one skill challenge arranged by a private organization. Guess who won the first touch competion? Walcott. A ball thrown from a crane, something like that.
Sounds about right. Classic Theo.
you bloody right mate! it’s not like over here in communist uk, where players are paid with a bag of groceries at the end of the month. all these saudis ain’t coming because of the money, they coming because they like sports and having a sniff of what good ol’ socialist football smells like. cheers fam!!
Relegation/promotion has nothing major to add to the value of sport. The clue is in the name – sport. It’s a synonym for fun.
If I play you at any game and lose – that’s bad. I don’t have to be kicked out of the ability to play you to retain any jeopardy.
Would love to wee the Kiwior passing challenge is it available anywhere?
I actually think the all star concept could work in the Champions League (not in England) but it would need to come after the season and there would need to be some motivating factor besides money for winning otherwise nobody would try hard.
All star games the players don’t usually try too hard. It’s much more attack focused, just watch the NBA all star for example, it’s basically a “you Shoot, we shoot” kind of game and mostly quite friendly
It’s on MLS website
Merci. That looks really good from him, so accurate and effortless at the same time. Excited to see him play a bigger part this season, if his defending is as good as his passing Gabriel needs to watch out… perhaps even Zinchenko.
“Would love to wee the Kiwior passing challenge” damn what was he passing, kidney stones?
haha hmm yes, typo… should’ve completed it with another one by naming it a “pissing challenge” 😅 😅 😅 😅 😅 😅 😅
Oops way too many emojis there
I was at this “event” and it was totally dreadful. Worse than say, Hull-Stoke on a rainy January. Mostly uninspiring events spaced out to accommodate TV advertisers. Ugh. If I wasn’t designated driver I would have checked out the new shirts and bolted.
Will be an interesting matchup tonight play against the All-Stars from MLS who are in top condition, but obviously won’t have the cohesiveness of a normal squad that has played and trained together for a long time while Arsenal are still in preseason condition and many players will be making their first appearances of the Summer and a couple their first with Arsenal. Excited to see it live in the US and see the new players with the team for the first time.
I watched it. It was really fun and the players were having a good time.
Havertz wasn’t great in the volley challenge (first player to not score a goal), but he was decent in the touch challenge.
Crossbar challenge at the end was really fun. Ramsdale was so pissed he wasn’t the one to win it.
The new shirts look slightly better in person…..just slightly, haha.
Havertz was actually pretty poor in both the volley and one touch challenge. It can’t be easy but he looked clumsy for a pro footballer. Hopefully just an off-day.