So it’s a good showing for the All-Stars. The best news for the audience in Atlanta and at home -- tons of talented players to enjoy before they make their mark elsewhere. Atlanta’s strike force of Almiron and Martinez was superb. For Juve, Andrea Favilli continues his torrid preseason in the USA, and their youngsters kept their nerve when it came down to PKs.
Josef Martinez is indeed the MVP of the game, which was decided before the PKs.
Back to work for all the MLS players still in the middle of their season, and back to preseason prep for Juventus. Maybe that Ronaldo guy will make the starting XI one day.
Thanks as always for following along with us tonight, and we’ll see you next time.
FINAL: MLS 1-1 Juventus; Juventus win 5-3 on penalties
Mattia De Sciglio with the unstoppable winner.
And, as is so often the case, an Italian team is simply luckier than the opposition. Not that the rest of the world is bitter.
Updated
JUVE 4-3 MLS. Bradley Wright-Phillips hits the same post, one inch farther to the left, and it’s our first miss.
JUVE 4-3 MLS. That’s the second post Juve have hit in this shootout. This one, Steffen nearly saved. Fernandes is lucky.
JUVE 3-3 MLS. Another correct guess from a keeper, another shot that’s too powerful and well-placed to be saved. Diego Valeri ties it.
JUVE 3-2 MLS. The Cyprus international Kastanos hits a powerful shot, which is good because Steffen got his fingers to it.
JUVE 2-2 MLS. Yotun, the Peruvian international, sends the keeper the wrong way and easily scores.
JUVE 2-1 MLS. Beltrame, apparently playing recently for Go Ahead Eagles, places his shot perfectly even with Steffen guessing correctly and getting a good jump.
JUVE 1-1 MLS. The veteran Graham Zusi steps up for MLS, sends Perin to the right and slots it down the middle.
JUVE 1-0 MLS. Juve’s teenager Fagioli against Steffen, and it’s off the right post and in.
The All-Stars end up leading pretty much every stat, including shots on goal (7-6).
Ciao, Seba! 👋#MLSAllStar pic.twitter.com/N4QxIxsuSl
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) August 2, 2018
END REGULATION: MLS 1-1 Juventus
Juve get one more rush forward, but Hedges breaks up the danger.
Off to PKs we go.
90+2 min: A saving tackle from Rugani on the onrushing Wright-Phillips. Possible transfer target, the young Juve center back is.
No idea why I’m now Yoda-talking.
90+2 min: It’s a tough angle, and it’s taken into the wall. But it rebounds back to the shooter who puts it back into traffic, and the deflection goes just wide.
90+1 min: Three minutes of stoppage time.
And Yotun rather foolishly concedes a free kick. This one is about 22 yards out.
90 min: Yotun puts a left-footed shot over the wall but can’t quite get it back down under the bar.
89 min: And the free kick is ... delayed.
88 min: CHANCE. Quintero has an option to pass to the right but fools the defender and cuts back. Fernandes has to foul him, just outside the box. A 19-yard free kick ...
87 min: The All-Stars keep Juve pinned back. A Route 1 ball is cut out by Hedges, and Quintero ends up shooting from the top of the box. Deflected.
From the corner, Elis’ header forces a save.
85 min: Valeri tries a through ball for Wright-Phillips, and the run is well-timed, but the ball is too far in front. Perin snares it. This Valeri/Wright-Phillips partnership may yet save us from PKs, though. (Yes, this will go to PKs if still tied.)
84 min: Darwin Quintero swipes the ball and tries to chip the keeper, but Perin is alert.
82 min: CHANCE. The All-Stars force a turnover, and Wright-Phillips and Valeri come barreling through the box. Medhi Benatia is forced to clear as the ball gets past his keeper.
Then Fernandes hits a swerving shot from 40 yards just over the bar at the other end.
Yes, the game has warmed up again.
81 min: To underscore the point about the run of play, the All-Stars now lead in pass completion percentage (87-86), passes completed (418-385), attacking-half passes (277-199) and final-third passes (153-94).
As I look that up, Juve spring a chance, but they’re offside.
80 min: Yoshimar Yotun, a Peruvian who plays for Orlando, calmly swipes the ball and runs 80 yards with it. The cross goes to Diego Valeri, who slips a bit as he shoots.
76 min: A cross eludes Wright-Phillips. That’s been the story of the half. If you look at the shot stats, you’d think Juve would be unlucky not to be in front. But those Juve shots are largely speculative. At the other end, the All-Stars have put together some brilliant combinations but can’t quite connect. Not surprising, given the various clubs represented in the mix up front now.
74 min: Official attendance is 72,317. It’s a big place.
71 min: Because the opposite of what I just said always happens after I say it, Juve get a good run in the attacking third. One forward takes far too much time and finds his shot blocked, but another forces a save from Steffen.
Updated
70 min: An All-Stars free kick, smartly taken across the top of the box, and I don’t know how Wright-Phillips managed to miss it. Now he presses a backpass, but the relatively fresh Juve players at the back deal with it.
68 min: Juve don’t have a plan at the moment. Just lumping hopeful balls up the field. That’s what happens when MLS is bringing in players who aren’t too far behind the starters and Juve is fielding a bunch of players with numbers in the 40s.
66 min: Waka Flocka Flame is now in the ESPN booth talking about how he fell in love with the game when he had a chance to see Real Madrid play Barcelona. Yeah, that’ll do it.
This game, on the other hand, has petered out a bit as all the substitutes try to get into a rhythm.
65 min: ESPN identifies MLS veteran Michael Parkhurst as “Michael Parkhurt,” which seems vaguely like a political statement.
63 min: Clemenza takes an ambitious shot. It’s going wide, but Steffen smothers it anyway.
62 min: The All-Stars make six more subs. Giovinco is among the players going out, which seems cruel. But 100-goal scorer Bradley Wright-Phillips is in.
Odd trash-talking here ...
Atlanta Falcons owner and NFL playoff LOSER Arthur Blank being interviewd at the #mlsallstargame #MLSAllStar #FlyEaglesFly
— Philly Soccer Hooligan (@phillyfirm) August 2, 2018
The Philadelphia Union would surely sell the Liberty Bell for an owner like Blank.
60 min: A chance for Juve. Steffen punches a 25-yard blast straight at him, then sees a shot go into his side netting.
59 min: And confirmation from Juve ...
46' - Juventus subs to start the 2nd half:
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) August 2, 2018
➡️ Perin, Benatia, De Sciglio, Clemenza, Beltrame
⬅️ Szczesny, Alex Sandro, Barzagli, Bernardeschi, Favilli#MLSAllStar [1-1]
The All-Stars are dominating possession this half, but the final pass is just a bit off. Unlike Spain (and Real Madrid the other night), they’re trying that final pass, but it’s just not getting through.
57 min: Ellis goes 1v2 in the box and nearly pulls it off.
55 min: OK, let’s get to some more substitutions now that the game has finally slowed a bit after an extended All-Stars possession ...
MLS players in: Hedges, Valeri, Zusi, Sanchez, Steffen (goal), Ellis.
Juve players in: Benatia, De Sciglio, Fernandes, Beltrame, Clemenza, Kastanos, Fagioli
51 min: More pretty possession from the All-Stars while the interview continues. In fairness, Blank has done an awful lot of things right in Atlanta.
Gigi Giggio writes: “Guess that there are very few of us experiencing this interesting game, haha.
“Juventus’ athleticism is still lacking this early in the season but I have to say that the MLS squad is dominating the game tactically as well. The team gels together extraordinarily well considering that players come from multiple clubs and are of different backgrounds and age. I am very intrigued by this, I wander whether the US federation has a tactical blueprint for the teams to implement.”
Remember -- not many of these players are American. Neither is the coach.
49 min: Fernandes is 18. Born in the Netherlands. Angolan family.
ESPN is interviewing Atlanta owner Arthur Blank about food and beverage pricing while Juve attack. Two of their players run into each other, so I guess it matters little.
48 min: Fernandes makes a nice cutback move for Juve going forward, but Aaron Long cuts it out. No, I don’t know who Fernandes is, either.
46 min: And Perin is called into action right away, as Alberth Ellis rips a shot from 10 yards after the All-Stars force a turnover.
Should I even try to list all the subs?
46 min: It is indeed Mattia Perin in goal for Juve, trying to stake his claim for playing time. Szczesny will be a hard act to follow, though.
John Gingell is enthused about Alphonso Davies: “Looks exciting, confident, competent in his few touches.”
He does indeed. Really plenty of positives for the All-Stars on the attacking end. A little dodgy at times on defense, but that’s typical for these games.
Stats on the MLS site:
The All-Stars have completed 85% of their passes. Juve 88%.
The All-Stars completed 149 passes in the attacking half. Juve 126.
Andrea Favilli leads the Audi Index with 444 Audis. Not sure of the exchange rate for Fiats.
Guzan and Szczesny traded jerseys at halftime. Guess we’ll be seeing Zach Steffen for the MLS All-Stars and any of Juve’s three backup keepers in the second half.
Juve have some experienced defenders on the bench, including Giorgio Chiellini. But they’re here without Higuain (likely on his way out), Dybala, Costa, Mandzukic and some former Real Madrid/Manchester United player.
HALFTIME: MLS 1-1 Juventus
We can make fun of this occasion all we want. But that was 45 minutes of breathtaking soccer/football/calcio in front of about 70,000 fans.
Email, Tweet -- happy to chat at halftime.
43 min: A brief Juve foray forward is quickly stopped, and the All-Stars are off to the races again. Alex Sandro picks up a card as he stops it.
Meanwhile, some GOAT talk ...
Miguel Almiron is going to be a regular for a top European side by 2020/21. Best player in MLS history. #MLSAllStar
— Evan Weston (@EvanLWeston) August 2, 2018
I might argue for Jaime Moreno, who could beat three defenders in a phone booth. Or a police call box, for those of you still awake in England. And no, not the TARDIS.
But I won’t argue with the first sentence.
41 min: Almiron can’t possibly be that far open, can he? No .. he’s ...
Oh, wait ... he really was that far open. Bad call by the AR. Almiron was a good five yards past the defense when he received the ball. He’s just that fast and timed his run that well.
39 min: Oh my, this is beautiful.
Almiron goes streaking through the middle of the field from his own half -- about 50 yars of running at top speed with the ball through defenders who can’t catch up. He plays wide to an open Giovinco, who crosses to Barco. His volley is powerful and on frame, and only a superb save by Szczesny keeps the game level.
Szczesny may be battling to replace Buffon, so this can’t hurt.
And Giovinco immediately comes back and fires just wide.
35 min: Hmmmm. Favilli, the danger man, darts straight down the middle of the field and is brought down by Ring. He wants a call. None is given.
We do have VAR available, by the way.
34 min: Coincidentally, ESPN just scrolled some news on the Italian Winter Olympic bid that would see some of the Games return to Turin. I covered those Games and was surprised by the utter lack of enthusiasm. Can’t understand why they’re bidding again.
32 min: Here’s that insane goal:
It had to be him. @JosefMartinez17 for the MLS All-Stars 🙌#MLSAllStar by @Target. https://t.co/4WNMDxinc7
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 2, 2018
And with that, Martinez is out. On comes former Juve player Sebastian Giovinco.
And three more substitutions:
- Alphonso Davies replaces Calvo
- Dos Santos replaces Adams
- Barco replaces Piatti
Two teenagers (Davis, Barco) in that mix.
31 min: Ciman with the tackle, and the All-Stars are off to the races with their Atlanta strike force. The final pass is just a couple of inches off.
29 min: The All-Stars probably deserved a free kick on the ensuing sequence.
Meanwhile, here’s a word from an erstwhile Guardian contributor:
If I were Brad Guzan, I'd totally blame Adrian Healy and Taylor Twellman for letting that goal in. (Then again, it's the #MLSAllStar game so it doesn't matter.) 😏
— Caitlin Murray (@caitlinmurr) August 2, 2018
Those would be ESPN’s commentators. They haven’t chatted with him since, and he did just make another save.
Wojciech Szczesny made a terrific save on a powerful 15-yard blast. But maybe he would’ve wanted to recover a bit more quickly to snare the ball as it traveled almost past his right post. Instead, Piatti managed to head the ball back across the face of goal, and Martinez bravely got a head to it in traffic at the other post.
GOAL: MLS 1-1 Juventus (Martinez 26)
A wild scramble, a tremendous save and the ball is finally bundled into the net.
24 min: An offside call against Juve produces a wag of the finger, and the ball is kicked away. Aren’t refs supposed to give yellows for that?
23 min: Favilli is due to go on loan to Genoa. Maybe they’ll want to rethink?
The goal and the chances before it have unhinged the All-Stars, who were holding their own for the first 20 minutes.
GOAL: MLS 0-1 Juventus (Favilli 21)
He scored two against Bayern Munich, and now he’s on the board again, getting a mostly free header that he directs just inside the far post.
19 min: The microphone catches Guzan trying to get Miguel Almiron’s attention to set his wall for a long free kick. Those of us who coach youth soccer can relate.
ESPN continues to ask questions of Guzan, which is something the Juve attackers are doing at the moment. Guzan might be imitating an angry Tour de France cyclist and yanking that earpiece away soon.
16 min: CHANCE going the other way. Appears to be Andreas Favilli, the young striker signed from Ascoli, with the glancing header wide.
15 min: Kind of a tough foul from Alexander Ring given the friendly status of this game.
14 min: CHANCE An All-Stars corner kick in this suddenly frenetic game. Then another, and Aaron Long puts a header off the top corner of the woodwork. So close.
12 min: A nifty move from Bernardeschi in midfield, and he unleashes another shot with a bit of power but nothing to seriously trouble Guzan.
11 min: A beautiful ball from Piatti over the top to Martinez, and the Atlanta striker is nearly in alone on Szczesny before a scrambling Juve defense recovers the ball.
10 min: Whatever jitters the All-Stars had at the start are gone. They’re putting the Juventus defense into all sorts of difficulty.
But here comes the counter, and Guzan has to make a save from Bernardeschi.
8 min: The interview with Guzan continues. He enjoys playing in Atlanta but has to start organizing his defense as Alex Sandro bursts forward once again.
Cancelo sends a shot higher than any shot I’ve ever seen. Did we mention the game is on artificial turf?
Then ESPN starts to interview Guzan again before realizing goalkeepers generally take goal kicks when the ball goes over the end line.
5 min: The All-Stars enjoy a bit of possession and look quite fluid. Maybe this won’t be quite so easy for the perennial Serie A champions.
4 min: A through ball forces Brad Guzan to dash out of his box and clear.
And now we learn Guzan has an earpiece and a microphone so he can chat with ESPN’s crew during the game. He’s still catching his breath from that run.
2 min: Tyler Adams gets a touch to the ball and sends it out of play. The MLSers are pressing but not forcing turnovers.
1 min: And we have our first dive. Or fall. Nothing called.
How I spent my summer vacation, by Juve’s mascot ...
Let the #MascotChallenge continue!
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) August 1, 2018
It's 🦓 Jay 🆚 Harry the Hawk 🏀@ATLHawks 🇺🇸 #CONTAJUS pic.twitter.com/Xey7JXN22p
Ashanti is singing the national anthem of the United States. Not sure if she’ll also be tackling Italy’s.
Pregame
We’re getting just a peek at a light show that has apparently been going on for some time. The SiriusXM commentary crew is dazzled. “Meh,” say those who played in the USA’s indoor leagues of the 1980s.
We’re told kickoff will be in about six minutes.
About the MLS roster ...
Nationality
Only seven of the 26 players are from the USA. Another is from Canada.
Three are from Argentina. Two are from Mexico.
The other nationalities: Belgium, Colombia, Costa Rica, England, Finland, Honduras, Italy, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Venezuela.
Age
Eight players are over 30, including three of the Americans.
Three are under 20.
Club
Five are from the host city’s club, Atlanta United.
Four are from the New York Red Bulls. Just one from NYCFC.
Expansion club Los Angeles FC has two. Minnesota has two. Sporting KC has two.
Also represented: Columbus, FC Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles Galaxy, Montreal, New England, Orlando, Portland, Toronto, Vancouver.
Former teammates meeting ...
Sebastian Giovinco came up through the Juventus academy and played for the first team for roughly a decade. He also has 23 caps for Italy.
MLS All-Star Game history ...
The All-Stars have a pretty good record in this event with 7 wins, 4 losses and 2 losses in kicks from the mark. But they lost their only matchup with an Italian side, falling 3-1 to Roma in 2013.
The only team to rout the All-Stars was Manchester United, which did it twice --2010 and 2011. Spoilsports.
But the All-Stars haven’t won since beating Spurs 2-1 in 2015. Arsenal took a 2-1 win in 2016. Real Madrid won on PKs last year.
Meet Alphonso Davies ...
(and some defenders who have surely had better days)
MLS lineup ...
Apparently a couple of rasslers, appropriate for Atlanta, where Ted Turner once made Dusty Rhodes and company a staple on Southern TVs back when we only had about 10 channels.
WWE's @WWECesaro + @MikeRomeWWE will join us to talk #MLSAllStar shortly! https://t.co/XY8yVNE0OG
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 1, 2018
OK, it’s actually ...
GK: Brad Guzan (yes, you remember him from England)
D: Aaron Long, Francisco Calvo, Laurent Ciman, Michael Murillo
M: Alexander Ring, Tyler Adams, Carlos Vela, Miguel Almiron, Ignatio Piatti
F: Josef Martinez
With all due respect to Martinez and his prolific scoring, two names to watch are on the bench. Bradley Wright-Phillips recently scored his 100th goal in MLS. (If you’re with us from England, first of all, glad you’re joining us at this late hour, and second of all, you may know his brother.) Then there’s Alphonso Davies, a Ghana-born Canadian teenager who is on his way to Bayern Munich. It’s a good thing he’s Canadian -- if he were from the USA, he’d probably be subject to tariffs of some kind.
Juventus lineup ...
Plenty of experience at the back. Not so much up front.
Your 🏳🏴 XI to face the @MLS All-Stars!#MLSAllStar #CONTAJUS pic.twitter.com/aj005MNaz2
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) August 1, 2018
Hello all.
Is everyone looking forward to seeing Ronaldo vs. Zlatan? Well, bad news on that front. They’re not here.
But Juventus and the MLS All-Stars are ready to face off in front of a reported sellout crowd in the massive stadium shared by Atlanta United and some gridiron football team that always disappointed us native Georgians.
The ESPN broadcast begins at 7:30 p.m. ET, which means kickoff will be any time between then and December.
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s a look at Graham Parker’s state of the league as MLS breaks for All-Star festivities.
