The 2014 AT&T MLS All-Star Game will feature four Sporting Kansas City players as Matt Besler, Aurelien Collin, Dom Dwyer and Graham Zusi are among the 23-man squad for Wednesday night's contest in Portland, Oregon. The summer showcase will air live from Providence Park at 8:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2 and UniMas.
For the first time in the event's history, the MLS All-Stars will face a club from Germany's Bundesliga in star-studded FC Bayern Bunich. The MLS All-Stars are 6-3-1 all-time against international competition in the All-Star Game and now a meeting beckons with one of the world's premier clubs.
The All-Star Game will be a familiar spectacle for Besler, Collin and Zusi, who have each played in two previous editions. Dwyer, however, is set to make the first All-Star appearance of his career after replacing injured Toronto FC forward Jermain Defoe on the gameday roster. The 23-year-old is tied for second in MLS with 14 goals and won the MLS Player of the Month award in May.
Wednesday's match reunites seven members of the United States' 2014 FIFA World Cup squad. Besler and Zusi will once again team up with Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Nick Rimando and DeAndre Yedlin for the MLS All-Stars, while 19-year-old winger Julian Green will try to stake a claim for playing time in Bayern Munich's senior team. Green scored 15 goals in 23 league games for Bayern Munich II last year.
Bayern Munich stormed through the 2013-14 Bundesliga en route to their second straight domestic league title and 24th overall. Bayern piled up 90 points from 34 matches (29-2-3) and clinched their Bundesliga championship with seven matches to spare, an all-time German record. In December, they cruised to the 2013 FIFA Club World Cup title after winning the 2012-13 UEFA Champions League the previous campaign. A 2-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund in the 2014 DFB-Pokal Final on May 17 capped Bayern's league and cup double.
Six members from Germany's 2014 FIFA World Cup-winning squad play their club soccer for Bayern Munich: goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, defenders Phillip Lahm and Jerome Boateng, midfielders Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mario Gotze, and forward Thomas Muller. All six featured in the World Cup Final and made at least 36 appearances for Bayern last season across all competitions.
The German champions boast additional firepower in the form of French midfielder Franck Ribery, Dutch winger Arjen Robben, Croatian forward Mario Mandzukic and Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, who completed his free transfer from rival club Borussia Dortmund this summer. Second-year manager Pep Guardiola has nine players at his disposal who scored double-digit goals in 2013-14: Lewandowski (28 for Borussia Dortmund), Mandzukic (26), Muller (25), Robben (20), Ribery (16), Gotze (15) and Claudio Pizarro (11).
During their stay in Portland, the Sporting KC quartet are scheduled to make various community appearances in conjunction with the All-Star festivities. On Monday, Besler participated in a pre-game press conference alongside Dempsey and Thierry Henry. Click here for video and photos from that event, as well as other day one updates, and follow @SportingKC on Twitter for all the latest.
