The 2019 Major League Soccer All-Star Game was the 24th edition of the annual Major League Soccer All-Star Game. It was held on July 31 at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Florida, against Spanish club Atlético Madrid. Atlético won the game 3–0.
The game was televised domestically on FS1 and UniMás in the US, on TSN and TVA Sports in Canada and in more than 170 other countries around the world.
Pre-match
In September 2018, MLS announced that Orlando would host the All-Star Game "in recognition of Orlando City Soccer Club’s emergence as a preeminent organization, Orlando City Stadium’s stature as one of North America’s elite soccer venues, and the overwhelming support of soccer fans in the community." Atlético Madrid was confirmed as the match's opponents in May 2019. Atlético was the 13th different European side to feature in the event and the second from La Liga following city rivals Real Madrid's 2017 match-up in Chicago.
MLS All-Star Week was a five-day program of entertainment and fan experiences. On June 13, it was announced multi-platinum Latin pop singer Prince Royce would headline the 2019 edition of the MLS All-Star Concert which also featured A-Trak. The concert was free to attend for the public and was held on July 27 at Wall Street Plaza. On July 28, there was an eMLS All-Star Challenge where professional eMLS gamers paired up with the likes Landon Donovan and Diego Forlán to play FIFA. The tournament was won by Orlando City's FIFA Abe and guest player AnthFifa who won a 64-player amateur competition earlier in the day.
As is tradition, Orlando also hosted the Homegrown Game that runs parallel to the All-Star Game. The game saw a selection of the best young Homegrown Players in MLS play Mexican youth team Chivas U-20s. The Homegrowns won the match on penalties after the game finished in a 2–2 draw.
Following the Homegrown game, MLS debuted a new skills challenge event, pitting three teams composed of All-Stars (Wayne Rooney, Jonathan dos Santos and Carlos Vela), Atlético Madrid players (Koke, Héctor Herrera and João Félix) as well as players from host side Orlando City SC (Nani, Sebas Méndez and Chris Mueller) against each other in a series of games created by F2Freestylers to test creativity, control and accuracy. Both events were held on July 30 at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, the same venue as the NFL's similarly-themed Skills Showdown during the Pro Bowl. Orlando City won after Nani hit the crossbar with the last kick of the competition, winning $25,000 for the Orlando City Foundation.
Match rules Unlimited substitutions Penalty shoot-out if tied through full-time; no extra time
Squads MLS All-Stars
Manager: James O'Connor (Orlando City SC)
Atlético Madrid
Manager: Diego Simeone
Match
GK 1 Brad Guzan DF 28 Graham Zusi DF 25 Walker Zimmerman DF 24 Matt Hedges DF 92 Kemar Lawrence MF 21 Diego Chará MF 10 Carlos Vela (c) MF 20 Alejandro Pozuelo MF 23 Wayne Rooney MF 17 Nani FW 9 Zlatan Ibrahimović Substitutes:GK 18 Nick Rimando GK 26 Andre Blake DF 19 Romain Métanire DF 5 Leandro González Pírez MF 31 Bastian Schweinsteiger MF 11 Maximiliano Moralez MF 8 Jonathan dos Santos MF 14 Nicolás Lodeiro MF 22 Gonzalo Martínez MF 12 Paxton Pomykal MF 15 Mark-Anthony Kaye MF 27 Ezequiel Barco FW 13 Chris Wondolowski FW 7 Josef Martínez FW 16 Diego Rossi Manager: James O'Connor GK 1 Antonio Adán (c) DF 33 Carlos Isaac DF 18 Felipe DF 22 Mario Hermoso DF 35 Manu Sánchez MF 36 Juan Manuel Sanabria MF 14 Marcos Llorente MF 16 Héctor Herrera MF 20 Vitolo FW 10 Ángel Correa FW 32 Rodrigo Riquelme Substitutes:GK 13 Jan Oblak GK 37 Álex dos SantosDF 15 Stefan Savić DF 23 Kieran Trippier DF 12 Renan Lodi DF 30 Javi Montero MF 6 Koke MF 8 Saúl MF 11 Thomas Lemar MF 38 Toni Moya FW 19 Diego Costa FW 17 Ivan Šaponjić FW 34 Sergio Camello FW 7 João Félix Manager: Diego Simeone
Most valuable player: Marcos Llorente (Atlético Madrid)
Assistant referees: Brian Dunn Logan Brown Fourth official: Timothy Ford Video assistant referee: Edvin JurisevicMatch rules 90 minutes. Unlimited substitutions. No extra time. Penalty shoot-out if scores still level.
References