Voting for the 2012 MLS All-Star game gets underway tomorrow.
114 players have been nominated to be on the voting ballot by a panel of media members from across North America. Each of the 19 MLS clubs have six players nominated and the Vancouver Whitecaps on the ballot are: Joe Cannon, Davide Chiumiento, Jay DeMerit, Young-Pyo Lee, Sebastien Le Toux, Camilo Sanvezzo.
Thinking of voting? I implore you, either don't or use your brain and not your heart.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
The 2012 game will take place on Wednesday July 25th in Philadelphia and comes near the end of a killer month for the Caps.
July will see Vancouver play seven matches in 24 days, five of them are away from home, including a very difficult and tiring four games on the road to kick the month off.
The Caps will be playing two vital Western Conference games around the All-Star match.
San Jose will be at BC Place in a crunch match the Sunday before the game and then the Caps travel to Salt Lake in another key game to our playoff hopes just two days after the All-Star farce.
Across the world, players and manager bemoan that they play in too many games and that they are tired. Martin Rennie did that after last month's spell with Voyageurs Cup games.
Why do MLS want to add another game to their top players, especially when many of them will also be about to have extra games in the CONCACAF Champions League?
As much as it would be nice to see some of our guys get recognition for their efforts, ballots like this don’t even do that. It's just a popularity contest and the big names get the nods, which at least works in the Caps favour.
I would much rather our players performed out of their shirts for the remainder of the season and get their recognition when they hoist some silverware at the end of it all.
My biggest concern is that Koreans everywhere will be voting for YP Lee, just because of who he is. He was one of the guys looking tired in May's busy spell.
To those Koreans, and to every Caps fan, I say save your votes for the good of the team.
If you feel you must vote, then vote for the six Real Salt Lake guys. They’ll be our opponents just two days later.
Kyle Beckerman, Nat Borchers, Fabian Espindola, Jamison Olave, Nick Rimando and Alvaro Saborio are the guys that should be getting your votes.
Make them travel from the west to the east and then back to the west in a short space of time and not our players. They're already getting an extra day to recover between games, as they play on the Saturday and not the Sunday like us.
Let's hope the Whitecaps themselves use their brains and don't promote the voting too much.
Vancouver will undoubtedly be given the All Star game in the next year or so. The completed BC Place will clearly be heralded as the ideal showcase for MLS' annual waste of time at some point soon.
I guess the year we do host it, I’ll have to at least give the game a passing interest, but until then I just can’t.
What is the point of the All Star game?
To raise the profile of the league in North America and beyond? Does anyone really care that doesn’t already know about the MLS or that are fans of the team picked for the opposition (in this case, Chelsea)?
Surely the aim should be to recognise players who have had an exceptional SEASON? Not just four months.
I could buy into this more if they did it at the end of the year like the NFL do with the Pro Bowl. To have it just past the midway stage seems completely pointless when all the real all-stars in MLS will come into play in the latter stages of the season.
July is way to early to judge who have been the League’s all-stars. Of course they would struggle to get any decent opposition in December and even less interest and $$$.
Is MLS really that desperate for acceptance into the mainstream American sporting fraternity that it has to go for this All-Star bullshit? Is this the only way that officials feel that their sporting brethren will accept them as "major league"?
From reading various fan forums these last few years, few seem to want the all-star game or have any interest in it. It detracts from the schedule and kills the buzz and momentum when the season is in full flow.
The game is a waste of time, money and resources. All of which would be better spent improving MLS. It's our annual rant.
Since we're stuck with it for now, it's important that we at least play in our part in making sure that the Whitecaps benefit from the game to the max.
So say no to our six Caps and #VoteRSL.
<p>