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MetroStars to have five All-Star Game starters

By Jose Alfredo Flores
USA TODAY

Major League Soccer's best team in the East will be well-represented July 29 in the league's fifth All-Star Game.

New York/New Jersey MetroStars forward Adolfo Valencia, midfielders Clint Mathis and Mark Chung, defender Lothar Matthaeus and goalkeeper Mike Ammann will start for the East. Matthaeus is recovering from a lower back injury and might not be ready to play.

D.C. United, despite having the league's worst record, will send forward Jaime Moreno, midfielder Marco Etcheverry and defenders Eddie Pope and Jeff Agoos.

Joining the nine players from D.C. United and New York/New Jersey as East starters for the game in Columbus, Ohio, will be Tampa Bay midfielders Steve Ralston and Carlos Valderrama, who received the most votes (65,681).

Los Angeles, in third place in the league, will be represented by forward Cobi Jones, midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos and defenders Robin Fraser and Greg Vanney.

Joining them on the West: forward Ante Razov (Chicago); midfielders Preki (Kansas City), Khodadad Azizi (San Jose), Chris Armas and Peter Nowak (Chicago); defender Marcelo Balboa (Colorado); and goalkeeper Tony Meola (Kansas City).

Valderrama, Cienfuegos, Jones, Etcheverry, Preki and Agoos will be playing in their fifth All-Star Game.

East coach Octavio Zambrano (MetroStars) and West coach Bob Gansler (Kansas City) will select the reserves for the 20-man rosters by Monday.

For the third year in a row MLS fans decided the All-Star Game starters, with 117,097 ballots cast.

Weekend action: Last year all four teams in the MLS Central Division made the playoffs.

The same would be true this year, if the season ended today. Top seed Tampa Bay leads second-place Chicago by one point and last-place Columbus by only four points.

Three of the Central teams play this weekend: Chicago travels to Colorado on Friday; Los Angeles visits Tampa Bay on Saturday(8 p.m. ET, ESPN) and Columbus visits slumping Kansas City on Saturday (8:30 p.m. ET).

Also playing Saturday: New England at San Jose and Miami at red-hot New York/New Jersey(4:30 p.m. ET, Telemundo).

D.C. United will host an exhibition Saturday against the Magpies of England's Newcastle United.