Thoughts On The ManU - MLS All-Star Game

I think many US soccer fans felt the MLS All-Stars had something to prove during Wednesday night's match up. While the match was technically an All-Star game and didn't even involve either team's best players, it would have done wonders for US soccer to prove that they're capable of competing with the best the Premier League has to offer.
I felt the All-Stars had a chance until I looked at three things:
1) Came to the realization that they're just that, a bunch of All-Stars. They aren't used to playing together and it showed, particularly in the first half. Their passes weren't crisp, there was very little creativity, and an overall lack of chemistry and ball control from the All-Stars. Things started to come together in the second half, but by then, they had already dug themselves into a hole too deep to climb out of.
2) Manchester United has lost their last match up of their North American Tour against the Kansas City Wizards of the MLS. The Wizards are currently 4-8-4 in MLS play and would fail to qualify for the playoffs if the season ended today. You knew ManU wasn't going out like that. What better way to prove they're a superior team than to crush the best the MLS has to offer.
3) Alexi Lalas picked the All-Stars to win during the pre-game show. If you watched any of the US World Cup games, you know that Lalas was the biggest homer on the show, and picked the US to win every game. After seeing his pick, I figured the MLS would be overmatched.
By the way, Lalas was less impressive today than he had been through out the World Cup. I don't know if he purposely tuned it down, or he didn't have the patriotic fervor flowing through him, but he provided no comedy whatsoever this time around.
I was hoping to take this game to do a little scouting for the upcoming EPL season. I've never watched the EPL before so I'm completely working from scratch. It will be frustrating at first to become familiar with players, and I'm still not sure how transfers work, but I'll figure it out. Unfortunately, many of these players Manchester United featured won't be major players this upcoming season.
Federico Macheda, who appeared in five games for ManU last season, scored ManU's first two goals in the first 13 minutes. Giving up goals in the first fifteen minutes is approaching national crisis level. The epidemic has even spread to the lowly MLS. Anyway, the fact that a little used reserve can come in and light up the All-Stars proves how deep ManU is, I think, even moreso than the lack of quality in the MLS.

Also speaking to ManU's depth, it was cool to see Javier Hernandez enter the game and score in the second half for his new team. The reception he got was incredible, the second biggest behind Landon Donovan's. I loved watching Hernandez in this year's World Cup, and if he can consistently display the same skill it took for him to score his goal in today's game, he'll be fun to watch for a long time in the EPL.
Last thought is on Landon Donovan and his impending move to some club overseas. Regardless of the money involved, I think he should do it. Donovan is important to the MLS, the most important player to the MLS in fact. But he would do more for US soccer overseas. The only way MLS will truly be recognized as a legitimate league is if its players can come overseas and dominate there. MLS is currently filled with either washed up overseas players and players who aren't capable of playing overseas. It isn't until elite players in MLS can prove they belong overseas that MLS will be recognized for their talent. Unfortunately, we can't stash our talent, we have to give it away eventually.
So what did I take away from this game? Not much. I learned that a team that is familiar with each other will play better even if they don't have as much talent on the field (that point is debatable, though). Nani was the most impressive player on the pitch, and soccer isn't quite the same when nationalism isn't a huge factor. I also hate ManU a little bit more than I did Wednesday morning.