This past July, all the major professional baseball leagues had star games, such as Major League Baseball, Nippon Professional Baseball and even the Chinese Professional Baseball held star games after a three-year absence. And just this past Wednesday, the U.S.
national soccer team
Major League Soccer (MLS) also hosts their annual Star Game. The Blue Cannonballs are here to introduce the students to what the MLS Star Game has to offer.
Major League Soccer's first All-Star Game was held at Giants Stadium in the summer of 1996. They started out based on a similar
The East and West modes of the game feature players handpicked by coaches to play in the Star Game. In an effort to gain more attention, early leagues have been trying out different formats for the Star Game, such as the League Select Team vs. the United States
the national team
Or international pick 'em teams, etc. Only in 2005 was it established that European teams would be invited as opponents to challenge the league's most popular players to form selection teams.
The MLS All-Stars won their first six games from 2005 until 2009, when they lost on penalties to
England Premier Soccer League
Team Everton. Perhaps because of the connection to the other side of the Atlantic, most of the European teams invited were
England Premier Soccer League
Teams. The main reason why the USL will choose to invite European teams is that the European league is to take the season across the year, and the star week of the USL is exactly the European league's off-season, which allows European teams to practice as an opportunity to come to the continental United States to participate in this event. However, in 2020, the MLB All-Star Game will no longer invite European teams, but will cooperate with the Mexican Premier League to select star teams from the two leagues to play against each other.
The MLB's All-Star team roster is chosen through fan voting and coach nominations. Some exceptions have been made, such as England legends Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in 2015, who were selected to play in the All-Star Game despite not playing in the USL. There is also the fact that if a player selected for the All-Star Game refuses to participate in the Star Game, he will be suspended for one league game.
In the last decade of the Star Game, we can see many familiar soccer superstars who have represented the USL All-Star team, such as legendary French striker Henri
David Beckham (1975-), British midfield footballer
Gerrard, Lampard.
Ibu
and David Villa to name a few (there are too many to mention).
We all know that the four major sports leagues in North America have a long history of popularity, in addition to the league's level of competition and business planning have a mature operation and results, the most important thing is that they know how to do a lot of special and gimmicky activities to attract viewers, and the All-Star Week is a good marketing to attract fans and money. According to the model of the mature star week, such as
Three days in a row are filled with a variety of activities and special events, with Saturday's Tech Challenge being one of those programs that every basketball fan looks forward to.
The Tech Challenge has a three-point contest, a dunk contest, and a Tech Challenge all of which inject a certain amount of excitement into Sunday's star-studded game year after year.
However, the MLB, which has always been "out of the box", has also played the "Technical Challenge". However, due to the poor ratings, their special programs did not continue. Luckily, in 2019, they finally put together a series of "unique" challenges with content and excitement.
The so-called Tech Challenge can help you to compete in a specific technique, such as
of three-point games and dunking contests, among others. They have introduced five Special Technical Challenges that both leagues will send designated players to face off in a five-set, three-way tiebreaker to determine victory. The five special technical challenges are:
1. Shooting Challenge
2. Touch Challenge
3. Cross & Volley Challenge
4. Passing Challenge
5. Crossbar Challenge
After Day 1 of the Challenge, the main event of Day 2 was the USL (MLS) All-Stars taking on the LIGA MX (Mexican Premier League) All-Stars. It was quite a program for two days, so let's take a look at what's in store for the 2022 USL All Stars, which just recently passed.
The 2022 USL All-Star Game is the twenty-sixth edition of the All-Star Game and the second time it will be played against the Mexican Premier League All-Star Team. The two-day program included technical challenges, concerts and other events, as well as All-Star team matchups. This time the Stars game was scheduled at Allianz Stadium in Minnesota, USA.
