Popular Science: The MLA also has an All-Star Game! Copying the NBA model Messi missed this year
On July 19, Beijing time, the MLS held an All-Star Skills Challenge, and Arsenal finally defeated the MSL All-Star Team. Yes, you heard it right, like the NBA we are familiar with, MSL has an All-Star Game, but unfortunately, Messi will not participate this year.
MLS All-Star Game
The current MLA was founded in 1996, and the All-Star Game was born that year. This also shows that the so-called "Major League Soccer" is following the example of the NBA and other four major professional leagues in the United States, which is essentially a show and an entertainment project, so there will also be East and West divisions, playoffs, no relegation and other formats, and even single-knife penalties that have been canceled, and so on.
In the initial stage of the All-Star Game, like the NBA, it used the East-West Confrontation Game, and then changed to local players vs foreign aid team. Since 2005, the MLS has invited European clubs to participate, Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Bayern, Juve, Tottenham, Atletico and other giants have come to participate in the All-Star Game, and Arsenal has been invited for the second time, the first time in 2016.
At 8:30 a.m. Beijing time on July 20, this year's All-Star Game will begin, with Arsenal playing against the MLS All-Star Team. Today, the Skills Challenge takes the lead in the "mat field".
Skill Challenge
NBA All-Star Weekend, there are rookie games, skill challenges, three-point contests and dunk contests, before the All-Star Game of the MLA, there is only the skill challenge, which began in 2018 and has developed to include 5 projects.
The first is the shooting challenge, where a player stands on the penalty spot, a teammate knocks sideways, another teammate steps on, and then he shoots himself to see which disc on the goal can hit, and the corresponding score can be obtained.
As a result, Arsenal new signing Timber scored 50 points, Balogon scored 22 points, and Kiviol scored 49 points to defeat the All-Star 121-88.
The second touch challenge, which is to receive a pass from a teammate, sends the ball into the hole on the high platform without the ball hitting the ground, there are four holes, each hole corresponds to a different score.
Kai Havertz scored 86 points, Marquinhos 53 and Arsenal won 139-115.
The third is the volley challenge, where a teammate passes the ball and the player completes a volley. As a result, Kai Havertz missed any of his 14 shots, and Arsenal scored 25 points from Balogon to lose by 100 points.
The fourth was the passing challenge, in which each team sent three players to pass the ball over the obstacle to the corresponding position, and Jorginho and Kiviol helped Arsenal win.
The fifth is the crossbar challenge, which, as the name suggests, is like a penalty, but not to whom to score, but to whom it hits. In the end, Trasti scored the final goal and Arsenal narrowly won 6-5.
It is worth mentioning that among the MLS All-Stars who participated in the Skills Challenge, there are some fans who are very familiar with their names, such as Belgium international Turk, former Barça rising star Puget, and Argentina international Almeida.