Why It's OK For Wayne Rooney To Learn "Absolutely Nothing" From MLS All-Star Game
0 takeaways from Major League Soccer's mid-season exhibition game against Arsenal.
INT. POST MATCH PRESS CONFERENCE WITH 2023 MLS ALL-STAR HEAD COACH WAYNE ROONEY - NIGHTQUESTION
What do you take out of this game personally as a coach, honing your craft as a young coach, what do you take out of it?
WAYNE ROONEY
Absolutely nothing.
[Laughter]
Make no mistake, Wayne Rooney takes American soccer seriously.
Ever since he signed for DC United from Everton as a Designated Player in 2018 right through to his current role as the club’s head coach, Rooney has treated Major League Soccer with respect.
As he turns up to media events, matchdays, and carries out his day-to-day coaching—jovially but also seriously (but not in a Frank Lampard way), sometimes open, humorous, sometimes defensive—it can be easy to forget that this Scouser proudly wearing a DC United baseball cap is one of England and Manchester United’s greatest-ever players.
Some star names arriving in MLS from Europe have not had the same impact or presence as Rooney.
Surprised by the amount of travel, the competitive and battling nature of the league, and maybe the artificial pitches, a number of players have arrived as stars and left as damp squibs.
That’s not to say that, amid all this respect, Rooney has not criticised certain elements of the league.
Anyone invested in MLS and American soccer should highlight the league’s flaws and suggest where it can improve.
This is something Rooney has not been afraid to do. This interview with The Athletic’s Pablo Maurer where he spoke about the new playoff format and promotion and relegation being one example.
So when Rooney comes out and says the MLS All-Star game, in which his team of MLS players were defeated 5-0 by Arsenal, means nothing to him as a coach, it’s not just a joke for the benefit of the gathered media, he means it.
He also voiced some concerns around the game including the standard of refereeing, poor preparation, and the fact members of his staff were kicked out of their usual seats by members of Apple, whose Apple TV has broadcast to MLS and the All-Star game.
"On Tuesday, as I suggested, I didn't want them training at the National Mall but that's where we trained and we can't do anything,” added Rooney.
"We were limited to do head tennis so literally had no time whatsoever to do any tactics whatsoever, so you put the players out there and you hope they can figure things out, and against a team like Arsenal that's very difficult to do.”
What does the MLS All-Star game mean to anyone?
It’s a fun event, a chance for fans to see something different and a rare chance for a usually scattered, dispersed media to congregate and discuss the state of soccer.
This being MLS, marketing is at the forefront of everything it does, and the All-Star game is another chance to do some of that (though having it at a time, 1:30am, when Arsenal fans in the UK will unlikely be watching is questionable).
It’s a chance to see some of the quirks of American soccer that give it its character:
Goalkeeper wars.
The Skills Challenge (capitalised of course).
A defender from Media, Pennsylvania who used to play for Philadelphia Union and Colorado Rapids winning a crossbar challenge for Arsenal.
In a soccer sense, it is difficult to learn anything from this game.
Some might use a 5-0 defeat for the MLS team at the hands of a side barely in its pre-season preparations to say the league hasn’t progressed, but Arsenal would have more togetherness than this ragtag group of MLS players assembled within weeks.
Rooney’s frankness was welcome and refreshing, as has been his presence in American soccer generally.
ends
Bric-A-Brac
My latest article for the Morning Star is on the importance of blanket coverage of the Women’s World Cup, and how it very nearly wasn’t shown on TV at all.
I wrote about what Lionel Messi’s move to Inter Miami means for MLS and, more importantly, American soccer as a whole. MLS ≠ American soccer.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65877494
Fugazi is/was are/were a band from Washington, D.C., where the 2023 MLS All-Star game was held, and don’t have anything in common with MLS. This is one of their instrumental songs.