MLS All-Stars suffer 4-1 defeat to Liga MX’s best

For the first time in three tries, Liga MX’s best players beat their counterparts from Major League Soccer at the MLS All-Star game, with a selection Mexico’s top league winning the 2024 event 4-1 on Wednesday at Lower dot com Field in Columbus, Ohio.

Monterrey striker Germán Berterame opened the scoring a quarter-hour in, a strike that was canceled out moments later by hometown hero Cucho Hernandez, the Columbus Crew’s Colombian star. Pachuca standout Oussama Idrissi put Liga MX up for good when he scored the game-winner shortly before halftime. The visitors padded their lead with two more goals seconds apart a little more than 20 minutes before full-time.

Wednesday’s contest marked the third time since 2021 that the All-Star game pitted the neighboring leagues in the MLS’s midsummer classic. MLS’s best beat Liga MX 2-1 in 2022 and won on penalties following a 1-1 tie the year before. English Premier League power Arsenal crushed the MLS All-Stars 5-0 last year.

Here are a few quick takeaways from the 29th MLS All-Star game.

Play of the game

Cucho’s goal was as well-worked as it was timely. Former Barcelona and Spanish national team mainstay Sergio Busquets showed off his pedigree with a seeing-eye feed to Diego Rossi on the wing, the weight of which allowed the Uruguayan to make a first-time pass to his streaking Crew teammate. With LIGA MX keeper Luis Malagón at his mercy, Hernandez coolly slotted the ball home — much to the delight of the yellow-clad home fans:

Turning point

Both coaches made wholesale substitutions as the contest went on. One of MLS boss’ Wilfried Nancy’s nearly produced another equalizer when the score was 2-1, but the shot by the LA Galaxy’s Riqui Puig couldn’t beat the far post:

Key stat

MLS now has a record of 11 wins and 10 losses since the All-Stars-versus-guest-team format first debuted all the way back in 2002. In addition to its two recent triumphs over Liga MX, MLS has also beaten European powers Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea (twice).

What’s next for Liga MX?

For the second consecutive season, Mexico will shutter its top domestic league and send its teams into the U.S. and Canada for the Leagues Cup, the 47-team tournament that includes every Liga MX and MLS club. In an all-American final in the inaugural event last year, Lionel Messi led Inter Miami past Nashville SC to hoist the trophy.

Some of the off-field logistics have been improved for the Liga MX reps this summer, and the Mexican squads will surely expect better results on the pitch. Because when the playing field is even — as it is during the home-and-home Concacaf Champions Cup series earlier in the year — Liga MX has proven that it is still North America’s standard-bearer, at least for now.

What’s next for MLS?

The 2023 Leagues Cup was an instant hit for MLS, and not just because of Messi & Co.’s storybook journey to the trophy. With games almost every night during the group stage of the month-long, World Cup-style competition — many of them of the fascinating intra-league variety — the still-novel tourney adds some welcome mid-summer spice during what used to be the dog days of the marathon regular season. With its stadiums filled with potential new supporters and its teams in peak form, MLS has another immediate opportunity to show that it can consistently beat Mexico’s best.

Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports who has covered the United States men’s and women’s national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him at @ByDougMcIntyre.

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