The Weekender: Living up to the All-Star name
Don Draper, Big Boi, Álvaro Saborío are looking good this week
Smash Mouth certainly weren’t the best band of the 1990s, but they knew how to write the perfectly ubiquitous pop song.
That cursed theme—“All Star,” which led to triple-platinum sales in 1999 for a band now playing suburban street festivals—is sadly burned into The Weekender’s brain after a week’s worth of MLS All-Star talk of who got snubbed and who got spoiled. And we want it out—fast.
But until we can get our real, on-the-field All-Star fix at next Wednesday’s game against Manchester United in Houston (ESPN2, Telefutura, 8:30 p.m. ET), we’ll spend the weekend watching the ones who made the cut, the ones who got left behind and the ones we’ve been missing since they were gone.
Real Salt Lake vs. Chivas USA (Saturday, 10 p.m. ET, MLS Direct Kick, Matchday Live)
It’s tough to criticize MLS All-Star coach Bruce Arena for not simply littering his side with players from Real Salt Lake. His A-list squad already features Javier Morales, Nick Rimando and Jamison Olave (stop salivating; he can’t play for the US National Team—yet), and would have featured Kyle Beckerman if he were healthy. So to leave super striker Alvaro Saborio out is hardly a crime, even though his seven goals are tops for an MLS newcomer this season. Still, Saborío is often always the man to watch in RSL matches, and here the champs look to snap a (gasp!) losing streak against Chivas USA.
New York Red Bulls vs. Manchester City (Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel)
Would anyone really have revolted if MLS had greased the wheels for Thierry Henry to get to Houston? Mais oui! As badly as some fans wanted to see their prized French import don the MLS crest against Manchester United, they knew it wasn’t really deserved, and the move would have soured the season for at least one MLSer left off the roster. Instead fans can catch the nationally televised final match of the Barclays New York Challenge. Henry scored in his 45-minute debut on Thursday against Tottenham. Will he do it again?
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Seattle Sounders FC vs. Colorado Rapids (Sunday, 11 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel)
The CONCACAF scheduling gods left the Sounders out in the cold for All-Star festivities, thanks to a CONCACAF Champions League match against Salvadoran side Isidro Metapán the same night. There’s no such respite for Conor Casey, whose run of tough luck continues after he was snubbed for Bob Bradley’s US roster in South Africa. Casey has found his form of late, now sitting on seven goals for a Rapids team facing a tumultuous Sounders side somehow still winless against the Western Conference this year. Another former All-Star—Seattle DP Freddie Ljungberg—will sit this one out.
Listen Up: Big Boi, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
Wonderfully ridiculous title aside, the former anchor of Outkast is turning heads with his long-awaited solo album, released earlier this month. He teamed with André Benjamin to set the bar for what an All-Star MC duo can actually do to reach the suburban masses, but this album won’t fly off the shelves with a similar flurry. Still, “Shutterbug”—which pays homage to Soul II Soul and practically echoes a robotic Afrikaa Bambaataa—is one of the definitive songs of the summer, making the album a must.
We’re Watching: Mad Men (AMC, 10 p.m. ET)
The stars of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce are back for a fourth season in one of the most highly anticipated returns in recent television memory. There’s no mystery to the appeal here: Mad Men has become a cultural phenomenon in recent years, but it also endured its fair share of criticism in Season 3. The question remains whether creator Matthew Weiner and his crew can keep viewers interested after stirring things up last year, robbing Don Draper (Jon Hamm) of his bravado with a wrecked marriage and an ad agency practically in ruins. Who needs a cigarette?
In Theaters: Salt
Angelina Jolie’s rep as an action hero is surprisingly for real: She’s been at the game nearly a decade since she first broke the joysticks of video gamers worldwide in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. She’s back in All-Star CIA spy mode this time around, teaming with Patriot Games director Phillip Noyce to give audiences a James Bond-like vamp accused of being a Russian spy. The reviews are solid for Jolie, who once again flexes her muscle as Hollywood’s leading heroine by seizing a script originally written for Tom Cruise.
