Among the galaxy of stars assembled at the 2008 Pepsi MLS All-Star Game, they are the two that shine brightest. And on Wednesday afternoon David Beckham and Cuauhtémoc Blanco shared a dais, along with New England coach Steve Nicol, to discuss Thursday's game against West Ham United.
Beckham and Blanco are the two highest-profile designated players and will each get their first taste of the MLS All-Star Game experience.
For Beckham, who will get to play in front of the Toronto fans for the first time, it's a chance to face a team he's very familiar with.
"It's great, being an East End boy playing against West Ham so many times with Manchester United and also scoring against West Ham, which didn't go down well with a few friends," he said. "But it's always nice to play against a quality team. They're a team that have got some good players and they're working towards the start of the Premiership. It'll be a tough game -- you always look forward to that."
Beckham, though, doesn't think he'll need to impart any wisdom about West Ham to his MLS teammates.
"All of the players here are experienced enough," he said. "They're good enough players to realize it's not going to be a walk in the park. It's going to be a tough game and one, as an East End boy, I'm looking forward to."
Like the other MLS players, Beckham isn't using this trip to Toronto as a vacation, although he would have liked to have got a chance to see tennis stars like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick play in the Rogers Cup in Toronto.
"I'm relaxing. We've got a big game tomorrow, so we're taking it seriously," Beckham said. "We're preparing for the game, obviously there's other [MLS promotional] events going on which we have to participate in. It would've been nice to go down there and see Federer play, but we've got a game."
As was the case in New York last week, Beckham was asked about his thoughts on the league since he arrived in the middle of last season and what he likes most about MLS.
"I think I've enjoyed most traveling about America and playing against the different teams," he said. "It's an eye-opener some places that we go since the traveling and things like that are tough to get used to if you've played in Europe for quite a few years. But the whole experience I'm enjoying it, and I'm learning about different players and different teams in the league. It's been a good, positive experience."
He was also asked about a possible acting career, joining pals Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and Will Smith.
"Oddly enough I've been asked that quite a few times since I've moved to L.A.," he said. "But no, I'm not into [that]. I love watching movies but taking part in them is definitely ... I'll leave it to friends I know and that people that can actually do it well. So definitely not."
For at least a few days, Blanco and Landon Donovan have put their differences aside and share a common goal -- of beating West Ham.
"We're good friends right now," Blanco said. "When we're playing with the national team, when he's with the U.S. and I'm with Mexico, we're obviously rivals, but now we're talking, said hello and hope to win."
Nicol had all but two players at the final training session before Thursday's match, and those two players -- Pat Onstad and Dwayne De Rosario -- will compete for Houston against D.C. United tonight at RFK Stadium.
"They'll certainly be coming here," Nicol said. "They're probably not going to get here until [Thursday] mid-afternoon, and clearly they'll have played 90 minutes the night before which is tough on everybody. But I guess we'll have to wait and see the condition they're in and how their head is. But we'll certainly try to get them on the field."
And Nicol said his goal for tomorrow is the same as every game he coaches.
"Our focus is to do well," he said. "I've told the players already and I'll try to get everyone on the field and in an ideal world, we'd be comfortable and we can just get people on. I guess I'll just have to work it out at the time and see how the game goes. I'm certainly not going to say I'm going to do this and do that and then depending on how the game is going change my mind. I don't want to do that to the players."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
