Celtic FC manager Gordan Strachan equates Thursday's match with the MLS All-Stars to competing in the European Champions League. Ultimately, Strachan says, they both take a back seat to pursuing Celtic's 42nd national title.
Strachan has been as vocal as anyone in stressing the importance of this match, the respect he has for the MLS players, and the seriousness with which his squad will play. But at the end of the day, he admits to reminding his players of what their top priority remains.
"To be honest with you, we played [D.C. United] last year and we got beat 4-0," Strachan said, explaining the way any loss is treated within his club's extended community. "Being Celtic, that meant in the first week of July we were in crisis.
"So I spoke to the players last year, and I said, 'forget it,'" Strachan continued. "'Our job is to win the league.'"
It might sound like side-stepping, and for a competitive squad like Celtic FC, no loss sits easy. But Strachan is careful to balance the realities of being a relatively small club from a country of five million with the tremendous expectations built up over more than a century of winning.
As a Scotland international who represented his country on the biggest stage of all, the World Cup, Strachan has no trouble keeping his eyes on the ultimate prize for his club, the Scottish Premier League trophy.
"If you win the league, you're called champions," Strachan said. "It's a fantastic, fantastic feeling to be called champions. That is our ambition this year, to be called champions."
Their season begins at home on Aug. 5 against Kilmarnock, but they'll have an early challenge when they start their qualifying contests for the UEFA Champions League before barely catching their breath from the U.S. tour.
"When we get back I think it's only a game or two before we have to start the qualifying campaign for that," said striker Scott McDonald. "We've got a two-legged playoff to get into the Champions League. That's a massive thing for the club, and very important, financially and for everyone here who wants to play at the highest level. I'm sure the supporters want to see us back in Europe and be successful again."
It's been 40 years since Celtic FC was able to take it to the next step and win a European title, and despite competing at a fraction of the budget of many of the powerhouse clubs, the passion of Celtic's supporters, not to mention their players, demands a hearty pursuit of that elusive conquest.
"If we do well in Europe, that's fine," Strachan said. "But it's very hard for us to keep up with the top teams in Europe with the finances they have. $20 million is now commonplace on the top sides. $4 million is our maximum. But we do believe, if we play well and the players play at the maximum, and we can improve them as players, then we can do well."
Regardless of their performance against the MLS All-Stars, regardless of their preseason performance or their qualifying results in the Champions League, Strachan's focus will not waver.
"To be honest with you, the priority is to win the league," he summed up.
Balloon ball?: Strachan has found all of the arrangements surrounding the All-Star Game and Dick's Sporting Goods Park first-class. However, after a couple of training sessions, he has found something not to his liking: the adidas ball that will be used on Thursday night.
"The fact is we'll be playing with a ball [Thursday] that's so unpredictable," Strachan said. "It's a light ball. There was a bit of wind last night. It's a bit like playing ping pong outside in the wind, and that's how the ball was moving yesterday. It's a shame, because there's so many thousands of people coming [Thursday]. We'd love to give them a good exhibition of how the game is really played."
The sellout crowd at Dick's Sporting Goods Park should include Rapids season ticket holders and thousands of other soccer enthusiasts who presumably will not be dropping by for their first look at the sport, but to hear Strachan tell it, the result could be a hybrid of soccer, table tennis, and whiffle ball.
"It's a bit like asking Tiger Woods to play with these golf balls you give the kids to practice," he continued, describing the "whiffle" type of ball with holes and slits making for an unpredictable flight pattern. "They move about all over the place. I hope it's not windy [Thursday].
"If you're going to play at altitude, the ball has to be right. That ball was just not right to play in altitude. It's completely different from a normal ball we play. You really need a heavier ball at this altitude, but instead of giving us a heavier ball, you've actually given us the lightest ball that you could possibly use."
The ball is the exact same model used in MLS league matches -- and is also identical to the one used in the FIFA World Cup finals.
Celtic world: Celtic's 25-man travel roster includes 14 Scottish internationals and 12 representatives from other countries, including Poland (two), England, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, the Czech Republic, Australia, New Zealand and Iceland. They also have representatives from Ireland (two) and Japan among players who did not make the trip.
The club has made key acquisitions in recent years, often finding players in countries undistinguished as exporters of footballers.
"Iceland's a small country, and it's hard to get a lot of star players from there," midfielder Teddy Bjarnason said Wednesday. "We've managed to get at least one who plays for Barcelona at the moment, Pete Johnson, and hopefully I'll manage to do as well here."
On the other side of the globe, striker Scott McDonald was raised a Celtic fan by his Scottish parents.
"It's a dream come true to come from so far away and realize your dream," McDonald said. "It's something really special and something I haven't really come to terms with yet. I'm really enjoying it."
McDonald has also seen playing time on the Australian national team, foregoing their current participation in the Asian Cup so that he can focus on competing for a starting role with Celtic FC.
McDonald describes soccer "down under" as very healthy, especially since joining the Asian confederation, noting that matches are routinely played in front of 25,000-30,000 people, and a recent summer match with the Australian national team taking on Uruguay drew 75,000 supporters.
Colorado homecoming: It would be a challenge to find a player any happier to land in Colorado and step onto a soccer field than Celtic defender John Kennedy. The last time he came to Colorado, the circumstances couldn't have been more different.
Kennedy joined Celtic at the age of 16, but at age 20 he faced a career threatening knee injury when playing for the Scottish national team in a friendly against Romania. He came to Colorado for a series of three reconstructive operations in Vail with Dr. J. Richard Steadman of the Steadman Hawkins Clinic.
"It was amazing," Kennedy said of his return in Celtic's title-clinching match with Kilmarnock in April after more than two years of rehab. "Just to get the chance to play football again was great. There was one point where it was maybe not going to happen. It's great to be back and running again and look forward to times ahead."
Kennedy is competing for a starting spot on the back line, and has started two of Celtic's four preseason games, including the most recent against Queens Park Rangers on Sunday.
"I think everyone's pushing for a place in the starting 11," Kennedy said. "We've got a big squad, it's filled with a lot of good quality. It's going to be hard for everyone, but hopefully I'll get a chance at some point in the starting 11 and see what happens from there."
Your face here: Strachan was reluctant to give any clues about the way his starting 11 are shaping up for regular season play, though a look at the regular starters in their first four preseason matches gives an indication of his leanings.
"I don't go that way," Strachan said, declining to reveal his thinking. "I have an image of how the team has to play, how I want them to play, but I don't have faces yet. They put the faces in. I have the style I want to play, the tempo I want to play, and the players put the faces in."
Family reunion: When they take the field Thursday evening, Celtic FC expects to see a good showing of Celtic supporters, known worldwide as one of the more faithful of football enthusiasts. The chance to see fans so far from home makes a challenging U.S. tour all the more appealing.
"It gives the Celtic supporters in America a chance to see us live, because we know we have great support around the world," Strachan said. "Celtic's an unusual club, it's a family club. There's family everywhere around the world, so it's nice to embrace them."
Let's play two: Celtic FC wraps up its brief U.S. tour on Sunday with a match against the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill.
Owen Perkins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
