It just sort of happened that Scotsman Steve Nicol, boss of the England Revolution, will lead the MLS All-Stars against famed Scottish club Celtic FC on Thursday night in the 2007 Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game. And it just sort of happens that Nicol is a lifelong supporter of a different Glasgow club, Celtic's bitter cross-town rivals Rangers FC.
Needless to say, Nicol is eagerly anticipating the encounter.
"Obviously being Scottish, (coaching the MLS All-Stars) is fantastic," he said Tuesday after the team's first training session, which was more like a warmup and kick-around. "Being a Rangers supporter, obviously I want to beat Celtic."
So it is between the fans of the two storied clubs. For the MLS All-Stars, Nicol's personal drive just provides the team with the tiniest bit more of incentive to earn a victory and keep up the league's tradition of defeating foreign clubs in the midsummer classic. In three previous tries, the MLS All-Stars have earned three wins.
Though Tuesday's training session on one of the training fields at Dick's Sporting Goods Park was mostly just for the players to get the travel out of their legs, it mattered little to Nicol, who has already decided on a starting 11 for the game.
"The team will be (Matt) Reis in goal, a back three of (Jimmy) Conrad, (Michael) Parkhurst and (Jonathan) Bornstein. (Juan) Toja will start on the left, Ronnie O'Brien will start on the right. The three in the middle will be Shalrie Joseph, Ricardo Clark and (Dwayne) De Rosario and up front will be Eddie Johnson and Juan Pablo Angel. So that's a strong team and a team I think we will do well."
And there it is: the 11 players that will get the first crack at the reigning Scottish Premier League champions, who are in the States on a preseason training trip and just getting started preparing for the 2007-2008 campaign.
But Celtic are not strangers to these trips, and after a rude awakening last year in which they were handled rather easily by D.C. United and played to a draw with Nicol's own Revs, Gordon Strachan is likely preparing his side as if there's more on the line than just gaining match fitness.
"I think they were a bit surprised last year when they came over to play D.C., they played (the Revolution) and I think we took them aback with the quality of play," Nicol said.
"We do the same thing when we have preseason. We say 'oh, well, you know, it's preseason,' but I can assure you, when the game starts, everyone wants to win the game. There's no doubt about that. Both teams will be trying to win the game."
But which team actually has the advantage is a trickier question than it may seem. On the one hand, the MLS All-Stars are in midseason form, have match fitness and are mostly accustomed to playing in the heat that has enveloped much of the western United States this summer. But they are also a team that isn't really a team; they're a collection of talented players that have never once suited up alongside each other in a real match.
Celtic, meanwhile, is a solid club and most of the players who carried the side into the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League last season are still around. But they've also just begun working out again in earnest and won't have the kind of sharpness that comes with playing meaningful games week in and week out.
"When you get a bunch of all-stars together, you generally end up with two things. One, sometimes it becomes everybody is trying to show what they can do, but the other one is that they're all trying to show respect and show that togetherness and I think that's what we've got this time," Nicol said. "Clearly, the last (All-Star) game against Chelsea that's what it was and I think that's exactly what you'll get this time: a bunch of guys who respect each other's ability and want to play with each other and play well."
When it comes down to it, there's plenty on the line Thursday. There's a hint of Rangers vs. Celtic, there's a bit of bragging rights and perhaps most importantly, there's an opportunity for Major League Soccer to show the world that its players can compete on the international stage.
"You don't learn by playing in a wee bubble amongst everybody all the time. You have to kind of get out or get people in and that's what MLS is trying to do," Nicol said. "This is just a great example of bringing in a world-renowned team to show what we have and again, I expect us to do well."
Jonathan Nierman is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
