From the opening kick of Thursday's All-Star Game, when the MLS All-Stars stole the ball from their Celtic FC guests, the momentum was all MLS. An aggressive, attacking Celtic club was put on the defensive immediately, and remained there for most of the first half, falling behind 2-0 in the last 10 minutes of the half and never recovering.
"They started brighter," Celtic manager Gordon Strachan said of the MLS All-Stars. "There was an energy to them. An energy that comes, I would think, with being at home and playing quite a few games so far and being right on top of their game. Everybody was sharp, mentally sharp and competing every game."
The difference in the level of preparation was certainly a key in the game, with Celtic still building up to their season while MLS was pausing midway through theirs. Despite the advantage of playing for years together as teammates, Celtic FC was not able to overcome that intensity gap between a charged up All-Star squad and a Scottish club that had to content themselves with having an excellent preseason challenge on a field the players admitted was "even bigger" than it looks.
"We're not at that stage yet," Strachan said, comparing his team with the midseason form of the All-Stars. "We're still preparing and getting about. The edge they had mentally, and the energy they built up over the season helped. And us not being prepared for that system didn't help. We really didn't know what system they were going to be playing. Once we walked out at halftime it got a lot easier, that's for sure. But they did very well."
As Strachan pointed out, since the MLS squad had only come together for this one game, there was no history to review in terms of preparing for the tactics they'd employ Thursday night.
"You can't take anything away from the MLS team, they were excellent," said Strachan. "We gave them a better game the second half, because we were more organized, and they listened to the coach at halftime. And the players got better."
The shortcomings on the Celtic side were clear to see, and not unusual for a team still in preseason mode. There were occasional sequences when the players didn't seem on the same page, and Strachan attributed some of the gaps to players still trying to get to know each other and work as a unit after a series of offseason roster moves.
But Strachan refrained from making excuses, acknowledging the strong performance of MVP Juan Pablo Angel and conceding that they were outplayed on the field.
"The first goal was a good goal if I remember rightly," Strachan said of Angel's rounding of goalkeeper Artur Boruc before rolling the ball into an empty net. [Dwayne de Rosario] dropped off in a hole, which gave us a problem. Our central midfield player, [newly acquired Italian Massimo Donati], his English is not so great. So the communication was a problem. So he picked the ball up and put the next ball through.
"The other goal was scruffy. But they played very well."
The MLS was able to control the pace early, playing a beautiful passing game and aggressively attacking the goal, outshooting Celtic 9-1 in the first half, and 13-5 on the night.
"I was a little bit lucky tonight," said Boruc, who had six saves on the night. "What can I say. That's my job. They beat us two-nil, so that's the proof of how good they are."
After taking 45 minutes to measure the MLS, Celtic did come out stronger in the second half, matching their hosts with four shots and keeping themselves in the game for the duration.
"In the first half we became a little disjointed and the manager rectified that at halftime and we were far better in the second half," defender Steven Pressley said. "We started the game reasonable. In the first 20 minutes it was a pretty even contest. We didn't have a great second part to the first half. But it was a great workout for ourselves."
The match left the MLS undefeated in its All-Star challenges against elite teams from Europe and the Americas, and it left Celtic winless in its last four contests on U.S. soil over the past two years.
Owen Perkins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
