Tradition is such a wonderful thing. And Celtic, the majestic Scottish champs, founded in 1888, has bags full of it.
Soccer fans throughout the world recognize the familiar green and white Hoops, properly named the Celtic Football Club, the infinitely romanticized Catholic darlings of Glasgow.
Then again, all that splendid tradition is worthless as a Rocky Mountain tick once the ball starts rolling, especially if the fellows on the other side are just plain faster and more athletic.
So it was on a pleasant, if slightly damp, evening night at an overflowing stadium outside downtown Denver. Major League's Soccer's fabulous Colombian connection may have dominated the score sheet, with Juan Pablo Angel and Juan Toja supplying the goals in the All-Stars' 2-0 victory.
But it was the athleticism through the midfield, and especially in the center of the park, that truly won the night for the MLS All-Stars. The spry MLS side deserved a two-goal win, at least, on DSG's slick Kentucky Bluegrass, which had the ball moving especially fast after a brief pre-game rain.
The Scottish giants joined a growing list of touring sides that have fallen to the MLS All-Stars: Mexico's Chivas, England's Fulham and England's famed Chelsea were previous casualties. Chelsea last year was the victim of a timely strike by Dwayne De Rosario, but was the equal of the MLS All-Stars otherwise. Thursday was different, for Gordon Strachan's side had little success to speak of in moving the ball through midfield, and won't take away many good memories on defense, either.
All of that had something to do with the timing, of course. The Hoops are busily prepping to defend their title in the Scottish Premier League, and maybe repeat their 2006-07 push into the UEFA Champions League's final 16, if not beyond. Clearly, Celtic players aren't as fit as they will be a month from now and beyond.
So it's not totally surprising that Ricardo Clark, Shalrie Joseph and De Rosario in the middle, and Toja and Ronnie O'Brien on the outside would look so fleet, so nimble in comparison to a more contemplative Celtic midfield.
Strachan is trying to gauge whether new Italian addition Massimo Donati, recently A.C. Milan property, and highly rated Scottish transfer Scott Brown can be the men in the middle for his club. They'll have to do a bit better than they did against the buzzing MLS trio.
It's not that they weren't trying. Strachan had promised that his side would take the match seriously. They don't truly play "friendlies," he insisted. Too many Celtic supporters out there are owed nothing less than a top-shelf effort, he informed, so the Hoops come to win every match.
Sure enough, referee Baldomero Toledo had to tell Steven Pressley and Brown to knock off the rather un-"friendly" shenanigans within the first 15 minutes. But who could blame them for being a tad frustrated. They sometimes struggled to connect with even simple passes.
That's because the MLS All-Stars were twisting athletic legs around Celtic players to poke away balls, getting into the passing channels a little quicker than the Hoops expected and generally pickin' up the boots and puttin' them down substantially faster than Celtic players could.
Toja was the first to get a swell look at goal. His effort summoned the best of saves from goalkeeper Artur Boruc, who would make two other sensational stops before night's end. On Toja's shot, Boruc flailed to spread his body in as many directions as possible, and managed to get some appendage on the point-blank blast.
The pressure was mounting when Eddie Johnson won a 30th-minute penalty. Boruc rescued the moment again, stretching big to his right to reach Johnson's spot kick.
Celtic left back Lee Naylor could never quite figure out how to get out on O'Brien fast enough to prevent the feisty Irish flanker from whipping in a succession of dangerous crosses. O'Brien hugged the touchline, further spreading a Celtic defense that was having trouble dealing with Steve Nicol's 3-5-2 to begin with.
"Steve told us how important it was to keep wide out there, to spread the field," O'Brien said. "And that was the biggest field I've ever played on."
On the other side, the indefatigable Toja was similarly flummoxing Pressley, albeit in a wholly different manner. Toja, the youngest All-Star at 22 years and two months, was interested in doing everything but hitting big crosses from the outside. He put that signature left foot to work on the dribble, by linking with Jonathan Bornstein and by beating a defender or two before slipping balls inside to De Rosario.
And that's where things really unraveled for the Celtic. Joseph may have been the Hoops' transfer target a few months back, but it was the man they call "De Ro" who did the most damage to Celtic's occasionally disorganized defense. His speed was crushing as he slipped several times into the vacant hole between Celtic's line of four defenders and four midfielders. Clark, of course, has seen De Rosario turn and burn like that for two years now.
"But I think his speed definitely caught them by surprise," Clark said.
De Rosario blew by two players in the 27th minute before Pressley earned a yellow card with a trip at about 30 yards. In the 36th minute, the Houston Dynamo midfielder found the space once again and fed a perfect ball to Angel, who did rest with class, pulling the ball around Boruc and finishing just before the angle got too severe.
Strachan complimented that goal, but humorously called Toja's effort "scruffy." Translation: sloppy possession work by his side allowed Toja to pounce. The first-year FC Dallas man turned an inattentive pass in a dangerous spot into a calm finish with, of course, his left foot.
"We gave them a better game in the second half, after we got ourselves organized," Strachan said.
But they never truly threatened to overtake the 2-0 deficit that MLS held at the break. All-Star defenders Jimmy Conrad and Michael Parkhurst looked particularly comfortable dealing with the balls that did emerge from Celtic's midfield. The next time Parkhurst gets caught out of his position may indeed be the first.
Goalkeeper Matt Reis had little to do. Second-half replacement Kevin Hartman had a bit more, and did spill a couple of long-range shots, one of which led to a nullified goal.
(Somebody really needs to tell Hartman and Boruc that All-Star games aren't about slowly taken goal kicks. Toledo was on both of them to speed it up.)
Boruc's night was full of action. Never mind that the MLS All-Stars had assembled just two days before the match, leaving little time to build familiarity. De Rosario and Angel generally combined without a hitch -- often resulting in trouble for Celtic.
"It's easy when you've got good players around you," Angel said of getting to know his teammates. "You don't need a lot of time when you've got good players around you."
Steve Davis is a freelance writer who has covered Major League Soccer since its inception. Steve can be reached at BigTexSoccer@yahoo.com. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
