Premier League imports Tim Cahill, Jermain Defoe, and Robbie Keane were among 12 players added to Major League Soccer’s All-Star team on Saturday, a group that joins the league’s Fan XI to form the squad that will face Bayern Munich on August 6 in Portland. With strikers Bradley Wright-Phillips and Erick Torres also named to the 23-man squad, Timbers head coach Caleb Porter and league commissioner Don Garber have named a forward-heavy team to face the German champions at Providence Park.
With his two choices, Garber selected Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri and Torres, whose 13 goals have pushed Chivas USA into playoff contention in the Western Conference. He’ll form a forward corps that includes Defoe, Keane, Wright-Phillips, as well as three players voted in by the fans: Clint Dempsey, Thierry Henry, and Obafemi Martins.
In midfield, Valeri joins Cahill, Osvaldo Alonso and Portland teammate Will Johnson in earning Saturday selections, with the quartet joining Kyle Beckerman, Michael Bradley, Landon Donovan, and Graham Zusi as options in the middle.
In defense, Aurélien Collin, Chad Marshall, and Michael Parkhurst have been added to a squad that already featured Matt Besler, Omar Gonzalez, and DeAndre Yedlin.
D.C. United’s Bill Hamid will join Nick Rimando in goal.
With any All-Star selection, the snubs are nearly as interesting as the actual selections. We’ll get to those as the night moves on. For now, here’s the full squad as distributed by the league, with Dempsey and Donovan’s positions flopped:
2014 MLS All-Star Team
Goalkeeper: Bill Hamid (D.C. United), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)
Defenders: Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), Aurélien Collin (Sporting Kansas City), Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), Chad Marshall (Seattle Sounders FC), Michael Parkhurst (Columbus Crew), DeAndre Yedlin (Seattle Sounders FC)
Midfielders: Osvaldo Alonso (Seattle Sounders FC), Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Tim Cahill (New York Red Bulls), Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders FC), Will Johnson (Portland Timbers), Diego Valeri (Portland Timbers), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City)
Forwards: Jermain Defoe (Toronto FC), Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy), Thierry Henry (New York Red Bulls), Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy), Obafemi Martins (Seattle Sounders FC), Erick Torres (Chivas USA), Bradley Wright-Phillips (New York Red Bulls)