The 2008 Major League Soccer All-Star Game was the 13th annual

MLS All-Star Game The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is an annual soccer game held by Major League Soccer featuring selected players from the league against an international club or selected players from another league. MLS initially adopted a traditional all ...

. The MLS All-Stars faced

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

of the English

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

. The game was played on July 24, 2008, with the MLS winning 3–2.

New England Revolution The New England Revolution are an American professional association football, soccer club based in the Greater Boston area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. It is on ...

coach

Steve Nicol Stephen Nicol (born 11 December 1961) is a Scottish retired professional footballer who mainly played as a right back and occasionally played in other positions across defence and midfield. He played for the successful Liverpool teams of the 1 ...

coached the All-Stars. The motto for the 2008 MLS All-Star Game is "Major League Soccer Takes on the World." Chicago Fire's

Cuauhtémoc Blanco Cuauhtémoc Blanco Bravo (; born 17 January 1973) is a Mexican politician and former professional footballer serving as a member of the Chamber of Deputies. He served as the Governor of Morelos from 2018 to 2024 under the coalition ''Juntos H ...

was named

MVP MVP most commonly refers to: * Most valuable player, an award, typically for the best performing player in a sport or competition * Minimum viable product, a concept for feature estimating used in business and engineering MVP may also refer to: ...

Host venue

MLS Commissioner

Don Garber Donald P. Garber (born October 9, 1957) is an American sports executive who has been the commissioner of Major League Soccer (MLS) since 1999. Garber is also the CEO of Soccer United Marketing and a member of the United States Soccer Federatio ...

awarded the 2008 All-Star Game to Toronto, Ontario in 2007 on the eve of the 2007 MLS All-Star Game. The game was played in the new

soccer-specific stadium A soccer-specific stadium, mainly in the United States and Canada, is a sports stadium either purpose-built or fundamentally redesigned for soccer and whose primary function is to host soccer matches, as opposed to a multi-purpose stadium whic ...

BMO Field BMO Field is an outdoor stadium located at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Constructed on the former Exhibition Stadium site and first opened in 2007, it is the home field of Toronto FC of Major League Soccer (MLS) and Toronto Ar ...

and was the first MLS All-Star Game held in Canada. BMO Field is home to the MLS' 13th franchise,

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matc ...

West Ham United

On April 4, 2008, the Major League Soccer website announced that

club

would be the fifth international opponent for the marquee event. Founded in 1895, the east London club was originally called Thames Ironworks FC but switched to West Ham United five years later and has been playing at the

Boleyn Ground Boleyn Ground, often referred to as Upton Park, was a football stadium in Upton Park, London, Upton Park, east London, England. It was the home of West Ham United F.C., West Ham United from 1904 to 2016, and was briefly used by Charlton Athletic ...

since 1904. West Ham has forged a reputation of cultivating some of the England's top players, such as

Frank Lampard Frank James Lampard (born 20 June 1978) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of English club Coventry City. Widely regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, one of Chelsea's greates ...

Michael Carrick Michael Carrick (born 28 July 1981) is an English professional Association football, football coach and former player who was most recently the head coach of club Middlesbrough F.C., Middlesbrough. He is considered as one of the best midfield ...

Rio Ferdinand Rio Gavin Ferdinand (born 7 November 1978) is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back, and is now a television pundit for TNT Sports. He played 81 times for the England national team between 1997 and 2011, and ...

, and

Joe Cole Joseph John Cole (born 8 November 1981) is an English football coach and former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or winger. He was long touted as a child prodigy and as the hottest prospect in English football, wi ...

, giving rise to its frequent reference as

The Academy of Football The Academy of West Ham United F.C. is historically one of the most productive football academies in British football. This success has resulted in its nickname the ''Academy of Football''. The introduction of the FA's new academy system in 1 ...

MLS All-Stars

Voting

Major League Soccer released an official ballot to decide the players called to represent the league in the All-Star game. A four-tier voting system determined the First XI players selected for the game. The online fan balloting program comprised 25% of the total vote, with coaches and general managers (25%), players (25%), and media (25%) combining for the remaining 75% percent of the vote. The combined vote of the four groups determined the MLS First XI.

2008 All-Star Game Squads

Major League Soccer

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

and

, hosts of the 2008 Pepsi MLS All-Star Game, unveiled the MLS All-Star First XI in a press conference aired live exclusively on MLSnet.com from

on Thursday, July 10 at 11 am ET. In addition to the First XI, Commissioner

picked two more players for the All-Star team, and coach

received five picks on July 15, 2008. After the U.S. U-23 Olympic Team roster was announced, three additional picks were awarded to

on Thursday, July 17 to replace

Michael Parkhurst Michael Finlay Parkhurst (born January 24, 1984) is an American former association football, soccer player who played as a Defender (association football), defender. The 2005 MLS Rookie of the Year Award, MLS Rookie of the Year and 2007 MLS Def ...

Sacha Kljestan Sacha Bryan Kljestan (; born September 9, 1985) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a midfielder. He currently is a studio host on MLS Season Pass. Youth and college Kljestan was raised in Huntington Beach, California ...

, and

Robbie Rogers Robert Hampton Rogers III (born May 12, 1987) is an American former professional soccer player. He played as a winger and as a left back. Rogers has also represented the United States men's national soccer team. In February 2013, Rogers came ou ...

. The additions included 2006

MLS Rookie of the Year The MLS Young Player of the Year Award (known as the Rookie of the Year Award from 1996 to 2019) is an annual award given to the top player in Major League Soccer under the age of 22. The award was initially awarded to a rookie, or a player who ...

Jonathan Bornstein Jonathan Rey Bornstein (born November 7, 1984) is an American former professional soccer player who plays as a left-back. He has captained and made 38 appearances for the United States national team. In addition to also playing for Chivas USA i ...

, veteran

Steve Ralston Steve Ralston (born June 14, 1974) is an American former soccer player and manager who played as a midfielder. He spent most of his playing career in Major League Soccer with the Tampa Bay Mutiny and the New England Revolution, retiring in 20 ...

, and Colombian Juan Toja, who scored a goal in last year's All-Star Game. As of July 19, 2008. Players in bold denotes First XI status. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ † † ~ ~ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ~ – Players selected by coach † – "Commissioner's Picks" ♦ – Inactive *MLS All-Star Head Coach –

West Ham United

As of May 13, 2008.

Match details

Notes

*The 2008

Major League Soccer All-Star Game The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is an annual soccer game held by Major League Soccer featuring selected players from the league against an international club or selected players from another league. MLS initially adopted a traditional all ...

was the first to be played in Canada. *For the first time

Pepsi Pepsi is a Carbonated water, carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo which serves as its flagship product. In 2023, Pepsi was the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola; the two share a long ...

was the official sponsor of the All-Star Game. Previously,

Sierra Mist Sierra Mist was a lemon-lime flavored soft drink line introduced by PepsiCo in 1999. By 2003, it was available in all US markets. The name is a play on Mountain Dew: "sierra" is the Spanish word for "mountain range" and both mist and dew are c ...

, a Pepsi brand, was the advertised sponsor. *This was the fifth time that the league's best players faced international competition in the MLS All-Star Game. *For the second consecutive year

coach

was the head coach for the MLS side. *Former CBC affiliate, then E! and now CityTV affiliate CHAT-TV in Medicine Hat, Alberta did not air the game, because of Calgary CBC station CBRT-TV, as well as online through live streaming on the CBC sports website.

References

{{West Ham United F.C. matches MLS All-Star Game Soccer competitions in Toronto

All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game that showcases the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or division, bu ...

Mls All-Star Game The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is an annual soccer game held by Major League Soccer featuring selected players from the league against an international club or selected players from another league. MLS initially adopted a traditional all ...