Columbus Crew SC stars Kei Kamara and Ethan Finlay both said earlier this week that they weren’t too upset with not making the Fan XI portion of this year’s MLS AT&T All-Star Game.
Finlay slyly said he wasn’t a fan favorite. Kamara said he enjoyed watching other players joke about it on Twitter and that his wife was more upset by the snub than he was.
But the most prolific duo in MLS made their real statement Wednesday night, terrorizing the Chicago Fire back line in a 1-0 victory that could have been closer to 5-0 if not for the herculean effort of goalkeeper Sean Johnson.
And when Finlay clipped a perfect cross to a soaring Kamara for the team’s goal in the 41st minute of the win, it came as a surprise to no one and extended their MLS leads to 13 goals for Kamara and 11 assists for Finlay.
After the match, Kamara told reporters he’s “still not worried" about missing out on the Fan XI--but he seemed to have soured on the merits of the process.
“I wanted to be a part of it and I still want to be a part of it,” he said. “But it’s simple as it goes: You’re either a US national team player or you’re a DP to be on there. I’m neither one of those. If I get called up, I’ll be lucky. But for me, I just want to keep playing for the club and keep scoring goals because that’s what I do.”
This isn’t the first time that Kamara has been a little salty about the All-Star selection process.
After not being selected to the roster for the 2010 match, the then-Kansas City striker protested his snub by revealing a message written on his undershirt after scoring in the Wizards’ 2-1 friendly win against Manchester United. The Red Devils went on to win the All-Star Game 5-2 in Houston three days after losing in Kansas City.
Crew SC Head Coach Gregg Berhalter echoed his comments from earlier in the week about Kamara and Finlay, saying he thinks that the pair are definitive All-Stars.
The gameday roster for the July 29 AT&T All-Star Game, picked by Colorado Rapids and MLS All-Star head coach Pablo Mastroeni, will be unveiled on Saturday.
“In our minds, they’re All-Stars and probably in most of the league’s minds they’re All-Stars,” he said. “The type of numbers those guys have put up and the performances they’ve put up, that stands for itself. When the fans are voting, you never know what’s going to happen. But I think they’re certainly All-Stars.”
