Thursday, July 30, 2015

#TBT KC All Star MVP Performance

With the all star game on Wednesday this past week, I thought I'd take a look at the last time a Kansas City player scored in the all star game and the only time a KC player has been named the all star game MVP.

In 1999, KC was suffering through their worst season in club history, but KC still had two players named to the all star team for the Western Conference as Alexi Lalas and Preki were named to the team in San Diego.

The game started quick with the East grabbing the lead in the first minute after a give away with Brian McBride feeding Roy Lassiter. Preki got himself on the board in the 13th as he leveled the game after being played through on the counter. Preki chipped his shot over Tom Presthus to tie the game at 1-1. The West was able to take the lead in the 32nd as the West pushed forward, Peter Nowak slid a ball through to Roman Kosecki who slid his shot under Presthus to give the West the lead. Four minutes later, Preki was involved again as he picked up the ball near midfield, dribbled through a couple East defenders, holding off challenges before playing a ball to Cobi Jones who fired a shot into the corner to make it 3-1 in the 36th. Two minutes later, Preki was back on the board again. After a number of passes the ball made it wide to Kosecki who crossed it into the middle for Preki to knock home.

Preki came off at half time, and as the second half went on the East made their come back. In the 62nd minute Marcelo Balboa brought down McBride in the box. Joe-Max Moore stepped up and beat Matt Jordan to make it 4-2. The next two East goals came due to some poor defense by the West as they failed to get the ball out of their own end. First in the 73rd Carlos Valderrama received a ball in the box, danced around Jordan before sliding the ball into the corner. Then after a poor back pass in the 83rd, Moore tried to beat Jordan to the ball. Jordan won the ball, but only knocked the ball into the path of Columbus' Stern John who scored to tie the game at 4-4. The tied score only lasted for a minute though as Mauricio Wright picked the ball up at midfield dribbled at the East defense before playing it wide to Ronald Cerritos who crossed it back to Wright who beat Walter Zenga to give the West the lead again. The West added to their lead in the 89th as Mauricio Cienfuegos cross into the box was turned in Cerritos to finish off the scoring at 6-4.

Preki was named the MVP of the game for his two goals and assist performance. 

You can check out the full match below.


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