A pair of goals in the waning minutes of the match by Colorado forward Jeff Cunningham helped the Major League Soccer All-Stars seal their 4-1 victory over Fulham FC of the English Premier League in the 2005 MLS All-Star Game Saturday at Columbus Crew Stadium.
Cunningham, who played the final 23 minutes of the exhibition, gave the MLS side a 3-1 lead in the 85th minute with an accurately placed, right-footed shot that got past Fulham goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny and banked into the goal off the left post. Christian Gomez, a midfielder for D.C. United, setup the goal when he headed the ball into the Fulham penalty area to the feet of the former Crew forward.
Cunningham’s second goal came less than four minutes later when he received the ball at midfield from New England’s Shalrie Joseph, put a fake on Fulham defender Moritz Volz, sped past another defender Zat Knight, and wrong-footed Drobny with a pass to the back of the net with his right foot from the top of the penalty box.
“I was hungry. I didn’t care if they were tired or not – I wanted to score,” said Cunningham, who received a large ovation from the capacity crowd. “To come out in an atmosphere like this, sold out, 24,000 (people), and to be able to score for the fans; I can’t top it.”
The MLS All-Stars got on the board first when the game MVP, Taylor Twellman, made a sliding effort with his right foot to beat starting Fulham goalie Mark Crossley in the 23rd minute. The New England striker got behind the Whites’ Carlos Bocanegra, a former Chicago Fire defender, to receive the ball played by Los Angeles forward Landon Donovan.
The most costly of the combined 17 fouls called by referee Ricardo Valenzuela in a physical first half came in the 34th minute when defender Chris Albright of Los Angeles was whistled for knocking down Fulham’s Luis Boa Morte in the penalty area. Danish striker Claus Jensen equalized the match at 1-1 by beating MLS goalkeeper Matt Reis with a penalty kick to the right post while the Revolution net minder guessed incorrectly with a dive to the left.
“I thought it was a pretty harsh call,” said MLS All-Stars coach Colin Clarke of FC Dallas.
But the lone MLS blemish would not matter for long, as the game-winner came 11 minutes after halftime. FC Dallas midfielder Ronnie O’Brien deflected New England forward Clint Dempsey’s strike with his shin past Drobny and into the net. The shooting opportunity arose after Bocanegra’s headed attempt to clear the ball from danger came to the feet of the reigning MLS Rookie of the Year, setting up the scoring play.
The game marked the second win in as many attempts for the MLS All-Stars against a foreign club and furthered the foothold of the MLS in the international soccer scene, Clarke said.
“People keep saying ‘Can we compete?’ Yes we can compete. We can beat them,” he said. “We have a good league, a strong league, with a lot of good players.”
The strong play for the MLS side was aided by the balmy weather on the field, which was unfamiliar to the English team.
“I think they probably didn’t expect us to be as good, but they probably didn’t expect it to be as hot,” Donovan said. “I think they were really tired at the end.”
Former Crew star Brian McBride played the first 61 minutes of the match and sported the captain’s armband for the Whites, who open up their English Premier League season in less than two weeks.
“From the soccer aspect of it, it would’ve been a lot better if we had won,” said the Fulham striker. “But it gives us points to work on and move forward.”
The lone Columbus Crew representative, defender/midfielder Frankie Hejduk, made his first return to an MLS pitch since aiding the United States Men’s National Team to a CONCACAF Gold Cup championship six days earlier. The veteran fought through the heat and logged the full 90 minutes.
