The Club America U-20s defeated the MLS Homegrown All-Stars last night in penalties after the game ended 1-1 in regulation. This casts a poor light on MLS's player development efforts, however friendly the match ended up being. With that in mind, we did what we always do in trying times: we made a list of pros and cons.
Pro:
The MLS Homegrown All-Stars almost didn't lose!
Con:
The MLS Homegrown All-Stars lost.
Pro:
The MLS team was really young, with just eight players age 21 or older.
Con:
The Club America team was even younger, with no players 21 or older.
Pro:
The game served to bring more attention to MLS's player development efforts.
Con:
The game also served to show that MLS's player development efforts have a long way to go.
Pro:
A lot of people turned out to watch the game.
Con:
Most of those were Club America fans.
Pro:
Club America's team had played together before, whereas most of the MLS players hadn't.
Con:
You would think an All-Star team would be able to beat one club's academy team.
Pro:
Landon Donovan's coaching debut brought the game some good publicity.
Con:
Landon Donovan's coaching debut went pretty poorly in terms of results.
Pro:
The MLS Homegrown All-Stars played well, we thought.
Con:
Just not well enough.
Pro:
Tommy Thompson's goal was nice.
Con:
It just wasn't enough to win.
Pro:
This GIF will live forever.
After the MLS Homegrown game last night the Cub America U-20 players swarmed to get a picture with Landon Donovan http://t.co/aYHR4dWANo
— Charlie O'Neill (@CEONeill3) July 29, 2015Con:
The Club America players are so happy because they won.
Pro:
We got some free Chipotle out of the deal.
Con:
Again, they lost.
Contact The18 Staff Writer Sam Klomhaus at klomhaus@The18.com or follow him on Twitter @SamKlomhaus
