Kei Kamara lone Crew SC representative on MLS All-Star roster

It was announced today that forward Kei Kamara has been named to the 22-man Major League Soccer All-Star roster for the 2015 MLS All-Star Game against Barclay's Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur FC. The game will take place July 29 at Dick's Sporting Goods Park (Colorado Rapids) at 9 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.

Kamara leads the league with 13 goals. He's second in MLS with 4.5 shots per game, second in shots (89) and third in shots on goal (36). MLS All-Star head coach Pablo Mastroeni (Rapids head coach) selected Kamara for the gameday roster. Kamara is the 19th Crew SC player all-time to be named to the MLS All-Star roster.

While Kamara was named to the MLS All-Star roster in 2012 with Sporting Kansas City (inactive player), this is his first selection as an active player. The 30 year old Sierra Leonean has 166 starts in MLS, amassing 65 goals and 28 assists.

Noticeably absent from the roster is 24 year old Crew SC attacking midfielder Ethan Finlay. He's tied for first in MLS with Toronto's Sebastian Giovinco with 9 assists. It can be argued that Finlay, on merit alone, should have been named to the 2015 MLS All-Star roster.

The complete roster:

Goalkeepers (2): David Ousted (Vancouver Whitecaps FC), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)

Defenders (8): DaMarcus Beasley (Houston Dynamo), Tony Beltran (Real Salt Lake), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), Laurent Ciman (Montreal Impact), Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), Chad Marshall (Seattle Sounders FC), Drew Moor (Colorado Rapids), Chris Tierney (New England Revolution)

Midfielders (7): Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Fabian Castillo (FC Dallas), Benny Feilhaber (Sporting Kansas City), Steven Gerrard (LA Galaxy), Kaka (Orlando City SC), Frank Lampard (New York City FC), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City)

Forwards (5): Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders FC), Sebastian Giovinco (Toronto FC), Kei Kamara (Columbus Crew SC), Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy), David Villa (New York City FC)

Tottenham Hotspur finished 5th in the Premier League table for the 2014/15 season, qualifying them for UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League play.

Top 40 in MLS (Merit Based All-Stars)

Helltown's MLS Allstars

Since the MLS way of selecting all-star players stinks (the whole thing, really), I've decided to figure out a way to get a handle on the real all-stars of the 2015 season.

What I've done below is look of the rank of players on WhoScored.com, Squawka and Helltown (mine!) to determine who the best in the league is. There can be some disparity between each system so instead of taking the average of the three, I took the middle number. They were close anyway (mostly...).

Contrary to what the central office projects, there are good players in MLS that are trying to make something of it. It sucks MLS undermines the hard work some of these players put in. Anyway, familiar faces at the top and, generally speaking, matches up with what I've observed this year.

Here's the top 40 players in MLS, halfway through the season.


MEDIAN RANK : NAME - TEAM, AGE, POSITIONS
1 : Sebastian Giovinco - Toronto FC, 28, AM(CLR),FW
2 : Omar González - L.A. Galaxy, 26, D(C)
5 : Benny Feilhaber - Sporting Kansas City, 30, M(C)
6 : Kei Kamara - Columbus Crew, 30, AM(LR),FW
8 : Matt Besler - Sporting Kansas City, 28, D(C)
10 : Laurent Ciman - Montreal Impact, 29, D(C)
11 : Felipe - New York Red Bulls, 24, M(C)
14 : David Villa - New York City FC, 33, AM(LR),FW
14 : Juninho - L.A. Galaxy, 26, DM(C)
14 : Chris Rolfe - DC United, 32, AM(CL),FW
15 : Kendall Waston - Vancouver Whitecaps, 27, D(C)
16 : Fabian Castillo - FC Dallas, 23, AM(CLR),FW
16 : Clint Dempsey - Seattle Sounders FC, 32, AM(CLR),FW
21 : Bill Hamid - DC United, 24, GK
21 : Bobby Boswell - DC United, 32, D(C)
22 : Darwin Ceren - Orlando City, 25, DM(C)
23 : Darlington Nagbe - Portland Timbers, 24, AM(CLR)
23 : Chad Marshall - Seattle Sounders FC, 30, D(C)
24 : Chris Wondolowski - San Jose Earthquakes, 32, AM(C),FW
24 : Kaká - Orlando City, 33, AM(CLR),FW
25 : Leonardo - L.A. Galaxy, 27, D©
26 : Matt Miazga - New York Red Bulls, 19, D(C)
27 : Ignacio Piatti - Montreal Impact, 30, AM(C)
29 : Jorge Villafaña - Portland Timbers, 25, D(L),M(L)
30 : Alvas Powell - Portland Timbers, 20, D(R)
30 : Seb Hines - Orlando City, 27, D(C)
30 : Michael Bradley - Toronto FC, 27, M(C)
31 : Dax McCarty - New York Red Bulls, 28, DM(C)
32 : Robbie Keane - L.A. Galaxy, 35, AM(C),FW
33 : Jeff Larentowicz - Chicago Fire, 31, D(C),DM(C)
33 : Clarence Goodson - San Jose Earthquakes, 33, D(C)
34 : Harry Shipp - Chicago Fire, 23, AM(CLR)
35 : Krisztian Németh - Sporting Kansas City, 26, AM(L),FW
35 : Jalil Anibaba - Sporting Kansas City, 26, D(CR)
36 : Kevin Ellis - Sporting Kansas City, 24, D(CR)
36 : Roger Espinoza - Sporting Kansas City, 28, M(CL)
37 : Matías Pérez García - San Jose Earthquakes, 30, AM(C)
39 : Stefan Ishizaki - L.A. Galaxy, 33, AM(CR)
39 : Stefan Frei - Seattle Sounders FC, 29, GK
39 : Emanuel Pogatetz - Columbus Crew, 32, D(C)
40 : Mauro Díaz - FC Dallas, 24, AM(C)

(for those of you looking for Ethan Finlay - he falls outside the top 50 in both WhoScored.com and Squawka. I've got him top ten.)

MLS All Star Roster, No Crew (again)

The 2013 Major League Soccer All Star Gameday roster was announced today and it did not include any Columbus Crew players. The Crew are the only MLS team in the past three years not to have an All-Star selection.

From what I gather, today's announcement is the 'gameday' roster and that there will be more selected later on this month. I looked around a bit on the MLSsoccer.com and couldn't find where or when the next group of 'snubs' (expect the articles, zzzz) will be chosen. Were I to have the energy, I would track down excactly when and how MLS selects the rest, but... really MLS?

The actual All Star game that pits MLS's best against a preseason Roma is scheduled for the last day in July.

There are a lot of reasons to bang on the all star game but one thing it does is call attention to some of the better young players in the league. Looking up and down the selections since 2010 I see a load of guys that have gotten calls from better leagues.

Hoping Crew players like Josh Williams and Federico Higuain get a look when the league fills out the rest of the roster.