Arsenal were victorious in last night’s MLS All-Stars Skills Challenge in Washington D.C.
Auston Trusty scored the winning point for the Gunners as he successfully hit the crossbar in the final challenge after the hosts had mounted a stirring comeback.
Trusty was one of two Americans on the Arsenal team taking part. The other, Folarin Balogun, fresh from switching international allegiance, received a standing ovation from the capacity Audi Field crowd. They were joined by Jurrien Timber, Kai Havertz, Jorginho, Marquinhos, Rob Holding, Alex Runarsson, Aaron Ramsdale and Jakub Kiwior.
Mikel Arteta’s players, wearing their new neon away kit, took early wins in the shooting and touch challenges but were pegged back in the cross and volley challenge. Kiwior then sealed a win in the passing challenge to put Arsenal 4-1 ahead.
It got tense during the crossbar challenge when the MLS All-Stars successfully hit the woodwork four times; each earning a point.
Thankfully, Trusty, who spent last season on loan at Birmingham City having made his name in the MLS, saved his neon pals from embarrassment with the final kick of the evening. As we’ve always said ‘Trusty the process’.If this was an amuse-bouche, tonight Washington D.C. gets to feast on real football. Well, sort of.
Even Wayne Rooney, coach of D.C United and the man in the home dugout tonight, admitted the All-Star concept is not one that will ever work in England.
Facing the media alongside Mikel Arteta in a pre-game press conference, the ex-England striker said: “It’s a huge game here but I think in England the rivalry between teams, between the cultures, [they] will complain about the players playing too much and I just don’t think it will work.”
Arteta was a little more diplomatic: “I’m very excited. Tomorrow’s experience is going to be great. It’s going to be a special, very unpredictable game. Obviously, we’re going to change a lot of players as well, but it’s great to be invited and to be part of this, and hopefully we can give something back to the fans here.”
He added: “I love the idea. For me as the Arsenal coach to play against the MLS All-Stars is great. I love the experience but if you ask me the other way around, depending when it was in the middle of the season, probably I wouldn’t be that happy to lose my players. But I think it’s great for the players to gather together and play in the same team. If I was a player for sure, I would want to experience that so why not in the future it can be done.”
The big talking pre-game talking point from an Arsenal perspective is whether new boy Declan Rice will get a run-out. The club’s record signing has been eased into training with some sessions on the bike but is getting up to speed.
“We just wanted to manage him. A lot has happened to him in the last five or six days, a very hectic schedule. He had a few training sessions that were really good, but prior to that, he didn’t do much before he joined us. So we wanted to just manage him. He trained today with us, he was in good form and he’s fine.”
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