Wednesday Early-Afternoon Union Freekicks: All-Star Game Day

Well, it's finally here. It's All-Star Game day! ...What? What do you mean you don't really care, because, rather remarkably, the top team in the league's Eastern Conference only has one representative? Oh. Okay then. Fair enough. Your open discussion thread for all things Union, soccer, and unfair snubs (including Jerry Meals). By the way, we will have a gamethread tonight for the All-Star Game (8:30 PM EDT, ESPN2, Galavision, TSN), so if you're planning on watching, please join us for that.

Reunion with Beckham brings memories for Mondragon [Edgar Acero, futbolMLS.com] - Will we hear about the time when Beckham beat Mondragon in the 1998 World Cup every time these two meet for the rest of their careers?

MLS All-Stars: Players' selections [Ives Galarcep, FOX Sports on MSN] - Lone Union All-Star Faryd Mondragon was chosen to the players' starting XI, while Sebastien Le Toux (right midfield) and Carlos Ruiz (forward) received enough votes from their peers to get honorable mentions.

M. Farfan relishing wonder goal vs. Real Madrid [Dave Zeitlin, mlssoccer.com] - "As soon as he picked his head up, I knew what he was doing," said G. Farfan. "It was great to see the ball go in. I'm beyond excited for him. He came in and made a difference in the game."

Union hope fans won over by strong showing vs. Madrid [Dave Zeitlin, mlssoccer.com] - If you live in the Delaware Valley and are a staunch [insert top European club here] supporter, and purposefully don't support the Union because you have some dig against Major League Soccer's "level of play", I don't understand you.

Two first-half goals are enough for Timbers to roll past Independiente [Jamie Goldberg, The Oregonian] - A rather dominating performance from the Timbers gave them their first international friendly victory in their fourth and final final exhibition match of the season.

Sounders Fall Behind In CCL [Matt Gaschk, SoundersFC.com] - Seattle dropped a 1-0 decision to San Francisco FC in Panama City. If you were able to watch any of this one on Fox Soccer, you know that the Sounders were kind of unlucky to leave Panama without a result. The return leg of this matchup is set for August 3 at CenturyLink Field, with Seattle returning to MLS action in Houston in between.