Commerce City – Pablo Mastroeni certainly didn’t expect to play much during Thursday’s MLS All-Star Game.
But with the Colorado Rapids faithful chanting for their team’s lone all-star representative and starting midfielder Ricardo Clark leaving the field with a twisted ankle, Mastroeni’s plans changed, and he entered the game in the 60th minute.
“The plan was for me to play 20 minutes,” Mastroeni said. “I just started training five or six days ago, so to get thrown into that game, at that pace, was something else.”
Mastroeni’s major goal heading into the All-Star Game was to do no further damage to a recently recovered groin injury. And with the field slick from a rainy first half, Mastroeni entered the game a little apprehensively, but seemed to settle into the game’s pace quickly.
“You’re playing alongside 11 quality players. It just makes the game that much easier,” Mastroeni said. “It was iffy in the beginning, but I felt good.”
Now Mastroeni can focus on regaining his conditioning and helping the Rapids get into position for a playoff berth, even though they’re 4-8-5 and haven’t won in more than a month. But after the ovation Mastroeni got from the Colorado fans upon his entry, it gives him a little extra incentive for the season’s second half.
“It makes you want to go back home and look at ways to get yourself to play better for these individuals,” Mastroeni said.
Final farewell
Cobi Jones and Eddie Pope didn’t spend much time on the pitch against Celtic FC, but for two veterans retiring at the end of this MLS season, this game was less about the action than it was about the experience.
“I was just trying to stop and smell the roses,” said Pope, a Real Salt Lake defender and member of three U.S. World Cup teams. “I got to kind of sit back, watch from the sidelines and soak it up.”
Jones, a midfielder for the Los Angeles Galaxy and one of the league’s best-known players, enjoyed his final all-star experience but sees an opportunity to change the format and pit the league’s conferences against each other.
“I would prefer to see an East vs. West game,” Jones said. “But somehow put something on it to make it a more intense game, like in baseball when the winning team gets home-field advantage.”
Toronto FC midfielder Ronnie O’Brien, a native of Dublin, Ireland, found himself lining up against a team revered in his native country.
“Celtic’s always on in the pubs,” O’Brien said. “Everyone goes down to watch them.”
But that didn’t mean O’Brien felt any emotional turmoil over the all-stars’ 2-0 win.
“It’s great for us to beat them, because we only have one day training together,” O’Brien said. “It’s great for the league.”
Staff writer Joel A. Erickson can be reached at 303-954-1033 or jerickson@denverpost.com.
