Toja Added to MLS All-Star Team
July 17th, 2008 . 2:12 pm . By: Buzz Carrick
As was reported yesterday by several news sites, Juan Toja has been officially added tot he MLS All-Star roster by Steve Nicol. This addition comes as a bit of a surprise given Toja’s less than stellar season and perhaps was motivated by positional need with the loss of players to the Olympic squad. Here’s the official PR stuff… TOJA NAMED TO MLS ALL-STAR TEAMMajor League Soccer today announced that FC Dallas midfielder Juan Toja has been added to the MLS All-Star team. Toja joins teammate Kenny Cooper, who was selected to the All-Star First XI last week. In July 2007, Toja started and scored for the MLS All-Stars in a 2-0 win over Celtic FC in his first all-star appearance. The 2008 Pepsi MLS All-Star Game between the MLS All-Stars and West Ham United takes place on July 24, 2008 at BMO Field in Toronto (Live on ESPN, Telefutura and on CBC in Canada at 6 p.m. CT). Toja, 23, was selected as an alternate by All-Star head coach Steve Nicol along with Chivas USA defender Jonathan Bornstein and New England Revolution midfielder Steve Ralston to replace Sacha Kljestan, Michael Parkhurst and Robbie Rogers who were named to the U.S. Olympic Team roster today and will miss the All-Star game. The versatile Toja, in his second season with FC Dallas, has played as a withdrawn forward, a wide-left midfielder, and as a holding midfielder this year, scoring one goal and adding two assists. The complete list of 2008 MLS All-Stars follows; players are listed in alphabetical order by position. 18-Player Game-Day Roster:Goalkeepers (2): Pat Onstad& (Houston Dynamo), Matt Reis* (New England Revolution). Defenders (4): Jonathan Bornstein& (Chivas USA), Jim Brennan& (Toronto FC), Jimmy Conrad* (Kansas City Wizards), Frankie Hejduk* (Columbus Crew). Midfielders (8): David Beckham* (Los Angeles Galaxy), Cuauhtémoc Blanco* (Chicago Fire), Dwayne De Rosario+ (Houston Dynamo), Christian Gomez& (Colorado Rapids), Shalrie Joseph* (New England Revolution), Pablo Mastroeni& (Colorado Rapids), Steve Ralston& (New England Revolution), Juan Toja& (FC Dallas). Forwards (4): Juan Pablo Angel& (forward, New York Red Bulls), Edson Buddle+ (Los Angeles Galaxy), Kenny Cooper* (FC Dallas), Landon Donovan* (Los Angeles Galaxy). * First XI Selection 2 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
What?!?!?! I love Toja, but he is not having an all-star year. But than again Onstad over Busch and JPA over Emilo thats all crazy.
[...] FC Dallas end it seems clear at this point they plan to keep their influential midfielder who was officially added to the All-Star roster today. Having just paid $400,000 this last winter to acquire Toja from Sante Fe, it’s highly [...]