The MLS All-Star Game will feature a Barclays Premier League opponent for the seventh time in eight years, but it won’t be defending champion Manchester United.
The 2012 MLS All-Star Game will feature English power Chelsea, which will face off against Major League Soccer’s All-Star team on July 25 at PPL Park in Chester, Pa., sources within MLS confirmed to FOX Soccer on Tuesday.
Chelsea will be making their second appearance in the All-Star Game, having faced Major League Soccer’s best in the 2006 installment of the event, which MLS won, 1-0, at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill.
The All-Star Game will be part of an extensive summer tour of the United States by Chelsea. The tour also includes a match against the Seattle Sounders in Seattle on July 18. Other dates and opponents for Chelsea’s summer tour have yet to be finalized.
The MLS All-Star Team is a squad selected by voting among fans, media, players and team management throughout MLS. It remains unclear what criteria MLS will use to select the MLS All-Star Game head coach. Since the All-Star game was held at Red Bull Arena last year, MLS appointed New York Red Bulls head coach Hans Backe as the All-Star head coach.
This summer’s MLS All-Star Game will mark the first major MLS event to be held at the $120 million PPL Park, the home of the Philadelphia Union. PPL Park opened in 2010.
MLS officials are expected to make the Chelsea announcement on Wednesday in Chester.
