MLS All-Star Game at Allianz Field will be rematch against Mexico's Liga MX

The 2022 Major League Soccer All-Star Game headed to Minnesota United's Allianz Field in August will bring back the Mexican first division's best to play MLS' biggest stars.

It's a rematch of last summer's spirited All-Star Game won by the MLS team on penalty kicks in Los Angeles.

It's also the continuation of a growing partnership between the top two North American leagues — MLS and Mexico's Liga MX — that also includes the Leagues Cup and Campeones Cup competitions.

The Aug. 10 game, which will be televised across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Latin America and 190 countries worldwide, is the anchor to four days that celebrate soccer and support community.

Previous opponents since 2004 included some of the world's biggest English and European clubs. A rematch with Liga MX stars surfs a rivalry between the two leagues that has grown hotter.

"It has never been closer between the U.S. and Mexican national teams," Loons and MLS All-Star coach Adrian Heath said. "I think they see it as a real testing point for Mexican football now. They know this gap now is shorter than it has ever been."

MLS president and deputy commissioner Mark Abbott was a young lawyer who wrote the business plan that brought MLS into business after the 1994 World Cup came to the U.S. He witnessed the league's inaugural All-Star Game that drew 78,000 fans to Giants Stadium for an All-Star doubleheader in 1996.

Now he will see his last one on the job played in St. Paul, fewer than 10 miles from where he grew up in Oakdale. He is stepping away at year's end from MLS after nearly 30 years.

"It's really remarkable," he said at a Thursday news conference that announced game details. "I think serendipitous would be the word. This is where it began for me and where it ends for me, in the most celebratory of ways."

He said it's important to follow the 2021 game with an even more competitive one. That's when 30-some players from both sides will play at Allianz Field before the World Cup in Qatar two months later.

The MLS team won last year's game on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw.

A rematch just made sense, Abbott said.

"The game was dramatic last year," Abbott said. "It was really important to have a compelling match. The more players on the field for an All-Star Game representing their countries in the World Cup, that brings interest and growth."

All-Star week will feature a ticketed Monday concert by five-time Grammy Award nominated singer/songwriter Khalid in downtown Minneapolis and a Tuesday night skills challenge at Allianz Field.

All concert proceeds will benefit The Alliance, a nonprofit organization that focuses on racial, economic and environmental justice as well as health equity within the Twin Cities.

Other events include an MLS WORKS "All-Star Day of Service," a Special Olympics Unified All-Star Game in Blaine and a new mini-pitch built at the Mount Airy Boys & Girls Club in St. Paul, where Thursday's news conference was held.

There's also the inaugural All-Star Hometown Heroes showcase, which will celebrate what the league calls "innovative, inclusive and impactful leaders" who are making social change in education, mental health, food insecurity and social justice.

"The club's mission promotes soccer, which we believe 100 percent is the world's game," Minnesota United CEO Shari Ballard said. "But while we're doing that, we want to make sure we're inspiring and uniting the community in real ways. These events do that for us."

It all leads to an All-Star Game at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday that will air live on ESPN and Univision.

Heath will coach the MLS All-Stars because St. Paul and his Loons team are the game's hosts this year.

"I'm really proud to be the All-Star manager," Heath said. "I'm really proud of the football club because it's an accumulation of what's gone on the last six years."