Major League Soccer is once again on top.
The MLS All-Stars picked up a commanding 3-1 win over their Liga MX counterparts on Wednesday night in the MLS All-Star Game at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas. That avenged a blowout 4-1 loss in last year’s event, and wrapped up the league’s mid-season break.
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After a slow start to the night, MLS got on the board first in the 27th minute with a header in the center of the box by Nashville SC star Sam Surridge. LAFC’s Denis Bouanga set Surridge up perfectly, too, and it was upheld after a review. Surridge is tied for the most goals in the league with 18 at the midway point of the season.
That was enough to carry MLS into the locker room with the lead at the break.
MLS didn’t waste much time coming out of the break. Philadelphia Union star Tai Baribo broke away up the middle of the field in the 51st minute and handled a great lead from Diego Rossi to double up their lead right away.
Liga MX finally responded in the 64th minute, thanks to 16-year-old Gilberto Mora. He scrambled through the box and picked up a loose ball before firing it into the back of the net, catching the MLS side completely off guard. Mora is the youngest player to ever play in the MLS All-Star Game.
MLS, though, expertly responded to fend off any chance of a comeback. Vancouver Whitecaps star Brian White tapped in their final goal off the foot of a Liga MX defender in the 79th minute to eventually push them to the two-goal win.
This was the fourth edition of the MLS vs. Liga MX game over the past five years. The format first started in 2021, when MLS won in a penalty shootout. It took a break in 2023, when Arsenal stepped in to replace the Liga MX team. Liga MX then rolled over MLS 4-1 in last year’s match for its first win.
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The MLS All-Star Game took place without Inter Miami star Lionel Messi on Wednesday night. Messi was a late scratch from the contest after speculation that he would skip the event altogether. Both he and Inter Miami teammate Jordi Alba were removed from the final MLS roster on Wednesday after they missed Monday’s training session. The reason behind his absence is not known.
Messi missed last year’s All-Star Game, too, after he went down with an ankle injury in a Copa América match with Argentina.
MLS rules state that players will face a one-game suspension if they pull out of the All-Star Game without an approved medical reason, though it’s unclear if either Messi or Alba will be punished. Former LA Galaxy star Zlatan Ibrahimović was suspended for a single match for missing the 2018 game. Inter Miami is due back on the field Saturday against FC Cincinnati.
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Ahead of the contest on Wednesday night, MLS commissioner Don Garber revealed how the league’s viewership is holding up in its exclusive deal with Apple.
Garber, according to Sports Business Journal’s Alex Silverman, said that Apple TV+’s MLS Season Pass is averaging 120,000 unique viewers per match. That’s a 50% increase over last season.
Apple and MLS struck a 10-year broadcast deal in 2022 that is worth about $2.5 billion. That replaced the previous media rights deal with ESPN, Univision and Fox, and brought all MLS games behind a paywall within Apple TV+. As the league now streams games exclusively, viewership numbers have not been as accessible.
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By comparison, ESPN networks averaged more than 300,000 viewers for their MLS matches during the 2022 season — which was the final year before the Apple deal launched. The MLS All-Star Game that year drew a combined 1.53 million viewers, according to Sports Media Watch.
