MLS All-Stars Of Juventus On Penalties

Champions Juventus series A got the best of All-Stars of Major League Soccer in a penalty shootout on Aug 1, after an entertaining 1-1 draw in the mid-season exhibition of the North American league. In front of the crowd of 72,317 at the Stadium of Mercedes-Benz home of Atlanta United MLS – Juventus succeed in the shoot-out with the score 5-3 after Bradley Wright-Phillips the New York Red Bulls forward missed his penalty attempt.

When Wright-Phillips’ try jump off the post and left Juventus up by 4-3, the Mattia De Sciglio fired the ball past Zack Steffen, the Columbus goalkeeper at the upper left corner to settle it. In the last 21 minutes, Andrea Favilli had the responsibility to put Juventus ahead, heading in a curling cross by Matheus Pereira. The All-Stars of MLS football, chosen from around the league via fan voting, pulled the match level in the last 26th minute through Josef Martinez of Atlanta United – the Venezuela star as well as the former Torino forward. He leads MLS football with 24 goals in all 23 matches.

Wojciech Szczęsny, the Juventus keeper saved the first effort, but after a mess up in the area, Martinez hit the ball to score made his home crowd jumped in euphoria. Martinez said, “This week has been all moving here. For this I have to thank all my fans in Atlanta for the kind of support they showed on the ground. This was the most wonderful experience in this game.”

It second straight year when All-Star Game ended in the 1-1 draw and go to a shoot-out. In 2017, Real Madrid beat the All-Stars with the score 4-2 on penalties in Chicago in the Soldier Field. For the MLS football All-Star game, the crowd was the largest ever. In the 2010 edition, the crowd strength was 70,728 in Houston.