Houston Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear has the enviable position of forming a lineup from 18 of the best players in the MLS. "It's a little bit difficult (to mesh all of the players together), but good players play good all of the time, no matter who they are around," Kinnear said, who leads the MLS All-Stars against Everton Wednesday evening in Utah (ESPN2, Galavision, 9:30 pm ET).

This version of the All-Star squad makes the usually difficult job of sorting out a balanced lineup easier than in years past. Kinnear has many versatile defenders at his disposal including Chicago's Wilman Conde, Houston's Geoff Cameron and Columbus' Chad Marshall. Kinnear is expected to put out an attack-minded 3-4-3 formation, with Conde and Cameron playing on the wings while midfielder Kyle Beckerman provides cover for the defense. "That will be my job," Beckerman said. "We have to make sure that we don't forget about defense and let these guys really go forward and get after them and be creative. I'll try and give them the ball and when they lose it, I'll try and get it back. It's an important job for tomorrow. I'll take it with pride and have fun with it."

But Kinnear doesn't want to stifle the creativity of the players at his disposal. "When you get a group like this - and you see it in all of the other sports when they have their all-star teams - they may feel free to try things a bit more skillfully," Kinnear said. "A lot of the stuff comes off because great minds think alike and great players think alike. It should be fairly easy."

 

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