Tony Meola Exclusive: Former Star Talks MLS, USMNT and Life After Tim Howard

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at Internationaled.org

Published: August 4, 2014

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In his United States men's national team career, which spanned nearly two decades, Tony Meola earned 100 caps for the Americans and represented the team in three World Cups.

These days, in addition to his work as a commentator and as a coach with the U.S. youth national team setup, Meola works with Allstate to promote youth soccer in underserved communities.

This week, as part of that work, he's in Portland where Major League Soccer will be hosting its All-Star game against Bayern Munich on Wednesday. While there, Meola and Allstate will surprise a local youth team and supply the team with new uniforms, warm-ups, bags, balls and tickets to the All-Star game.

"Basically, we outfit an entire team," Meola told Bleacher Report. "And, in the end, we give them tickets to the [All-Star] game. The fact that they get to go to these big events...that's the coolest part for me."

For the All-Star game itself, Meola expects a wide-open game—the type he wouldn't want to be in the net for.

"From a goalkeeper's standpoint, they're not always fun," Meola said laughing. "[It's] always an open game, always a lot of goals, it seems, in the All-Star game. Guys are willing to take risks a little bit more than they would with their club teams. Because of that, it always makes for a lot of fun."



Still, Meola doesn't think anyone should read too much into the result of the game, whatever it is.

He said: "I read a lot about the LA Galaxy losing to Manchester United, but there are other instances where [MLS] beat Chelsea. I don't think we can get too caught up in that stuff. I know the mentality of the players. They look at it as a period of time off."

Win or lose, Meola sees MLS as a league on the rise, in his estimation on par with the English Championship.

"We can compete with [any other league]," Meola said. "There's so many different variables. I would say the [E...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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