The 2005 MLS All-Star Game will be hosted by Columbus July 30. It will pit the best of MLS against 15th-place English Premier League club Fulham.
Fulham, whose squad includes former Columbus Crew star Brian McBride and former Chicago defender Carlos Bocanegra, is six points above the relegation zone.
The MLS All-Star Game included a foreign club once before, 10-time Mexican League champion Chivas of Guadalajara, which the MLS All-Stars beat 3-1 in 2003. Other All-Star games have been intra-league clashes, MLS vs. U.S. national team or MLS Americans vs. MLS foreigners.
Fulham, whose highest finish in the English Premier League was ninth-place in 2003-04, includes in its squad Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, Canadian forward Tomasz Radzinski, English forward Andrew Cole and Senegalese midfielder Papa Bouba Diop.