Chelsea vs. M.L.S. Stars: A 'Smart' Match? The Brits are back, and Major League Soccer could not be happier - or at least the Anglophiles at the league's HQ in Midtown Manhattan could not be happier. For the eighth consecutive year, a club team from Britain - in this case, Chelsea - will play a collection of the best players from M.L.S., this year at PPL Park in Chester, Pa. And for the second consecutive year, the coach of the hometown team - in this case, Peter Nowak (who was also the coach when M.L.S. beat Chelsea six years ago) of the Philadelphia Union - will lead the league's best (last year at Red Bull Arena, Manchester United embarrassed the M.L.S. team, 4-0, which was directed by Red Bulls Coach Hans Backe). It seems the league simply cannot get enough. It will be the fifth consecutive year that a club team from England's Premier League will make the trip to North America. M.L.S. brought over Glasgow Celtic as the opposition in 2007 and won, 2-0, at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce, Colo. Chelsea returns after having lost to M.L.S., 1-0, in 2006 at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill. This time, Chelsea will not be coached by the Special One, Jose Mourinho, and it could be schlepping along a nice piece of silverware - Chelsea faces Barcelona next week in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals. "Hosting a club as successful and prominent as Chelsea makes the M.L.S. All-Star Game a destination event for the North American soccer community, one that will attract a global television audience," M.L.S. Commissioner Don Garber said. Our players relish the opportunity to challenge the world's best and play under the All-Star spotlight. On Tuesday, M.L.S. and Adidas, which is the league's uniform and gear supplier, announced that the all-star game would be the world's first "smart soccer match" by featuring the company's new team tracking system: micoach. " title="From Adidas site">According to Adidas: "The micoach professional soccer team tracking system provides coaches with "real-time performance metrics," including player position, power output, speed, distance covered, intensity of play, acceleration and G.P.S. heat mapping. It can then all be outputted and displayed on a mobile tablet or computer over a WiFi network. And, by a not-too-mere coincidence, Chelsea is also an Adidas team. Imagine that. The league's embrace of technology is laudable (its use of the Opta Chalkboards on its Web site consistently offers intriguing stats and information), but if it really wants to be a the forefront of SoccerTech, M.L.S. should offer, no make that insist, that it be the laboratory for any test by FIFA of goal-line technology. Now, that would be interesting ... instead of a chip in the shoe, a chip in the ball. Who would have thought? Do you think M.L.S. should continue with the current format of playing a team from outside the United States and Canada? Or would you like to see a bit more diversity and have the league seek teams from Spain, Italy and Germany (though German teams are reluctant to play because their season starts in early August ... but so does the English season.)? Or, finally, should the league dispense with the system and revert to playing East vs. West?