Union's Maurice Edu Ready For MLS All-Star Game
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is tonight in Portland. The MLS squad will take on the powerful German club Bayern Munich.
One member of the Philadelphia Union will be taking part in the game. Midfielder/defender Maurice Edu was added to the all-star roster over the weekend. This will be his first MLS All-Star Game appearance.
"It is a great honor," Edu tells KYW Newsradio. "Not just for myself, but I think it's a credit to my club and the success we've had over the course of this year and I'm very grateful to the organization and to my teammates for helping me get to this stage and have this accolade."
Edu has three goals and two assists in 19 games for the Union this season. He says the entire All-Star experience is special.
"From meeting the guys, it's always a good group of guys in here," Edu says. "We enjoy each other's company. It's a good chance for us to all catch up and take part in the different events, interact with the fans and represent the league well. And then obviously the game. That's what we love to do. Playing soccer is what we all love to do, it's our passion, and now we get a chance to play against one of the best teams in the world. These opportunities don't come around too often so it's definitely exciting for all of us and we're all looking forward to it."
Edu and the Union sit at 5-8-9. With 24 points they are 7th in the ten-team Eastern Conference, but they are right in the middle of the race for a playoff spot. Edu likes the direction the arrow is pointing for the squad.
"I'm very excited," Edu says. "I was excited at the beginning of the season, I've always been confident in this group of guys that we have here and nothing's really changed. We know it's a long season. When we weren't getting the results that we maybe thought we deserved, it was difficult but we still kept a positive mindset and now we're starting to see the benefit and the rewards of the hard work we've put in. There's still quite a bit of ways to go. We're confident, we're positive about what we can achieve this year. And the next few games that's what we're trying to do, we're trying to break down the rest of this season into small collections of games and just try and go from there. Put together a good run, get into the playoffs and see where we can go from there."
Philadelphia returns to the pitch on Saturday night, at home, against Montreal at 7:00pm.
The MLS All-Star Game in Portland gets underway tonight at 9:30pm.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
Maurice Edu
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