Walker Zimmerman was playing soccer tennis Tuesday morning on the National Mall against a team including Mexican rival Héctor Herrera and Thiago Almada, a World Cup winner for Argentina, when the U.S. men’s national team defender saw the ball floating enticingly, sized up a bicycle kick and went for an audacious overhead volley.
But his timing wasn’t quite right. As his kick soared errantly, Zimmerman hit the ground, theatrically spread his limbs and yelped toward the sky.
“You’re kind of going: ‘Should I do this? Should I not?’ ” Zimmerman said later with a grin, the Washington Monument looming over his shoulder. “And that moment of hesitation probably cost me a little bit.”
Conducted on a patch of closely cut grass placed just for the occasion, the lighthearted practice was no typical training session. Nashville SC’s Zimmerman — like the Houston Dynamo’s Herrera, Atlanta United’s Almada and the rest of the players lobbing and serving soccer balls on the Mall — was practicing with the MLS squad that will face English Premier League power Arsenal in the MLS All-Star Game on Wednesday night at Audi Field.
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Although Washington holds a storied place in MLS history after RFK Stadium hosted two All-Star Games and three MLS Cup finals, the nation’s capital hasn’t welcomed either of those showcase events since 2007 — well before Audi Field’s 2018 opening.
“To be able to look around and take in all of the incredible buildings, incredible events that have taken place here the last 300 years, it’s an incredible time,” said D.C. United goalkeeper Tyler Miller, a first-time all-star. “I think it’s a great opportunity for D.C., a city that’s so rich with diversity, so rich with culture.”
The all-star festivities also included a youth soccer clinic with President Biden and first lady Jill Biden at the White House on Monday and a skills competition Tuesday night at Audi Field, which Arsenal won on U.S. defender Auston Trusty’s decisive chip in the crossbar challenge. (The Gunners also won the shooting, touch and passing challenges; the MLS all-stars triumphed in the cross and volley challenge.) But as players, coaches, executives and agents descended on downtown Washington, where the league’s branding was splashed on several high-end hotels, a development a thousand miles away continued to dominate the discussion of all things MLS.
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Around the same time the all-stars were working out on the Mall, seven-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi was taking part in his first practice session since signing with MLS side Inter Miami last week. Messi, 36, may be on the tail end of his career, but his transcendent stardom and recent march to the World Cup title with Argentina make his signing a watershed moment for a 28-year-old league that has never claimed to compete with Europe’s top circuits.
“The history and the way the league has developed over the last 20 years is phenomenal,” Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta said. “The traction that it’s getting across Europe now, it’s very different to what it was before. Now, obviously the decision that they made to take the league much further by bringing in top talent and the best-ever footballer on this planet is going to put the league in the spotlight.”
Messi’s arrival came with MLS already barreling toward new levels of global relevance. This season has marked the beginning of a 10-year, $2.5 billion broadcast deal with Apple that has amplified the league’s exposure and financial muscle. After MLS was born out of the 1994 World Cup in the United States, the tournament will return to provide another jolt on American turf (as well as Mexico and Canada) in 2026.
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“We want to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said. “We’ve proved to the world that we could at least compete with the top player in the world. But how do we capture the hearts and minds of fans around the world? How do we capture the hearts and minds of every player?”
One player who has bought the MLS sales pitch is English icon Wayne Rooney, who played with D.C. United in 2018 and 2019, returned as the club’s coach last summer and is overseeing the MLS squad in the All-Star Game. While the all-stars won’t want to risk injury or exhaustion during a midseason exhibition, a chance to show off the league’s top talent against Arsenal does count for something.
“One thing you can never take away from a player is that pride and passion to play and try and win,” Rooney said. “It’s an opportunity for the players to show their ability against a top team.”
The All-Star Game also offers a chance to see unlikely combinations or reunions — such as Rooney and FC Cincinnati’s Luciano Acosta, the Argentine playmaker who forged an electric partnership with the Englishman over their season-and-a-half together in D.C. (“I was actually just trying to convince him to come back to D.C.,” Rooney quipped at a news conference with Acosta chuckling at his side.)
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Arsenal will be working to integrate such high-profile signings as Dutch defender Jurrien Timber and English midfielder Declan Rice ahead of the Premier League’s mid-August start. Folarin Balogun, a 22-year-old striker who recently committed to the U.S. national team over England and Nigeria after a prolific season on loan in France, is looking to work his way up Arteta’s depth chart (or show transfer suitors what he can do). And Arsenal’s surge up to second in the Premier League last season has the Gunners bracing for another title push.
“After what we did last year, I think a lot of people are going, ‘What is next?’ ” Arteta said. “When you’re Arsenal, you have to handle that [pressure], for sure.”
Wednesday night, however, will be more about celebration than scrutiny. Speaking to reporters on the Mall, Zimmerman took a moment to reflect on not just the all-star occasion but the totality of American soccer’s momentum ahead of the 2026 World Cup. Also coming up on U.S. soil: the 2024 Copa América (which will feature the top national teams from North and South America) and a vastly expanded version of the Club World Cup in 2025.
“There’s a lot of exciting things happening in the soccer landscape in the U.S.,” Zimmerman said. “We’re really growing the league. It feels like we’re in a good spot, and I can’t imagine what it’s going to look like five or 10 years from now.”
Bailey Johnson contributed to this report.
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