2024 Season

Maarten Paes and Petar Musa Play 30 Minutes Each in 2024 MLS All-Star Game

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COLUMBUS, Ohio ā€“ FC Dallas duo Maarten Paes and Petar Musa competed in the 2024 MLS All-Star that saw the Liga MX All-Stars triumph 4-1 at the Columbus Crewā€™s Lower.com Field Wednesday night.

ā€œIt was an amazing experience,ā€ Paes said after the game. ā€œAll the days, the training, and the game too. I really enjoyed it. And that was for me was the key of the week was to enjoy it. As an athlete and a competitor you want to win. But overall, I'm really, really proud of what I achieved. It was a huge honor.ā€

ā€œIt is really nice to be here, it is a privilege to share the field with such great players,ā€ said Musa, who was a late addition to the team. ā€œIt was fun for me. Iā€™m really happy and grateful to represent FC Dallas here.ā€

GermĆ”n Berterame opened the scoring for Liga MX in the 16th minute with a pinpoint header but Columbusā€™ own Cucho Hernandez equalized a minute later for the MLS All-Stars. His goal drew deafening roars from the home supporters within the Crewā€™s Lower.com Field. The stars from south of the border took the lead again four minutes from halftime when Oussama Idrissi beat Roman BĆ¼rki with a curling effort from outside the box.

Both Paes and Musa entered the fray in the 66th minute with the MLS All-Stars still trailing 2-1. The change coincided with more pressure from the Liga MX All-Stars and they capitalized by scoring two goals within five minutes from 1v1 situations.

"I hope the fans at home are proud of us," Paes said. "Petar almost scored too, I was hoping that he would hit one. It's a huge honor to do it with him. We were warming up at the same time and we both thought 'wow, this is a cool moment for us'...I thank everyone. Thank you voting, thank you for watching. Thank you for always supporting me and I will keep on working every day to be the best person and best goalkeeper."

Musa went close to scoring MLSā€™s second goal when his first-time took a deflection toward the far post but goalkeeper Fernando Tapia saved it with his fingertips. Paes had his first involvement soon after when Memo MartĆ­nez went through on goal but Dallasā€™ ā€˜keeper made a foot-save to parry the shot.

ā€œIt is an honor for us to be here and play together with such great players, especially my teammate Maarten (Paes)," Musa said. "Iā€™m very happy for him because he deserved to be here...Iā€™m super happy that we had the opportunity to bring in my family. This is also the first game for my son so I am just really, really happy that they were there in the stadium to watch me.ā€