MLS All-Star Game to feature Marvel Comics designed ball

The MLS All-Star game looks set to get a little super this season. A new Adidas ball has been posted for sale – the MLS All-Star Game ball, featuring the Marvel Avengers superhero team.

MLS All-Star Game Marvel Ball

The design of the ball carries over the angular pinwheel shapes from the standard 2023 match ball. But here, the color scheme is mostly black, grey and gold.

Most notable is the inclusion of the famous red Marvel logo, and the Avengers themselves. Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye and (if you look closely) Captain America are visible. This of course is the core Avengers lineup made wildly famous by the eponymous 2012 Marvel Cinematic Universe film. In addition, different colored circles that resemble the Iron Man suit’s chest arc reactor, or perhaps the Infinity Stones, appear at confluences in the ball seams.

It’s certainly an interesting cross-promotion. We haven’t seen anything on the field promoting a specific media franchise quite like this since Atletico Madrid’s 2003/04 rotating movie shirt sponsors (one of which was Spider-Man).

And it definitely adds some over-the-top American kitsch to an event that soccer traditionalists already consider to be frivolous. The general soccer world doesn’t take the MLS All-Star Game seriously, so they might as well have some fun with it, right?

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The ball is part of a larger celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Avengers by Marvel. Additional promotions and theme nights will be taking place with the NFL, MLB, WNBA, and MiLB throughout the year.

The MLS All-Star team takes on Arsenal on July 19th, at Audi Field in Washington, D.C. We’ll just have to wait and see if the MLS squad will need the Avengers to step in and save the day against the English powerhouse. You can click here to find tickets.

If you can’t make it to the game, the MLS All-Star Game against Arsenal is live worldwide on MLS Season Pass on Wednesday, July 19.