We've just wrapped up another MLS All-Star week, culminating with the MLS All-Star Game presented by Target, in which the league's top guys took on Real Madrid at Chicago's Soldier Field. (Read the official recap of that match here).
But leading up to all of that was plenty of craziness throughout the great city of Chicago. Just about every day felt like a week's worth of amazing and surreal activities -- and my vlog here takes you up close with some of the best ones.
In this episode, here's just a sampling of what happens:
We catch up with Kellyn Acosta and Ignacio Piatti at MLS' Digital HQ
We visit the legendary Shedd Aquarium with Matt Lampson, goalkeeper for the Chicago Fire
We watch Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Zinedine Zidane, and Gareth Bale arrive at their hotel, flanked by screaming fans and paparazzi
We see Bastian Schweinsteiger discuss his love for MLS, up close
We watch Real Madrid train just a few feet away
We ride a helicopter with Sebastian Giovinco, MLS legend Dwayne De Rosario, and Nemanja Nikolic, and watch them and Dax McCarty, John Goossens, and Piatti again all race cars on a test track
We watch the actual All-Star match, in which Marcelo makes a fan weep with the gift of his shirt
We get up close during the match action and watch from the sidelines as all the biggest stars stroll by, like no big deal
....That's not even everything -- like I said, a lot happened; it felt like a year in less than a week. Of course, there's a stop for Chicago-style pizza too. Check it all out in the video!