Speculating about who Major League Soccer is going to host at their annual All-Star game is fun, but thanks to the wonders of the internet, it’s pretty easy to see that people are very quickly jumping to conclusions on the issue, if not blatantly making things up. Consider: There has been a lot of speculation that FC Barcelona is going to be the all-star opponent. This speculation was perpetuated by Steve Davis at Daily Soccer Fix about a month and a half ago. Steve also does work for MLSSoccer.com and Sports Illustrated, so when he says something, it’s not a mom’s basement blogger talking out of their rear end. However, we now have counter-speculation that Manchester United will be making a second consecutive appearance in the MLS All-Star game, proving that this is all an exercise in people with too much time on their hands speculating about things they don’t know.

The best part about this is that the United rumor is also not being perpetuated by people who make up random things. Instead, this rumor comes via Christopher Harris of Major League Soccer Talk. I’m lead to believe that Chris actually does have some legitimate sources in U.S. soccer, and that he, like Steve Davis, has likely received his information from a usually reliable source.

So, is it possible that MLS was in negotiations with Barcelona and those talks fell through? Possibly. It’s also possible that they were never that serious in the first place. And who knows about whether or not the Manchester United speculation is the least bit legitimate. Personally, unless someone else posts something extremely amusing, I’m willing to wait for the announcement at this point.