All-Star game reduced for singer

Major League Soccer cut the first half of its All-Star game in Washington DC by 15 minutes on Saturday in order to put the half-time show by the singer Paulina Rubio on national television.

The game was first stopped during a rain storm after 20 minutes of play. Action resumed 58 minutes later, but after 10 more minutes it was stopped again to make way for the half-time show.

"We felt it was the right decision to make on what we were trying to deliver to our television audience and what we were trying to deliver to our audience in the stands," the MLS commissioner Don Garber said. He added that the decision was his, not ABC's.

The half-time show featured a sponsor's name on two large inflatable bottles, the stage and the bandanas of dozens of dancers. After it had finished, ABC stopped its coverage of the game, with the score 1-1 in the 26th minute of the second half, to return to local programming.

"They could have asked Paulina to play 10 more minutes," the Dallas forward Jason Kreis said.

In the abbreviated game, the MLS All-Stars beat the US national team 3-2.