Tottenham Hotspur will begin their pre-season campaign on Thursday morning when they take on the MLS All-Stars side.

Spurs are the final Premier League side to begin their pre-season fixtures with just little over a week until they kick-off of their season, with a trip to face Manchester United on August 8 first up.

Spurs to field strong line-up

Coach Mauricio Pochettino has named a competitive side to travel to Colorado to play the best that the American league has to offer. The headline players that will be travelling to the States are US international DeAndre Yedlin and star striker Harry Kane.

Former Seattle Sounders man Yedlin left the States to move to London in January of this year, after impressing at the World Cup in Brazil the previous summer, whilst Kane became the breakout star of the 2014-15 season, scoring 21 Premier League goals and 31 overall - the first Spurs player to score over 30 in one season since legendary striker Gary Linker did so in the 1991-92 campaign.

Kane has spoken about how much of a test the match against the All-Stars will be, predicting it to be a “tough game,” but the England international has insisted that this is “what [Spurs] want.”

Pochettino speaks ahead of clash with the best of the MLS

No matter the result, Tottenham manager Pochettino has insisted that he will not follow in the footsteps of Bayern Munich's Pep Guardiola as, after Bayern’s 2-1 defeat to the All Stars last year, the coach refused to shake the hand of the MLS side's acting manager, Caleb Porter.

Win or lose, Pochettino has said that he will not go the same way with this year’s coach Pablo Mastroeni, stating that he would “never deny a handshake to the opposing coach.”

The Argentine went onto say he and his Spurs side are “really happy” to be playing in this game and admitted that it is a “big honour” to participate in the match.

Spurs to come up against star-studded squad

The All-Stars will be looking to claim another scalp this summer after their victory over the German champions the previous summer.

They have a very good chance of defeating their Premier League side too with a host of names that have been considered some of the best players in the world. There will be lot of recognisable to fans both sides of the pond with; Steven Gerrard, David Villa, Robbie Keane and Kaka all set to take part in the match.

One name that will be especially familiar to Spurs fans will be Seattle Sounders' forward Clint Dempsey, who moved from White Hart Lane to the Sounders back in 2013.

Dempsey is looking forward to be reunited with his old side, saying Tottenham was a team he “enjoyed playing for” and, with friends still in the Spurs squad, the 32-year-old is “looking forward to seeing them and catching up.”

The MLS All-Stars will host Tottenham at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Colorado, on Thursday July 30th with kick-off at 02:15am (BST).

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About the author
Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.