(Times staff / ERIC HARTLINE)

Jack McInerney will be an All-Star after all.
 

The Union striker earned a place on the gameday roster for Major League Soccer’s summer showcase match, being selected Sunday by All-Star Game manager Peter Vermes to replace New York midfielder Tim Cahill.

The MLS Stars will face AS Roma Wednesday night at 9 p.m. at Sporting Park in Kansas City.

For McInerney, the All-Star nod must feel like sweet vindication. The 20-year-old forward, who ranks fourth in the league with 10 goals in 19 matches, was passed over for the All-Star Game during the initial fan vote procedure, then by MLS commissioner Don Garber, who gets to add a few players of his own choosing to the roster.

McInerney had played off his omission coolly in the last couple days, upon returning to the Union from the first United States national team call-up of his career, though the fourth-year pro had to feel at least slightly jilted. When he got the call to join the American squad in Gold Cup pool play, he was MLS’ Golden Boot leader. When he returned, he had slid in the league’s scoring leaders list and been overlooked for an All-Star spot.

The All-Star selection is the first for McInerney, who was drafted seventh overall by the Union in 2010. The news must have made for a pretty epic Sunday for McInerney. Though he had been released from the U.S. team’s Gold Cup roster for the knockout stages, McInerney was in Chicago for the American team’s win in the Gold Cup final, and was tweeting pictures of himself from the locker room holding the championship trophy only minutes after his All-Star Game nod had become official.

Vermes’ selection of McInerney gives the Union at least one All-Star Game representative in each of the club’s four seasons of existence. Sebastien Le Toux played in the 2010 match, Faryd Mondragon got on the pitch in 2011, and Michael Farfan and Carlos Valdes both subbed on in the 2012 exhibition, which was played at the Union’s PPL Park.