Shoot this retro footage of the MLS All-Star Skills Competition right into our veins

The 2018 MLS All-Star Game is next week. There's a good chance this is news to you and, given the game's seemingly perpetual identity crisis, that's OK. It all began in 1996 with a traditional East-West format. In 1998, the MLS pitted their domestic stars vs. their international counterparts. Fours years later, they played the U.S. Men's National Team. After that, the MLS moved to their present-day format of All-Stars vs. random European mega-club…except for 2004, when they went back to East-West matchup for some reason. In other words, the only way to feel about the MLS All-Star Game is confused.
In those early days, however, lost in a kaleidoscope swirl of frosted tips, Microsoft Paint jersey designs, and format tinkering, lies a hidden gem of American sports: The MLS Skills Competition—an unabashedly Y2K grab-bag of semi-soccer related challenges including everything from long-kick competitions to something called “Goalie Wars”, where two goalies would stand 10..

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