Background
Major League Soccer's first all-star game was played at Giants Stadium in the summer of 1996. The game, using the traditional East–West format with players handpicked by the coaching staffs, was the first game of a doubleheader with the Brazilian national team defeating a team of FIFA world all-stars. The matchup between divisions, as first pioneered by Major League Baseball's All-Star Game, would only be used for six seasons as MLS tried experimenting with different formats. The 1998 All-Star Game placed a team of American MLS players against MLS players from abroad. The 2002 game, the first to use a league-wide all-star team, is the only game to feature a national team opponent. Since then every opponent has been a professional club invited by the league. The MLS All-Stars won their first six games before falling to Everton in penalties in 2009.
Read more about this topic: Major League Soccer All-Star Game
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