by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Jul 29, 2015

Pablo Mastroeni

's first MLS All-Star Game was in 2000 as a last-minute fill-in. The league was in a different place then with just 12 teams, divided into three divisions. It somehow found a way to divide the players into East-West teams in a game the East won, 9-4.Mastroeni, who will coach the MLS All-Stars in Wednesday's AT&T MLS All-Star Game against Tottenham, says there's no comparison in the talent between then and now and thinks a return to East vs. West with a twist would be great."We were still playing East vs. West," said Mastroeni, the head coach of the host Colorado Rapids, "and there wasn't enough talent to make that game as exciting as it could potentially be today. I think moving forward as this league continues to grow, I there is a shout to consider the East vs. West game as you continue to get great talent coming in to showcase in a way that's ultra-competitive. Major League Baseball does it where it the West wins, the West hosts MLS Cup. That's just super-exciting stuff to think about."

Since 2005, MLS has bought in a top foreign team to face the All-Stars. The game has had considerable success, reaching new heights last year when the MLS All-Stars beat Bayern Munich, 2-1, in a match that saw Thierry Henry -- a huge proponent of the international format -- make his presumptive farewell and Landon Donovan score for the MLS All-Stars a day before announcing he was retiring.



The game was so competitive that Bayern coach Pep Guardiola did not like some of the All-Stars' challenges and refused to shake hands with Caleb Porter, the All-Stars' coach, immediately after the game.



One should expect Tottenham to take Wednesday's game more seriously than Bayern Munich, whose six German World Cup champions arrived the day of the game from vacation. It will be Spurs' first official preseason game, but it comes just 10 days before it opens the 2015 EPL season against Manchester United.



What is different about MLS then and now is that it had 12 teams in 2000 vs. 20 teams in 2015 and it didn't have the array of international stars it has now.



Just 14 of the 20 teams will be represented on the MLS All-Stars. Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard have both been scratched from the MLS team, but it includes such first-year stars as Kaka, David Villa and Sebastian Giovinco.



Michael Bradley also dropped out but six other players on the USA's Gold Cup roster are with the MLS All-Stars, in addition to DeAndre Yedlin on Tottenham.



Clint Dempsey, the top scorer at the Gold Cup, said a change to a East-West format would give the league a chance to best showcase more players.



"I like the East vs. West thing as well," Dempsey said. "I think the more players you reward, the better."



One issue is how to make an all-star game fun but meaningful. For many years -- in the days before interleague play -- the Major League Baseball All-Star Game thrived because of the competition between the National and American Leagues. In one stretch, the National League won 19 of 20 games, including 11 in a row from 1972 to 1982.



In a Facebook chat with fans on Tuesday, Garber said there was some consideration to going back to East vs. West but "there was some work to do."



He said the league was considering ways to make the All-Star Game better. One idea a fan threw out MLS vs. Liga MX all-stars. Garber's response: "A great idea and something we would like to see happen!"



2015 MLS All-Stars:

Goalkeeper: David Ousted (Vancouver Whitecaps), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake).

Defenders: DaMarcus Beasley (Houston Dynamo), Tony Beltran (Real Salt Lake), Matt Besler (Sporting KC), Laurent Ciman (Montreal Impact), Waylon Francis (Columbus Crew), Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), Chad Marshall (Seattle Sounders), Drew Moor (Colorado Rapids).

Midfielders: Fabian Castillo (FC Dallas), Sam Cronin (Colorado Rapids), Benny Feilhaber (Sporting KC), Ethan Finlay (Columbus Crew), Juninho (LA Galaxy), Kaka (Orlando City), Dax McCarty (NY Red Bulls), Gyasi Zardes (LA Galaxy), Graham Zusi (Sporting KC).

Forwards: Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders), Sebastian Giovinco (Toronto FC), Kei Kamara (Columbus Crew SC), David Villa (New York City).