The tradition has been brought back by MLS, and is now once again part of the All Star Game landscape
AUSTIN, Texas – The Goalie Wars belt is heavier than it looks. It’s an imposing thing, all dark leather, save for one giant silver buckle across the middle. The design would make sense. It may be a Championship Belt, but it is meant more to be held aloft, or slung across the shoulder in victory.
Either way, it is a statement piece, one awarded to the winner of Goalie Wars, a revived, revamped, and reimagined version of an old training ground game that MLS used in its All-Star festivities some 20 years ago. Now, it’s in its third year back in existence, and has become a hallmark of the week in its own right – as well as a nod to the good old days of the game in America.
“I love it. Goalie Wars is the best thing to happen ever,” Austin FC goalkeeper Brad Stuver said.
GOAL dives into Goalie Wars origins and how it reemerged as an All-Star week favorite…
Get the MLS Season Pass today!Stream games nowGettyA training ground favorite
Goalie Wars is a relatively simple principle. Zoom out, and it makes perfect sense. Goalies spend 90 minutes trying to keep the ball out of the net. What if they also had the chance to score?
It’s a strange question, but one that the game answers in full. MLS’s setup is rather simple. Two goals are set, roughly 20 yards apart. The goalkeepers are allowed to throw or punt the ball at the opposing net. Once they control it, they have six seconds to release it. This goes on for 90 seconds, at which point the goalie who has found the back of the net the most times wins. Easy enough.
At the MLS skills challenge, four MLS Next Pro goalies are chosen to take part. They are matched up in semifinals, before the two winners round off the evening with a championship game.
But what seems to be a slightly dorky, stereotypically American thing, made for the TikTok brain and the doomscroll age, reaches far back. It has long been a training ground favorite for goalies. Their drills can be tedious, repetitive. They spend most of their time getting shot at, forwards and midfielders pinging balls their way. It is a thankless thing.
AdvertisementChattanooga FC'Can we play goalie wars at the end to have fun?'
Goalie Wars subverts that narrative. “We grew up, and it was like that’s what we went to goalkeeper training for,” Stuver said. “It was ‘yeah we’re doing goalkeeper training,’ but like, can we play goalie wars at the end to have fun?” It made waves at the 2001 All-Star Game, San Jose Earthquakes goalie Joe Cannon – a wonderful name for his position – winning the first, and only iteration of the competition (though one would wonder what a young Tim Howard would do if he wasn’t ruled out due to injury.)
But the competition disappeared thereafter, and returned in 2023, renewed for MLS Next Pro keepers. And the (mostly) younger guys have slugged it out for the belt every year. Prior to Tuesday’s iteration, the four competitors mostly played it cool. Eldin Jakupovic, a 40-year-old journeyman who has had stops in multiple European clubs but now plays his craft for Chattanooga FC, brushed off the competitiveness.
He admitted he knew what it was, but had to Google the rules and re-learn the game through YouTube. Twenty-one-year-old Pedro Cruz, who stars for Houston Dynamo II, just emphasized it was an honor to be selected for the event.
“Of course I really want to win, I will try my best once I get out here, but just being here feels good,” he said. Adisa De Rosario, son of MLS great Dwayne De Rosario, and Orlando City 2’s Carlos Mercado also played it cool. But in pre-competition media duties, the four of them sat around a table, staring enviously at that belt.
“We're honored to be selected, and you're happy to be selected. But as you approach this, like any other game, you always come into the game to win. You always join competitions with the idea that you want to win,” Jakupovic said.
GettyIShowSpeed dominates proceedings
And once the competition started, there was no stopping it. The whole thing felt a bit surreal.
IShowSpeed, influencer, streamer, and spokesperson for the American soccer landscape, was there, for some reason. He awoke a dormant crowd, all hops, skips, jumps, and yelps as he swaggered onto the pitch.
Eventually, attention turned to Goalie Wars. Cruz battered De Rosario to open the competition. Mercado sent Jakupovic home – and punched the air in delight after. Cruz went one better in the final, besting Mercado with a series of rips into the top corner. Speed stood next to him as he lifted the trophy, spoke in broken Portuguese, and Cruz looked slightly baffled as he lofted the trophy. He strolled off in celebration, the belt slung over his shoulder – that heavy thing finding one more owner as a tradition trundles along.
Getty'They just love playing it'
Perhaps that's the point. It may be a confusing thing – now celebrity, streaming, and TikTok-ified.
“It’s super laid back, it’s super fun, but it just gets competitive. Goalkeepers that have grown up here and have done it for so long, they just love playing it,” Stuver said.
And that much is clear. This thing may have disappeared for 20 years, but it still holds value – whether it be for the MLS fans who have watched the league for years, or the 21-year-old hoisting the belt for the first time.