Major League Soccer guide - history, titles, league map

Full Name: Major League Soccer
Founded: 1996
Level: 1
Teams: 15
Record Champions: DC United, 4

Official Website: mlsnet.com

Description:

Major League Soccer was founded in 1996 as yet another attempt to jump start professional soccer in the United States. In an effort to combat the overspending widely blamed for the collapse of the NASL, which lasted from 1967 to 1984, the league is organized in a unique owner-investor model in which all the clubs are technically owned by the league. It's a confusing setup but has so far worked to keep costs down and, after some initial stumbles, the league is in a period of solid growth. The San Jose Earthquakes rejoined the league in 2008, Seattle came on board for 2009, Philadelphia will be joining for 2010, Vancouver and Portland for 2011 and two additional teams (not yet decided) for 2012. If you're doing the math that will be 20 teams by 2012, meaning the league will have doubled in size in only eight years.

Major League Soccer awards two trophies each season. The MLS Supporters' Shield (actually initiated by a group of MLS supporters groups) goes to the team that finishes first place in the regular season. Meanwhile the playoff winner receives the MLS Cup and is considered the league champion.

2009 Major League Soccer Map:

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Format:

The 15 teams are divided into two conferences (Eastern and Western) of seven and eight teams. MLS plays a system of regular season plus playoffs. Each team plays every other team twice (home and away) as well as 2 additional games against selected opponents. This adds up to a 30 game regular season. The top two teams from each conference plus the next four in the overall standings qualify for the playoffs. The regular season runs from mid-March to mid-October.

The eight teams that qualify for the playoffs are seeded based on regular season ranking, with the two conference champions getting the top two seeds. The quarterfinal round is home and away, the semifinal round is single game (hosted by the higher seed) and the final is single game at a pre-selected site.

There is no relegation from Major League Soccer nor is there promotion from the second-tier USL-1. However the Seattle Sounders recently made the jump and Portland and Vancouver will be making a similar move in 2011 so the door is at least partially open for a well-run USL-1 team in the right market to eventually join MLS.

MLS Cup Winners:

4 DC United

2 Houston Dynamo
2 Los Angeles Galaxy
2 San Jose Earthquakes

1 Chicago Fire
1 Columbus Crew
1 Kansas City Wizards
1 Real Salt Lake

MLS Supporters' Shield Winners:

4 DC United

3 Columbus Crew

2 Los Angeles Galaxy

1 Chicago Fire
1 Kansas City Wizards
1 Miami Fusion
1 San Jose Earthquakes
1 Tampa Bay Mutiny

Links:

• Dynamo Planet - Dynamo Planet is the first social network based on the social aspect of an MLS atmosphere. All content are from people like you worldwide.
• MLS Supporters' Shield
• Soccer Insider
• Soccer by Ives