Major League Soccer
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Major League Soccer (MLS) is the top-flight professional soccer league in the United States and was founded in 1996, after the country hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup.[1] With fourteen teams, thirteen in the U.S. and one in Canada, MLS represents the top tier of the American and Canadian soccer pyramids. Seasons run from late March or early April to November, with teams playing 30 regular season games each. Eight teams from the league compete in a post-season playoff, which culminates in the championship final, MLS Cup.
Founded on December 17, 1993, MLS was established to fulfill a promise to FIFA from Alan Rothenberg and the US Soccer Federation to establish a "Division One" professional soccer league in exchange for staging the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The league began play in 1996 with ten teams.
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[edit] Competition format
The 2008 regular season runs from March 29 to October 26. The 14 teams in the league are split into the Eastern and Western Conferences with seven teams each. Each team plays 30 games over the course of 31 weeks, evenly divided between home and away matches. Each team plays every other team twice, home and away, for a total of 26 games. The remaining four games are intra-conference matches, often highlighting geographic and conference rivalries. The full schedule for the 2008 Major League Soccer season was announced in February 2008. The postseason runs from October 30 to November 23, culminating with MLS Cup 2008 at The Home Depot Center in Carson, CA.
With its win at the MLS Cup, the Houston Dynamo qualified for the final CONCACAF Champions' Cup. D.C. United also qualified for the CONCACAF Champions' Cup by virtue of its winning the MLS Supporters' Shield for the top regular-season record.
One Canadian and four American teams will play in the inaugural CONCACAF Champions League in late 2008 and early 2009. The MLS Cup Champion, Supporters' Shield winner, MLS Cup runner-up, and Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup champion will each participate in the tournament. Because the New England Revolution were both the MLS runners-up and Open Cup champions, the MLS team with the next-highest regular season point total, Chivas USA, will participate.[2] D.C. United and the Houston Dynamo will be automatically seeded into the group stage, while New England and Chivas USA will play in a preliminary stage. Toronto FC had a possibility to qualify for the Canadian slot in the tournament after playing the Vancouver Whitecaps and Montreal Impact of the United Soccer Leagues in the Canadian Championship but the Canadian slot went to Montreal Impact.
SuperLiga, an MLS- Primera División de México competition, enters its second year during July and early August. Houston Dynamo (MLS Champion), New England Revolution (MLS runner-up), D.C. United (Supporters' Shield winner and Eastern Conference champion) and Chivas USA (Western Conference champion) played in the 2008 tournament.
[edit] References
- ^ "About Major League Soccer", MLSnet (September 05, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-09-05.
- ^ Butler, Dylan (May 14, 2007). "Champions League format unveiled", MLSnet. Retrieved on 2008-05-14.
[edit] See also
- ESPN MLS ExtraTime 2002
- ESPN MLS GameNight
- List of current MLS players
- List of current MLS players with national team caps
- List of foreign MLS players
- Major League Soccer records and statistics
- Major North American professional sports leagues
- MLS Direct Kick
- MLS ExtraTime
- MLS Primetime Thursday
- MLS Soccer Saturday
- MLS Wrap
- National Soccer Hall of Fame
- Sueño MLS
- World Series of Football
- Un-attached MLS players
