List of Major League Soccer seasons

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Major League Soccer is the premier professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. As of 2023, it consists of 29 teams: 26 in the United States and 3 in Canada. The league has played since 1996. Each year, it plays a league which determines entry into the playoffs. The league is divided into two conferences, the Eastern Conference and Western Conference. In 2000 and 2001, there was also a Central Conference. The team with the overall best regular-season record is awarded the Supporters' Shield, one of three major domestic trophies in North American soccer (the others being the national championships—the U.S. Open Cup or the Canadian Championship—and the primary trophy: the MLS Cup league championship). In 2010 and 2011, the league played as a double round robin, with each team playing each other team one home and away—creating a balanced schedule. With an unsuitable number of teams beginning in 2012, the league has moved to an unbalanced schedule weighted towards a team's respective conference.

The postseason consists of an 18-team, five-round knockout. The top seven teams in each conference enter in the overall round of 16, while the teams in each conference placed eighth and ninth partake in a playoff for a spot in that round. The MLS Cup is a single match final with the winner becoming league champion of the year. Seven times a team has won the league double: winning both the MLS Cup and the Supporters' Shield in the same season. In 2017, Toronto FC became the first team to win a domestic treble. The MLS Golden Boot is awarded each year to the player with the most goals in the regular season, and the best overall player is awarded the Landon Donovan MVP Award.

List of seasons[edit]

The following is a list of all MLS seasons. It contains the number of teams, the number of regular-season games played per team, the champion—winner of the MLS Cup, the winners of the regular-season Eastern Conference, the Western Conference, and for 2000 and 2001, the defunct Central Division, the winner of the Most Valuable Player Award (MVP), the top scorer(s), and the regular-season average attendance.

† Winner of the Supporters' Shield
* Winner of the league double
‡ Winner of the domestic treble
* Player set the single season record for goals
Season Teams Games Champion Eastern Western Central MVP Top scorer(s) (goals) Att. Ref.
1996 10 32 D.C. United Tampa Bay Mutiny† Los Angeles Galaxy — Carlos Valderrama Roy Lassiter (27)* 17,406 [1]
1997 10 32 D.C. United* D.C. United† Kansas City Wizards — Preki Jaime Moreno (16) 14,619 [2]
1998 12 32 Chicago Fire D.C. United Los Angeles Galaxy† — Marco Etcheverry Stern John (26) 14,312 [3]
1999 12 32 D.C. United* D.C. United† Los Angeles Galaxy — Jason Kreis Stern John
Jason Kreis
Roy Lassiter
(18)		 14,282 [4]
2000 12 32 Kansas City Wizards* MetroStars Kansas City Wizards† Chicago Fire Tony Meola Mamadou Diallo (26) 13,756 [5]
2001 12 26–27 San Jose Earthquakes Miami Fusion† Los Angeles Galaxy Chicago Fire Alex Pineda Chacón Alex Pineda Chacón (19) 14,961 [6]
2002 10 28 Los Angeles Galaxy* New England Revolution Los Angeles Galaxy† — Carlos Ruiz Carlos Ruiz (24) 15,822 [7]
2003 10 30 San Jose Earthquakes Chicago Fire† San Jose Earthquakes — Preki Carlos Ruiz
Taylor Twellman
(15)		 14,898 [8]
2004 10 30 D.C. United Columbus Crew† Kansas City Wizards — Amado Guevara Brian Ching
Eddie Johnson
(12)		 15,559 [9]
2005 12 32 Los Angeles Galaxy New England Revolution San Jose Earthquakes† — Taylor Twellman Taylor Twellman (17) 15,108 [10]
2006 12 32 Houston Dynamo D.C. United† FC Dallas — Christian Gómez Jeff Cunningham (16) 15,504 [11]
2007 13 30 Houston Dynamo D.C. United† Chivas USA — Luciano Emílio Luciano Emílio (20) 16,770 [12]
2008 14 30 Columbus Crew* Columbus Crew† Houston Dynamo — Guillermo Barros Schelotto Landon Donovan (20) 16,460 [13]
2009 15 30 Real Salt Lake Columbus Crew† LA Galaxy — Landon Donovan Jeff Cunningham (17) 16,037 [14]
2010 16 30 Colorado Rapids New York Red Bulls LA Galaxy† — David Ferreira Chris Wondolowski (18) 16,675 [15]
2011 18 34 LA Galaxy* Sporting Kansas City LA Galaxy† — Dwayne De Rosario Dwayne De Rosario
Chris Wondolowski
(16)		 17,872 [16]
2012 19 34 LA Galaxy Sporting Kansas City San Jose Earthquakes† — Chris Wondolowski Chris Wondolowski (27)* 18,807 [17]
2013 19 34 Sporting Kansas City New York Red Bulls† Portland Timbers — Mike Magee Camilo Sanvezzo (22) 18,608 [18]
2014 19 34 LA Galaxy D.C. United Seattle Sounders FC† — Robbie Keane[19] Bradley Wright-Phillips (27)*[20] 19,148 [21]
2015 20 34 Portland Timbers New York Red Bulls† FC Dallas — Sebastian Giovinco Sebastian Giovinco
Kei Kamara
(22)		 21,574 [22]
2016 20 34 Seattle Sounders FC New York Red Bulls FC Dallas† — David Villa Bradley Wright-Phillips (24) 21,692 [23]
2017 22 34 Toronto FC‡ Toronto FC† Portland Timbers — Diego Valeri Nemanja Nikolić (24) 22,112 [24]
2018 23 34 Atlanta United FC New York Red Bulls† Sporting Kansas City — Josef Martínez Josef Martínez (31)* 21,875 [25]
2019 24 34 Seattle Sounders FC New York City FC Los Angeles FC† — Carlos Vela Carlos Vela (34)* 21,265 [26]
2020 26 18–23 Columbus Crew SC Philadelphia Union† Sporting Kansas City — Alejandro Pozuelo Diego Rossi (14) 14,913 [27]
2021 27 34 New York City FC New England Revolution† Colorado Rapids — Carles Gil Taty Castellanos
Ola Kamara
(19)		 15,350 [28]
2022 28 34 Los Angeles FC* Philadelphia Union Los Angeles FC† — Hany Mukhtar Hany Mukhtar (23) 21,033 [29]
2023 29 34 Columbus Crew FC Cincinnati† St. Louis City SC — Luciano Acosta Denis Bouanga (20) 22,111

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "1996 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on October 1, 2014. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  2. ^ "1997 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on July 28, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  3. ^ "1998 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on July 20, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  4. ^ "1999 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on August 2, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  5. ^ "2000 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on July 1, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  6. ^ "2001 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on July 19, 2015. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  7. ^ "2002 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on March 11, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  8. ^ "2003 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on July 13, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  9. ^ "2004 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on July 14, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  10. ^ "2005 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on July 3, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  11. ^ "2006 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on July 28, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  12. ^ "2007 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on July 3, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  13. ^ "2008 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on July 3, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  14. ^ "2009 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on June 28, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  15. ^ "2010 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on July 14, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  16. ^ "2011 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on July 10, 2016. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
  17. ^ "2012 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on July 28, 2016. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
  18. ^ "2013 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on August 18, 2016. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
  19. ^ "Robbie Keane voted 2014 MLS Most Valuable Player". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on July 25, 2015. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  20. ^ "2014 Season Statistics". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on January 23, 2015. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  21. ^ "2014 Year in Review". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on November 18, 2016. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  22. ^ "2015 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  23. ^ "2016 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on April 18, 2017. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  24. ^ "2017 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on December 12, 2017. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  25. ^ "2018 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on May 7, 2018. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
  26. ^ "2019 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on October 8, 2023. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
  27. ^ "2020 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on November 30, 2021. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
  28. ^ "2021 Full Season Stats". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on January 17, 2022. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
  29. ^ Kennedy, Paul (October 13, 2022). "Crowd Count: MLS attendance tops 10 million for first time". Soccer America. Archived from the original on October 28, 2022. Retrieved October 28, 2022.


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