2018 Major League Soccer Season
The 2018 Major League Soccer season was the 23rd season of Major League Soccer, top division of soccer in the United States and Canada. The regular season began on March 3, 2018 and concluded on October 28, 2018. The MLS Cup Playoffs began on October 31, 2018 and concluded with MLS Cup 2018 on December 8, 2018. The league took a nine-day hiatus in early June for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, reduced from previous breaks. Los Angeles FC joined the league as an expansion franchise, while D.C. United debuted their new soccer-specific stadium, Audi Field. Toronto FC were the defending Supporters' Shield champions and defending MLS Cup champions. New York Red Bulls won their third Supporters' Shield, with a league record 71 points, while Atlanta United FC won their first MLS Cup in their second year in the league. Teams Stadiums and locations Personnel and sponsorship Note: All teams use Adidas as kit manufacturer. Coaching changes Regular season ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada—since the 2023 season. The league is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. Major League Soccer is the most recent in a series of men's premier professional national soccer leagues established in the United States and Canada. The predecessor of MLS was the North American Soccer League (NASL), which existed from 1968 until 1984. MLS was founded in 1993 as part of the United States' successful bid to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The inaugural season took place in 1996 with ten teams. MLS experienced financial and operational struggles in its first few years, losing millions of dollars and folding two teams in 2002. Since then, developments such as the proliferation of soccer-specific stadiums around the league, implementation of the Desi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
LA Galaxy
LA Galaxy, also known as the Los Angeles Galaxy, are an American professional soccer club based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Galaxy competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), as a member of the Western Conference. The club began play in 1996 as one of the league's 10 charter members. The Galaxy were founded in 1994 and are owned by Anschutz Entertainment Group (also owners of 50% of the Los Angeles Kings, as well as an interest in the Los Angeles Lakers). In their early years, the club played its home games at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Since 2003, they have played at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. The team holds a rivalry with the San Jose Earthquakes in the California Clásico and used to play the SuperClasico against city rivals Chivas USA before that team folded in 2014. Following the league's dissolution of Chivas USA, a new expansion team, Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC), was formed in 2014 and began play in 2018. The n ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Western Conference (MLS)
The Western Conference is one of Major League Soccer's two conferences, along with the Eastern Conference. As of 2023, the Western Conference contains fourteen teams. The conference has produced eleven Supporters' Shield champions and seventeen MLS Cup winners in Major League Soccer's first 27 seasons. In 2000 and 2001, the conference was referred to as the ''Western Division'' when Major League Soccer briefly reorganized into three divisions. 2023 standings Members Current Conference lineups by year 1996 (5 teams) ''Changes from 1995'': Creation of the Major League Soccer. 1997 (5 teams) ''Changes from 1996'': Kansas City changed their name from ''Wiz to ''Wizards''. 1998–99 (6 teams) ''Changes from 1997'': The Chicago Fire was added in the 1998 expansion. 2000–01 (as ''Western Division'') (4 teams) ''Changes from 1999'': The Western Conference renamed itself the Western Division upon the creation of the Central Division; Chicago Fire and Dallas Burn mov ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
MLS Cup
The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conference Final. The MLS Cup winner is awarded the title of league champion. MLS uses a playoff tournament following the regular season to determine its annual league champion, a method common to every other major North American sports league. This format differs from most soccer leagues around the world, which consider the club with the most points at the end of the season to be the champion; MLS honors that achievement with the Supporters' Shield. A U.S.-based team that wins the MLS Cup is awarded one of the country's four berths in the following season's CONCACAF Champions League. The three Canadian teams of MLS can only qualify for the Champions League through the Canadian Championship—if any of them should win the MLS Cup, the Champions ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Supporters' Shield
The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since 1999 (with the winners between 1996 and 1998 awarded retroactively), and has been recognized as a major trophy by the league. It echoes the practice of the top European leagues in which the team with the best record is the champion. Since 2006, the Supporters' Shield winner has earned a berth in the CONCACAF Champions League if they are an American-based team. D.C. United and LA Galaxy, with four Supporters' Shields each, have won the most shields of any MLS team. Los Angeles FC are the 2022 holders of the Supporters' Shield, winning it for the second time. History Conception and fundraising When Major League Soccer had its inaugural season in 1996, the league resembled its contemporary North American leagues. After the regular seaso ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Audi Field
Audi Field is a soccer-specific stadium in Buzzard Point in Washington, D.C. It is the home stadium for both of Washington, DC’s professional soccer teams, D.C. United in Major League Soccer and Washington Spirit in the National Women’s Soccer League. The stadium seats 20,000 people. Previously, D.C. United had explored sites in the Washington metropolitan area. Following the failure of an initial stadium proposal in 2006, D.C. United made two additional stadium proposals that also failed to be built. In January 2011, the club explored using previously unused land at Buzzard Point to build a stadium; this was confirmed in July 2013, when Buzzard Point was announced as the stadium location. The ground-breaking ceremony occurred in February 2017, with construction completed in July 2018. Site selection Early proposals D.C. United and Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber raised concerns about scheduling conflicts with the Washington Nationals at RFK Stadium in July ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Soccer-specific Stadium
Soccer-specific stadium is a term used mainly in the United States and Canada to refer to a sports stadium either purpose-built or fundamentally redesigned for soccer and whose primary function is to host soccer matches, as opposed to a multi-purpose stadium which is for a variety of sports. A soccer-specific stadium may host other sporting events (such as lacrosse, American football and rugby) and concerts, but the design and purpose of a soccer-specific stadium is primarily for soccer. Some facilities (for example SeatGeek Stadium, Toyota Stadium and Historic Crew Stadium) have a permanent stage at one end of the stadium used for staging concerts. A soccer-specific stadium typically has amenities, dimensions and scale suitable for soccer in North America, including a scoreboard, video screen, luxury suites and possibly a roof. The field dimensions are within the range found optimal by FIFA: long by wide. These soccer field dimensions are wider than the regulation American fo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The company was founded in 1979 by Bill Rasmussen along with his son Scott Rasmussen and Ed Eagan. ESPN broadcasts primarily from studio facilities located in Bristol, Connecticut. The network also operates offices and auxiliary studios in Miami, New York City, Las Vegas, Seattle, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. James Pitaro currently serves as chairman of ESPN, a position he has held since March 5, 2018, following the resignation of John Skipper on December 18, 2017. While ESPN is one of the most successful sports networks, there has been criticism of ESPN. This includes accusations of biased coverage, conflict of interest, and controversies with individual broadcasters and analysts. , ESPN reaches approximately 76 million te ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
2018 FIFA World Cup
The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting rights in 2010. It was the eleventh time the championships had been held in Europe, and the first time they were held in Eastern Europe. At an estimated cost of over $14.2 billion, it was the most expensive World Cup ever held until it was surpassed by the 2022 FIFA World Cup, 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The tournament phase involved 32 teams, of which 31 came through 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification, qualifying competitions, while as the host nation Russia national football team, Russia qualified automatically. Of the 32, 20 had also appeared in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, 2014 event, while Iceland national football team, Iceland and Panama national football team, Panama each made their first appearance at the World Cup. 64 ma ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
MLS Cup 2018
MLS Cup 2018 was the 23rd edition of the MLS Cup, the championship match of Major League Soccer (MLS), which took place on December 8, 2018. It was the final match of the 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs and was contested by Atlanta United FC and the Portland Timbers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta, in their second MLS season, qualified for the playoffs as the second seed in the Eastern Conference and defeated New York City FC and Supporters' Shield winners New York Red Bulls in the playoffs. Portland qualified as the fifth seed in the Western Conference and defeated fourth-ranked FC Dallas, second-ranked Seattle Sounders FC, and first-ranked Sporting Kansas City to qualify for their second MLS Cup final. Atlanta United won the match 2–0 for their first MLS Cup, before a crowd of 73,019. At the time, this was the largest single-match crowd in MLS history; the record was broken in 2022 when 74,479 people watched Charlotte FC's inaugural home match in 2022. As ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
2019 Major League Soccer Season
The 2019 Major League Soccer season was the 24th season of Major League Soccer. The regular season began on March 2, 2019 and ended on October 6. The MLS Cup Playoffs began on October 19 and concluded with MLS Cup 2019 on November 10, under a new format that included 14 teams and consisted only of single-match rounds. FC Cincinnati joined the league as an expansion franchise, bringing the total number of clubs to 24. Minnesota United FC opened their first soccer-specific stadium, Allianz Field, on April 13. Atlanta United FC were the defending MLS Cup champions, while New York Red Bulls were the defending Supporters' Shield winners. Los Angeles FC won their first Supporters' Shield with an MLS single-season record 72 points, while Seattle Sounders FC won their second MLS Cup title. Teams Stadiums and locations The Portland Timbers announced in late 2018 that, due to expansion construction at Providence Park, they would play the first 12 games of the 2019 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
2017 Major League Soccer Season
The 2017 Major League Soccer season was the 22nd season of Major League Soccer, top division of soccer in the United States and Canada. The regular season began on March 3, 2017 and concluded on October 22, 2017. The MLS Cup Playoffs began on October 25, 2017 and concluded with MLS Cup 2017 on December 9, 2017. Two new clubs joined the league as expansion franchises: Atlanta United FC and Minnesota United FC. The two franchises were the 21st and 22nd teams in the league. Seattle Sounders FC were the defending MLS Cup champions, while FC Dallas were the defending Supporters' Shield champions. Toronto FC became the first Canadian team to win the Cup and Shield. Toronto's win of the Canadian Championship in the same year earned them the first domestic treble by an MLS side. Teams Stadiums and locations Personnel and sponsorship Note: All teams use Adidas as kit manufacturer. Coaching changes Regular season Format Current teams: Each tea ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |