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
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- ...
,
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 ...
.
Toronto FC
Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BM ...
were the defending
Supporters' Shield champions and defending
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 Conferen ...
champions.
New York Red Bulls
The New York Red Bulls are an American professional soccer club based in the New York metropolitan area. The Red Bulls compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The club was established in October 1994 and be ...
won their third Supporters' Shield, with a league record 71 points, while
Atlanta United FC
Atlanta United FC, commonly known as Atlanta United, is an American professional soccer club based in Atlanta that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference.
Founded in 2014, Atlanta United began pl ...
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
Format
During the 2018 MLS regular season, each team played 34 games, including 17 home games and 17 away games. Teams faced each of their conference opponents (10 in the East, 11 in the West) twice during the season with one game at home and one game away. Western Conference teams played one additional intra-conference game and Eastern Conference teams played two. All teams faced each non-conference opponent once.
Conference standings
Eastern Conference
Western Conference
Overall table
Aggregate 2017 and 2018 table
Playoffs
Bracket
Knockout round
Conference semifinals
Conference finals
MLS Cup
Attendance
Average home attendances
Ranked from highest to lowest average attendance.
Highest attendances
Regular season
Player statistics
Goals
Assists
Shutouts
Hat-tricks
Awards
Player of the Month
Player and team of the week
* Bold denotes league player of the week.
* ''Italics'' denotes
Audi
Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide.
Th ...
player performance of the week.
Goal of the Week
End-of-season awards
MLS Best XI
Player transfers
SuperDraft
The
MLS SuperDraft is an annual event, taking place in January of each year, in which the teams of Major League Soccer select players who have graduated from college or otherwise been signed by the league. The first two rounds of
2018 MLS SuperDraft
The 2018 MLS SuperDraft was the nineteenth SuperDraft conducted by Major League Soccer. As customary, the SuperDraft was held in conjunction with the annual United Soccer Coaches convention. The 2018 UCS was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania bet ...
were held on January 19 in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
. Rounds three and four of the 2018 SuperDraft were held via conference call on January 21.
Los Angeles FC selected
João Moutinho with the first overall pick.
Allocation ranking
The allocation ranking is the mechanism used to determine which MLS club has first priority to acquire a player who is in the MLS allocation list. The MLS allocation list contains select
U.S. National Team players and players transferred outside of MLS garnering a transfer fee of at least $500,000. The allocations are ranked in reverse order of finish for the 2017 season, taking playoff performance into account.
As an expansion team, Los Angeles FC took the top spot.
Once the club uses its allocation ranking to acquire a player, it drops to the bottom of the list. A ranking can be traded provided that part of the compensation received in return is another club's ranking. At all times each club is assigned one ranking. The rankings reset at the end of each MLS season.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Major League Soccer Season 2018
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...
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