Major League Soccer

About Major League Soccer

Major League Soccer (regularly abbreviated MLS) is the premier men's professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. With thirteen teams located 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. 8 teams from the league compete in a post-season playoff, which cluminates 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 new league began play in 1996 with ten teams.

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.