Futbol pasión de un pueblo

Major League Soccer (Major League Soccer) (MLS) is the first division soccer in the United States and Canada. The tournament is organized by the Federation U.S. Soccer (USSF or U.S. Soccer), a member of FIFA.

MLS represents the top level in the U.S. soccer pyramid and is superior to the U.S. Open Cup, U.S. Cup teams contesting the MLS with minor league teams. The league is composed of 16 teams in two conferences, East and West. The season starts in March and ends in November, each team plays 30 regular season games, whose champion receives the MLS Supporters' Shield and the top 8 qualify for the postseason to define the MLS Cup Champion.

International competition:
The champion of Major League Soccer has participated since 2008 in the Champions League CONCACAF along with the winner of the MLS Supporters' Shield qualify directly to the group stage, while the MLS Cup runner-up and U.S. Open champion classified Cup instead of the first phase are split round which the winner goes to the group stage. However, the Toronto FC can not qualify for U.S. Open Cup Because it is a team based in Canada. If in case a Canadian club wins the U.S. Open Cup, the next best placed team classified the international tournament. Similarly, do not qualify for the Champions League CONCACAF through the MLS. Rather, it may qualify through the Canadian Football Championship. If you qualify for the Champions League through MLS, the best placed team not already qualified will qualify. Just as would happen with the two new Canadian teams Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Montreal Impact.

The MLS also has four places in the North American SuperLiga, a competition organized by the MLS and the national football governing body in Mexico, the FMF. The top four teams in general of the 2009 season, excluding those involved in the Champions League will compete in the 2010 North American SuperLiga, Houston Dynamo, Chicago Fire, CD Chivas USA and New England Revolution.

History:
Major League Soccer was created December 16, 1993, in fulfillment of the promise of Alan Rothenberg and the Football Federation of America (USSF) to FIFA to establish a professional league "first division" to exchange for granting the World Cup 1994 to the United States. The objective of the Major League Soccer was to become a major world soccer leagues and one of the major U.S. sports leagues. The league began its first season in 1996 with ten teams and enjoyed promising attendance numbers. Numbers declined slightly after the first year, but increased in subsequent years. Divided the original 10 teams into two conferences: the Eastern Conference (Columbus Crew, DC United, New England Revolution, NY / NJ MetroStars, Tampa Bay Mutiny), and the Western Conference (Colorado Rapids, Dallas Burn, Kansas City Wiz, Los Los Angeles Galaxy and San Jose Earthquakes).

Weeks before starting the 2007 season MLS reached an agreement with the German Bundesliga for cooperation, sharing knowledge of football stadium construction and financing.

Rule changes:
In the early years, the MLS rule changes experimented with trying to make the sport more "American."

The watch, which features 90 minutes of international football in the MLS would count down and the clock would stop on dead ball situations. When the clock says 0:00, the game would end. After the 2004 season, this rule was abandoned in favor of a normal clock in football.
The other change was the definition Shoot-Out, to resolve tie games. If the game ended with a tie, a sudden death play:
A player would receive the ball 35 meters from the goal with five seconds to score. As penalties, was a competition with five attempts for each team. If the result was still a tie, there would be another series of Shoot-Out. The winning team received a point (a difference of three points for a win), the team that lost receive zero.
However, the rule changes, especially the Shoot-Out, did not win a large audience at the American public, and in fact earned the antipathy of some traditional fans. The Shoot-Out was abolished after the 1999 season.
The goal MLS practice made of gold from 2000 to 2003, but in 2004 abandoned that rule, to apply the traditional definition of the parties.