Competition Format
Major League Soccer's regular season runs from March to October with its 19 teams playing 34 games in an unbalanced schedule. Teams are divided into the Eastern and Western Conference. Midway through the season, teams break for the annual All-Star Game, a friendly game between the league's finest players and a major club from a different league. At the end of the regular season, the team with the highest point total is awarded the Supporters' Shield. The regular season is followed by the 10-team MLS Cup Playoffs ending with the MLS Cup championship final.
MLS has three automatic berths in the CONCACAF Champions League for its American clubs with an additional spot available via the U.S. Open Cup; Canadian clubs can qualify for a single berth via the Canadian Championship. For the 2012–13 CONCACAF Champions League, the qualifying clubs are MLS Cup 2011 champion Los Angeles Galaxy, Supporters' Shield third place Real Salt Lake, MLS Cup runner-up Houston Dynamo, and 2011 U.S. Open Cup champion Seattle Sounders FC. Toronto FC also qualified as winner of the 2012 Canadian Championship.
Read more about this topic: Major League Soccer
Famous quotes containing the word competition:
“Mothers seem to be in subtle competition with teachers. There is always an underlying fear that teachers will do a better job than they have done with their child.... But mostly mothers feel that their areas of competence are very much similar to those of the teacher. In fact they feel they know their child better than anyone else and that the teacher doesn’t possess any special field of authority or expertise.”
—Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)