2009 Major League Soccer season

The 2009 Major League Soccer season will be the 14th season in league history. The season will begin on March 21st and will end with MLS Cup 2009, in November.

Changes from the 2008 season

• Seattle Sounders FC will join the league as its 15th club. It is expected that they will play in the Western Conference.
• The top two teams from each conference will qualify automatically for the playoffs (down from three). In addition the four highest remaining point totals, regardless of conference, will also qualify (up from two).
• Xbox 360 Live will become the shirt sponsor of Seattle Sounders FC.

Competition format

The format for the 2009 season is expected to be as follows:

• The season will run from March 21 to November.
• The 15 teams will be split into two conferences, with the Western Conference having eight teams with the addition of Seattle Sounders FC, and the Eastern Conference having seven teams. Each team will play 30 games that are evenly divided between home and away games. Each team will play every other team twice, home and away, for a total of 28 games. The remaining 2 games will be played against two regional rivals, one at home and one away.
• The two teams from each conference with the most points will qualify for the playoffs. In addition, the next four highest point totals, regardless of conference, will also qualify. In the first round aggregate goals over two matches determine the winners. The conference finals will be played as a single match, and the winners will advance to MLS Cup 2009. In all rounds, draws will be broken with two 15-minute periods of extra time, followed by penalty kicks if necessary. The away goals rule is not used in any round.
• The team with the most points in the regular season wins the MLS Supporters' Shield and will qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League 2010–11 Group Stage. The MLS Cup winner also qualifies for the Champions League 2010–11 Group Stage. The MLS Cup runner-up will qualify for the Champions League 2010–11 Preliminary Round. An additional berth in the Champions League 2010–11 Preliminary Round will be awarded to the winner of the 2009 U.S. Open Cup. If a team qualifies for multiple berths into the Champions League, then the final berths will be awarded to the highest overall finishing MLS team(s) not already qualified. Also, Toronto FC, as a Canadian based team, cannot qualify through MLS for the Champions League, and must instead qualify through the Canadian Championship.
• The four teams with the most points in the regular season, regardless of conference, who have not qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League will qualify for SuperLiga 2010.
• The three teams from each conference with the most points will also qualify for berths into the Third Round of the 2010 U.S. Open Cup. The rest of the U.S.-based MLS teams will have to qualify for the remaining two berths into the Third Round via a series of play-in games.

Tiebreakers

1. Head-to-Head (Points-per-match average)
2. Overall Goal Differential
3. Overall Total Goals Scored
4. Tiebreakers 1-3 applied only to matches on the road
5. Tiebreakers 1-3 applied only to matches at home
6. Fewest team disciplinary points in the League Fair Play table
7. Coin toss

NOTE: If more than two clubs are tied, once a club advances through any step, the process reverts to Tiebreaker 1 among the remaining tied clubs.

MLS Tiebreakers

Standings

The Conference standings are expected to be used to determine automatic berths to the MLS Cup Playoffs and Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. The overall standings table is expected to determine wild card berths to the MLS Cup Playoffs, qualification for the SuperLiga, the CONCACAF Champions League, and the winner of the MLS Supporters' Shield.

Conference standings

Club		Pts	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD
Eastern Conference
1	Chicago Fire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	Columbus Crew	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	D.C. United	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Kansas City Wizards	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	New England Revolution	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	New York Red Bulls	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7	Toronto FC1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Western Conference
1	Chivas USA	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	Colorado Rapids	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	FC Dallas	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Houston Dynamo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	Los Angeles Galaxy	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	Real Salt Lake	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7	San Jose Earthquakes	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	Seattle Sounders FC	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

	2009 MLS Cup Playoffs, 2010 U.S. Open Cup Third Round
	2009 MLS Cup Playoffs
	2009 MLS Cup Playoffs, 2010 U.S. Open Cup Third Round
	2009 MLS Cup Playoffs, 2010 U.S. Open Cup Third Round

¹ - Toronto FC cannot qualify for the U.S. Open Cup, as it is a Canadian based team.
If they qualify for an automatic berth in the U.S. Open Cup, the next highest ranked team in the Eastern Conference will take their place.

Overall standings

Club		Pts	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD
1	Chicago Fire (E1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	Chivas USA (W1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Colorado Rapids (W2)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Columbus Crew (E2)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	D.C. United	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	FC Dallas	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7	Houston Dynamo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	Kansas City Wizards	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9	Los Angeles Galaxy	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
10	New England Revolution	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
11	New York Red Bulls	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
12	Real Salt Lake	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
13	San Jose Earthquakes	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
14	Seattle Sounders FC	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
15	Toronto FC2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

	MLS Supporters' Shield, 2009 MLS Cup Playoffs, CONCACAF Champions League 2010–11 Group Stage3
	2009 MLS Cup Playoffs, SuperLiga 2010
	2009 MLS Cup Playoffs

² - Toronto FC cannot qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League through MLS. Rather, they can qualify through the Canadian Championship.
Should Toronto FC qualify for the Champions League through its MLS position, then the highest ranked team not already qualified will qualify.

³ - Additional Champions League berths will be awarded to the winner and runner up of MLS Cup 2009, in the group stage and preliminary round respectively.
The winner of the 2009 U.S. Open Cup also qualifies for the preliminary round.
If any of those teams qualify for multiple berths, then the final berth(s) will be awarded to the highest overall finishing MLS team(s) not already qualified.

Related Competitions

International competitions

SuperLiga 2009

The Chicago Fire, the New England Revolution, Chivas USA, and the Kansas City Wizards will be MLS's entrants in SuperLiga 2009, based on their finish in the 2008 regular season as the top four teams not already qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League.

CONCACAF Champions League 2009–10

The Columbus Crew (MLS Cup and Supporters' Shield winner), D.C. United (U.S. Open Cup winner), the New York Red Bulls (MLS Cup runner-up), and the Houston Dynamo (MLS Supporters' Shield Runner-up) will be the representatives in the Champions League.

The Houston Dynamo will enter at the Preliminary Round.

The Columbus Crew will be seeded into the Group Stage.

It remains to be seen which of D.C. United or the New York Red Bulls will enter at the Preliminary Round or be seeded into the Group Stage.

National competitions

2009 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup

MLS awarded the top three finishers in each conference last season automatic berths into the 2009 U.S. Open Cup's Third Round. The Columbus Crew, the Chicago Fire, and the New England Revolution qualified from the Eastern Conference while the Houston Dynamo, Chivas USA, and Real Salt Lake will qualify from the Western Conference. The rest of MLS's U.S.-based teams will have to compete for the final two berths into the Third Round via an eight team qualifying tournament.

Each of the qualified MLS teams are expected to be matched up against the winner of a Second Round game, all of whom came from either one of the USL's three divisions or the USASA, in the Third Round.

2009 Canadian Championship

Canada's top three teams, MLS's Toronto FC and the USL-1's Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps are expected to again be entered into the Canadian Championship. The tournament would be played as a double round robin, or in the standard "league" format.

All-Star game

MLS All-Star 2009

The 2009 MLS All-Star game is scheduled to be held at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, home of Real Salt Lake. The opponent has yet to be announced, but the league is hopeful of securing the likes of Real Madrid, of Spain's La Liga.

See also

• List of transfers for the MLS 2009 Season
• 2008 MLS Expansion Draft

External links

• Official Site of Major League Soccer