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oh yes, this man appears to have really mastered things

Major League Soccer, or MLS for short if you're not good with acronyms, is the top tier of U.S. domestic football (or soccer as the name suggests). The American soccer pyramid consists of MLS at the top, followed by the USL Championship in tier 2, and MLS Next Pro/USL League One/National Independent Soccer Association all jockeying for position in tier 3. As many may already know, there is no promotion or relegation in U.S. footy and teams may only enter the top flight by virtue of a league expansion admitting them into MLS. This is not common but has happened several times over the past few years, which we'll review in a moment.

A long time has passed since the last time I posted an MLS thread, or indeed posted on U75 at all, but I figured what better way to get back in the swing of things than to resurrect the thread for a new year. The season has just started, with this weekend featuring the first match-ups after a lengthy and intensely boring off-season. But the league has undergone a variety of changes since we last met, so why not review some of the major highlights?

• Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC, or "LOL, Another Fucking Club") won both the Supporters' Shield with a record of 21-9-4 and went on to win the MLS Cup in penos in 2022. The Shield is our trophy given to the best team in the regular season, and of course the MLS Cup is awarded to the winners of the playoff final.
• Several new teams have joined the league since 2016 - Atlanta, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Miami, Nashville, Austin, Charlotte, and St. Louis have all been awarded their own teams, with Los Angeles gaining the aforementioned LAFC in addition to the existing L.A. Galaxy, because sure, why not. Cincinnati's team formerly played in USL One, making it one of the few teams to have made the jump to the big show.
• The CONCACAF Champions' Cup, the international club competition for domestic CONCACAF teams, has been rebranded as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League because we really want people to ask which one you mean when you say "Champions League" I guess. The Seattle Sounders won this in 2022, beating Club Universidad Nacional A.C. from Mexico.
• The playoffs have expanded to 9 teams from each conference, and the first round has moved to a best-of-three series. Previously the MLS used two-leg aggregate scoring, followed by a traditional single-elimination game, and now we've got a best-of-3 series format. This is easily one of the dumbest things they have done to this already stupid league.
• Streaming services have finally got their grubby hands on MLS, and while you can watch nearly every game stateside on FOX, those who love masochism will have to purchase an Apple TV subscription outside of US/Canada/Mexico in order to watch any matches.

I think that pretty much covers the most important things you never wanted to know. I won't be posting the league table in this post, because MLS has updated their website and it now looks positively terrible, but if you're particularly interested you can find it here: Conference Standings | MLSsoccer.com

Anyway, if you've read this far, welcome - now let's see some of America's best in action shall we?



Yup, that's MLS for you...here's something a little more traditional.



We've come a long way as far as quality goes, but many major strides must be taken before this league can truly earn any proper respect. Now let's have a pint and watch the footy