2015 Major League Soccer season

Major League Soccer 2015
Season information
Domestic cup winners
MLS Cup	Portland Timbers
Supporters' Shield	New York Red Bulls
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League (U.S.)	FC Dallas New York Red Bulls Portland Timbers Sporting Kansas City
Champions League (Canada)	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Season statistics
Matches played	340
Goals scored	937
Average	2.76
Top goalscorer	Clint Dempsey Blas Pérez Octavio Rivero (3 goals each)
Biggest home win	SEA 3–0 NE
Biggest away win	VAN 1–3 TOR
Highest scoring	RSL 3–3 PHI
← 2014	2016 →

The 2015 Major League Soccer season is the 103rd season of FIFA-sanctioned soccer in the United States and Canada, the 37th with a national first-division league, and the 20th season of Major League Soccer. The season features 20 total clubs (17 based in the United States, 3 based in Canada). The regular season is held from March 6 through to October 25, whereas the MLS Cup playoffs will be held from October 28 to early December. The defending MLS Cup champions are the LA Galaxy, while Seattle Sounders FC are the defending Supporters Shield winner. It is the first season for expansion teams Orlando City SC and New York City FC, who both join the Eastern Conference, while both Houston Dynamo and Sporting Kansas City move from the Eastern Conference to the Western Conference.

Changes from 2014 season

Franchises and realignment

The 2015 MLS season features the addition of two expansion sides, New York City FC and Orlando City SC. New York City FC became the second MLS team in the New York metropolitan area (joining the New Jersey-based New York Red Bulls), as well as the first based within New York City itself (the team will play its inaugural season at Yankee Stadium). Orlando is a new market for MLS, which returns to Florida for the first time since folding their Miami and Tampa Bay franchises before the 2002 season; the Lions' ownership previously owned Orlando's USL Pro team from 2010–2014, a team that will relocate to Louisville for 2015.

While MLS added two teams, the league also folded one franchise, Chivas USA, which had called the Los Angeles area home since 2005 and shared the StubHub Center with the LA Galaxy. The Goats had been owned by Mexican club C.D. Guadalajara, who sold the club back to MLS in 2014. The league folded Chivas in October 2014, after the conclusion of the regular season, though it plans to add a second LA-area club in 2017.

With the addition and subtraction of the above-mentioned teams, the 2015 season saw a realignment of MLS' Eastern and Western conferences, which each have 10 teams: NYCFC and Orlando City joined the East, while Houston Dynamo and Sporting Kansas City moved from the East to the West.

Each team plays 34 regular season matches: two or three against conference rivals and once against teams from the opposite conference.

The MLS Cup Playoffs will have 12 teams, up from 10 the last 3 seasons. The top six teams per conference will qualify. The first round per conference has the third-seed hosting the sixth-seed, and the fourth hosting the fifth. In the Conference Semifinals, the top seed plays the lowest remaining seed and the second plays the next-lowest.

The regular season will conclude with all teams playing at the same schedule time, a league first.

Television

The 2015 season saw the launch of a new United States television and media rights deal with English-language ESPN and Fox Sports and Spanish-language Univision Deportes. The deal continues MLS' relationship with ESPN and Univision, while it reestablishes one with Fox Sports, whose Fox Soccer channel carried MLS games until 2011 (NBC Sports carried MLS broadcasts from 2012–2014). The deal, formally announced in May 2014, sees regular weekly game broadcasts on ESPN2 (Sunday afternoons) and Fox Sports 1 (Sunday evenings), as well as a regular Friday night match on UniMás and/or Univision Deportes Network. The networks will share coverage of the MLS Cup Playoffs, while ESPN and Fox will alternate English language carriage of the MLS All-Star Game and MLS Cup championship match each year. As part of the deal, the networks also share coverage of the US Soccer men's and women's national teams.

The league reached a four-year agreement with Sky Sports to televise league matches live in the United Kingdom. At least two regular season matches each week, the MLS All-Star Game, and every MLS Cup Playoff match will be aired on the Sky family of networks. MLS also reached a four-year agreement with Eurosport to air live matches in many other European countries.

Overview

The 2015 season began on Friday, March 6. The opening weekend saw an average attendance of 25,838 — buoyed by strong attendances in Orlando (62,510), NYCFC (43,507) and Seattle (39,782) — with seven of the weekend's ten matches selling out. Additionally, MLS saw strong TV ratings on ESPN2 (539,000 viewers), Unimas (341,000 viewers), and Fox Sports 1 (289,000 and 278,500 viewers). The San Jose Earthquakes played their first MLS regular-season game at their new Avaya Stadium on their March 22 home opener, defeating the Chicago Fire 2–1 before a sellout crowd of 18,000.

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Main article: List of Major League Soccer stadiums

Chicago Fire	Colorado Rapids	Columbus Crew	D.C. United	FC Dallas	Houston Dynamo
Toyota Park	Dick's Sporting Goods Park	Mapfre Stadium	RFK Memorial Stadium	Toyota Stadium	BBVA Compass Stadium
Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 19,680	Capacity: 20,145	Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 20,500	Capacity: 22,000
LA Galaxy	Montreal Impact			New England Revolution	New York City FC
StubHub Center	Saputo Stadium			Gillette Stadium	Yankee Stadium
Capacity: 27,000	Capacity: 21,300			Capacity: 22,385	Capacity: 27,470/49,642
New York Red Bulls	Orlando City			Philadelphia Union	Portland Timbers
Red Bull Arena	Citrus Bowl			PPL Park	Providence Park
Capacity: 25,000	Capacity: 65,000			Capacity: 18,500	Capacity: 22,000
Real Salt Lake	San Jose Earthquakes	Seattle Sounders FC	Sporting Kansas City	Toronto FC	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Rio Tinto Stadium	Avaya Stadium	CenturyLink Field	Sporting Park	BMO Field	BC Place
Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 18,000	Capacity: 39,782	Capacity: 18,500	Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 21,000

Personnel and sponsorship

Note: All teams use Adidas as kit manufacturer.

Team	Head coach	Captain	Shirt sponsor
Chicago Fire	Yallop, FrankFrank Yallop	Larentowicz, JeffJeff Larentowicz	Quaker
Colorado Rapids	Mastroeni, PabloPablo Mastroeni	Moor, DrewDrew Moor	Transamerica
Columbus Crew	Berhalter, GreggGregg Berhalter	Parkhurst, MichaelMichael Parkhurst	Barbasol
D.C. United	Olsen, BenBen Olsen	Boswell, BobbyBobby Boswell	Leidos
FC Dallas	Pareja, ÓscarÓscar Pareja	Hedges, MattMatt Hedges	AdvoCare
Houston Dynamo	Coyle, OwenOwen Coyle	Davis, BradBrad Davis	BHP Billiton
LA Galaxy	Arena, BruceBruce Arena	Keane, RobbieRobbie Keane	Herbalife
Montreal Impact	Klopas, FrankFrank Klopas	Bernier, PatricePatrice Bernier	Bank of Montreal
New England Revolution	Heaps, JayJay Heaps	Gonçalves, JoséJosé Gonçalves	UnitedHealthcare
New York City FC	Kreis, JasonJason Kreis	Villa, DavidDavid Villa	Etihad Airways
New York Red Bulls	Marsch, JesseJesse Marsch	McCarty, DaxDax McCarty	Red Bull
Orlando City SC	Heath, AdrianAdrian Heath	Kaká, Kaká	Orlando Health
Philadelphia Union	Curtin, JimJim Curtin	Edu, MauriceMaurice Edu	Bimbo
Portland Timbers	Porter, CalebCaleb Porter	Johnson, WillWill Johnson	Alaska Airlines
Real Salt Lake	Jeff Cassar	Beckerman, KyleKyle Beckerman	LifeVantage
San Jose Earthquakes	Kinnear, DominicDominic Kinnear	Wondolowski, ChrisChris Wondolowski	None
Seattle Sounders FC	Schmid, SigiSigi Schmid	Evans, BradBrad Evans	Xbox
Sporting Kansas City	Vermes, PeterPeter Vermes	Besler, MattMatt Besler	Ivy Funds
Toronto FC	Vanney, GregGreg Vanney	Bradley, MichaelMichael Bradley	Bank of Montreal
Vancouver Whitecaps FC	Robinson, CarlCarl Robinson	Morales, PedroPedro Morales	Bell Canada

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
San Jose Earthquakes	Mark Watson	Fired	Oct 2014	Preseason	Dominic Kinnear	Oct 16, 2014
Houston Dynamo	Dominic Kinnear	Signed by San Jose Earthquakes			Owen Coyle	Dec 8, 2014
New York Red Bulls	Mike Petke	Fired	Jan 7, 2015		Jesse Marsch	Jan 7, 2015
Montreal Impact	Frank Klopas	Fired	August 29, 2015	7th in East, 17th overall	Mauro Biello (Interim)	August 29, 2015
Chicago Fire	Frank Yallop	Fired	September 20, 2015	10th in East, 20th overall	Brian Bliss (Interim)	September 20, 2015
New York City FC	Jason Kreis	Fired	November 2, 2015	Postseason	Patrick Vieira	November 9, 2015
Chicago Fire	Brian Bliss	End of interim	November 24, 2015		Veljko Paunovic	November 24, 2015

Regular season

Conference tables

Eastern Conference

2015 Major League Soccer Eastern Conference table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
1	New York Red Bulls	34	18	10	6	62	43	+19	64	Conference Semi-finals & 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League
2	Columbus Crew	34	15	11	8	58	53	+5	56	Conference Semi-finals
3	Montreal Impact	34	15	13	6	48	44	+4	58	Knockout round
4	D.C. United	34	15	13	6	43	45	−2	58
5	New England Revolution	34	14	12	8	48	47	+1	54
6	Toronto	34	15	15	4	58	58	0	60
7	Orlando City	34	12	14	8	46	56	−10	50
8	New York City	34	10	17	7	49	58	−9	47
9	Philadelphia Union	34	10	17	7	42	55	−13	47
10	Chicago Fire	34	8	20	6	43	58	−15	44

Source: 2015 Major League Soccer Eastern Conference
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

Western Conference

2015 Major League Soccer Western Conference table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
1	FC Dallas	34	18	10	6	52	39	+13	64	Conference Semi-finals & 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League
2	Vancouver Whitecaps	34	16	13	5	45	36	+9	61	Conference Semi-finals
3	Portland Timbers	34	15	11	8	41	39	+2	56	Knockout round
4	Seattle Sounders	34	15	13	6	44	36	+8	58
5	LA Galaxy	34	14	11	9	56	46	+10	53
6	Sporting Kansas City	34	14	11	9	48	45	+3	53
7	San Jose Earthquakes	34	13	13	8	41	39	+2	52
8	Houston Dynamo	34	11	14	9	42	49	−7	47
9	Real Salt Lake	34	11	15	8	38	48	−10	48
10	Colorado Rapids	34	9	15	10	33	43	−10	42

Source: 2015 Major League Soccer Western Conference
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

Overall table

2015 Major League Soccer table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
1	New York Red Bulls	34	18	10	6	62	43	+19	64	2016-17 CONCACAF Champions League
2	FC Dallas	34	18	10	6	52	39	+13	64
3	Vancouver Whitecaps	34	16	13	5	45	36	+9	61
4	Columbus Crew	34	15	11	8	58	53	+5	56
5	Portland Timbers	34	15	11	8	41	39	+2	56	CONCACAF Champions League
6	Seattle Sounders	34	15	13	6	44	36	+8	58
7	Montreal Impact	34	15	13	6	48	44	+4	58
8	D.C. United	34	15	13	6	43	45	−2	58
9	LA Galaxy	34	14	11	9	56	46	+10	53
10	Sporting Kansas City	34	14	11	9	48	45	+3	53	CONCACAF Champions League
11	New England Revolution	34	14	12	8	48	47	+1	54
12	Toronto	34	15	15	4	58	58	0	60
13	San Jose Earthquakes	34	13	13	8	41	39	+2	52
14	Orlando City	34	12	14	8	46	56	−10	50
15	Houston Dynamo	34	11	14	9	42	49	−7	47
16	Real Salt Lake	34	11	15	8	39	48	−9	48
17	New York City	34	10	17	7	49	58	−9	47
18	Philadelphia Union	34	10	17	7	42	55	−13	47
19	Colorado Rapids	34	9	15	10	33	43	−10	42
20	Chicago Fire	34	8	20	6	43	58	−15	44

Source: 2015 Major League Soccer Western Conference
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

MLS Cup Playoffs

Main article: 2015 MLS Cup Playoffs

Template:2015 MLS Cup Playoff Bracket

External links

• Official website