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The Major League Soccer season typically runs from late February/early March to December. There are typically 34 games in a regular season.
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How many games are in a MLS season?
Since the league’s inception in 1996, the MLS regular season has consisted of 34 games. Each team plays every other team in the league twice, once at home and once away. This schedule is typically spread over a 32-week period from late March or early April through October or November.
The regular season
The Major League Soccer (MLS) regular season lasts for 34 games, with each team playing 17 home games and 17 away games. The regular season typically starts in late February or early March and ends in late October or early November.
The playoffs
At the end of the regular season, the top teams in each conference advance to the playoffs. The higher seeded teams receive a first-round bye. The playoffs are a single-elimination tournament (with re-seeding) culminating in MLS Cup, organized by Major League Soccer. As of 2019, MLS Cup features fourteen teams: the top seven seeds in each conference (four from West, three from East), plus one more team from whichever conference has more points accumulated during the regular season. These additional teams “play in” to the Round of 16 (the first round of playoffs), where they are paired against one of the top four seeds.
The CONCACAF Champions League
The CONCACAF Champions League is a professional continental club football tournament organized by the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football. It is the equivalent of the UEFA Champions League in Europe and the Copa Libertadores in South America. The tournament is played every year from August to May, with the top clubs from CONCACAF’s three regional federations (North America, Central America, and the Caribbean) qualifying to participate.
The U.S. Open Cup
The U.S. Open Cup is a single-elimination tournament open to all United States Soccer Federation (USSF) affiliated teams, from amateur adult club teams to Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. Entering the 2018 tournament, MLS teams have won the cup 18 times since the league’s inception in 1996. Chicago Fire are the most recent MLS team to win the cup, having done so in their first season in the league, back in 1998.
The Canadian Championship
The Canadian Championship ( CONCACAF Champions League) is an annual soccer tournament contested by professional clubs in Canada. The tournament determines the Canadian entry into the CONCACAF Champions League.
The Canadian Championship was first held in 2008, and is currently contested by seven clubs. Six clubs compete from Major League Soccer (MLS), with one club coming from the semi-professional United Soccer League (USL).
Pre-season
Pre-season is a warm-up period before the start of the Major League Soccer regular season. Most teams play several exhibition games during this time, against other professional or semi-professional teams.
MLS All-Star Game
Each Major League Soccer season consists of 34 games. Fifteen teams play in the Eastern Conference while thirteen teams play in the Western Conference. At the end of the season, the top team from each conference advance to the playoffs along with four wildcard teams. From there, two teams from each conference compete in the MLS Cup.
MLS Cup
The Major League Soccer (MLS) regular season typically runs from late February/early March until October. There are 34 matches in an MLS season, with each team playing every other team twice (once at home, and once away). The top ten teams in the standings then advance to the MLS Cup Playoffs, a single-elimination tournament that culminates with the MLS Cup Championship match in early December.
Expansion teams
Since the 2012 season, each Major League Soccer team plays 34 regular season games. There are 26 teams in MLS as of the 2019 season, so that means there are 828 total regular season games in a year.
