Competition: | Major League Soccer |
Season: | 2018 |
Continentalcup1: | Champions League (United States) |
Continentalcup1 Qualifiers: | Atlanta United FC Houston Dynamo New York Red Bulls |
Continentalcup2: | Champions League (Canada) |
Continentalcup2 Qualifiers: | Toronto FC |
Matches: | 391 |
Total Goals: | 1249 |
League Topscorer: | Josef Martínez (31 goals) |
Best Goalkeeper: | Luis Robles (14 shutouts) |
Biggest Home Win: | 6 goals: SKC 6–0 VAN (April 20) |
Biggest Away Win: | 6 goals: COL 0–6 RSL (August 25) |
Highest Scoring: | 8 goals: MTL 3–5 LAFC (April 21) TOR 4–4 DC (June 13) RSL 6–2 LAG (September 1) TOR 5–3 LAG (September 15) |
Longest Wins: | 9 games Seattle Sounders FC (July 21 – September 19) |
Longest Unbeaten: | 15 games Portland Timbers (April 14 – August 11) |
Longest Winless: | 13 games Orlando City SC (July 21 – October 21) |
Longest Losses: | 9 games Orlando City SC (May 13 – July 7) |
Highest Attendance: | 72,243 ATL 1–1 SEA (July 15) |
Lowest Attendance: | 5,158 DC 2–2 HOU (March 17) |
Attendance: | 8,553,245 |
Average Attendance: | 21,875 |
Prevseason: | 2017 |
Nextseason: | 2019 |
The 2018 Major League Soccer season was the 23rd season of Major League Soccer, top division of soccer in the United States and Canada. The regular season began on March 3, 2018 and concluded on October 28, 2018. The MLS Cup Playoffs began on October 31, 2018 and concluded with MLS Cup 2018 on December 8, 2018. The league took a nine-day hiatus in early June for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, reduced from previous breaks.[1]
Los Angeles FC joined the league as an expansion franchise, while D.C. United debuted their new soccer-specific stadium, Audi Field.
Toronto FC were the defending Supporters' Shield champions and defending MLS Cup champions.
New York Red Bulls won their third Supporters' Shield, with a league record 71 points, while Atlanta United FC won their first MLS Cup in their second year in the league.
See main article: List of Major League Soccer stadiums.
Eastern Conference | |||
---|---|---|---|
Team | Stadium | Capacity | |
Atlanta United FC | Mercedes-Benz Stadium | 42,500 | |
Chicago Fire | Toyota Park | 20,000 | |
Columbus Crew SC | Mapfre Stadium | 19,968 | |
D.C. United | Audi Field | 20,000 | |
Montreal Impact | Saputo Stadium | 20,801 | |
New England Revolution | Gillette Stadium | 20,000 | |
New York City FC | Yankee Stadium | 30,321 | |
New York Red Bulls | Red Bull Arena | 25,000 | |
Orlando City SC | Orlando City Stadium | 25,500 | |
Philadelphia Union | Talen Energy Stadium | 18,500 | |
Toronto FC | BMO Field | 30,000 |
Note: All teams use Adidas as kit manufacturer.
Team | Outgoing coach | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Position in table | Incoming coach | Date of appointment | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Montreal Impact | Mauro Biello | Fired | Pre-season | Rémi Garde | |||
New England Revolution | Tom Soehn (interim) | End of interim period | Brad Friedel | ||||
Portland Timbers | Caleb Porter | Resigned | Giovanni Savarese | ||||
San Jose Earthquakes | Chris Leitch | Returned to technical director role | Mikael Stahre | ||||
Colorado Rapids | Steve Cooke (interim) | End of interim period | Anthony Hudson | ||||
New York City FC | Patrick Vieira | Signed by Nice | 2nd in East, 4th overall | Domènec Torrent | |||
Orlando City SC | Jason Kreis | Mutual decision | 6th in East, 14th overall | Bobby Murphy (interim) | |||
Orlando City SC | Bobby Murphy (interim) | End of interim period | 8th in East, 17th overall | James O'Connor | |||
New York Red Bulls | Jesse Marsch | Signed by RB Leipzig | 2nd in East, 3rd overall | Chris Armas | |||
LA Galaxy | Sigi Schmid | Resigned | 8th in West, 13th overall | Dominic Kinnear (interim) | |||
San Jose Earthquakes | Mikael Stahre | Fired | Steve Ralston (interim) | ||||
Vancouver Whitecaps FC | Carl Robinson | Fired | Craig Dalrymple (interim) | ||||
San Jose Earthquakes | Steve Ralston (interim) | End of interim period | Matías Almeyda |
During the 2018 MLS regular season, each team played 34 games, including 17 home games and 17 away games. Teams faced each of their conference opponents (10 in the East, 11 in the West) twice during the season with one game at home and one game away. Western Conference teams played one additional intra-conference game and Eastern Conference teams played two. All teams faced each non-conference opponent once.
See main article: 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs.
See also: Major League Soccer attendance.
Ranked from highest to lowest average attendance.
width=25 | width=170 | Team | width=45 | width=45 | width=45 | width=45 | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
align=center | 1 | 17 | 72,243 | 44,696 | |||||||||
align=center | 2 | 17 | 47,521 | 39,465 | |||||||||
align=center | 3 | 17 | 30,799 | 23,011 | |||||||||
align=center | 4 | 17 | 27,068 | 16,231 | |||||||||
align=center | 5 | 17 | 52,242 | 18,057 | |||||||||
align=center | 6 | 17 | 25,527 | 22,337 | |||||||||
align=center | 7 | 17 | 30,139 | 18,584 | |||||||||
align=center | 8 | 17 | 22,716 | 22,000 | |||||||||
align=center | 9 | 17 | 27,863 | 17,357 | |||||||||
align=center | 10 | 17 | 21,144 | 21,144 | 21,144 | ||||||||
align=center | 11 | 17 | 21,064 | 18,508 | |||||||||
align=center | 12 | 17 | 50,743 | 15,648 | |||||||||
align=center | 13 | 17 | 25,219 | 14,768 | |||||||||
align=center | 14 | 17 | 21,363 | 16,015 | |||||||||
align=center | 15 | 17 | 26,005 | 15,485 | |||||||||
align=center | 16 | 17 | 36,573 | 10,547 | |||||||||
align=center | 17 | 17 | 20,573 | 5,128 | |||||||||
align=center | 18 | 17 | 22,320 | 13,094 | |||||||||
align=center | 19 | 17 | 19,013 | 14,795 | |||||||||
align=center | 20 | 17 | 19,096 | 13,147 | |||||||||
align=center | 21 | 17 | 17,837 | 10,790 | |||||||||
align=center | 22 | 17 | 21,915 | 8,551 | |||||||||
align=center | 23 | 17 | 19,121 | 7,683 | |||||||||
align=center | – | Total | align=center | 391 | align=center | 8,553,245 | align=center | 72,243 | align=center | 5,128 | align=center | 21,875 |
Regular season
Rank | Home team | Score | Away team | Attendance | Date | Week | Stadium | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Atlanta United FC | 1–1 | Seattle Sounders FC | 72,243 | 20 | Mercedes-Benz Stadium | ||
2 | Atlanta United FC | 3–1 | D.C. United | 72,035 | 2 | Mercedes-Benz Stadium | ||
3 | Atlanta United FC | 2–0 | Real Salt Lake | 72,017 | 30 | Mercedes-Benz Stadium | ||
4 | Atlanta United FC | 4–0 | Orlando City SC | 71,932 | 18 | Mercedes-Benz Stadium | ||
5 | Atlanta United FC | 2–1 | Chicago Fire | 71,812 | 34 | Mercedes-Benz Stadium | ||
6 | Minnesota United FC | 1–3 | LA Galaxy | 52,242 | 33 | TCF Bank Stadium | ||
7 | San Jose Earthquakes | 3–3 | LA Galaxy | 50,743 | 18 | Stanford Stadium | ||
8 | Seattle Sounders FC | 2–3 | Portland Timbers | 47,521 | 18 | CenturyLink Field | ||
9 | Atlanta United FC | 3–1 | Columbus Crew | 45,303 | 25 | Mercedes-Benz Stadium | ||
10 | Atlanta United FC | 5–0 | Los Angeles FC | 45,207 | 6 | Mercedes-Benz Stadium |
See main article: List of Major League Soccer hat-tricks.
Player | Club | Against | Result | Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
4–1 | March 17 | |||
3–0 | March 31 | |||
6–0 | April 20 | |||
3–5 | April 21 | |||
3–3 | May 26 | |||
3–1 | June 2 | |||
4–1 | June 30 | |||
4–3 | July 14 | |||
3–1 | July 21 | |||
3–2 | July 28 | |||
4–3 | July 29 | |||
3–2 | August 12 | |||
6–2 | September 1 | |||
3–3 | September 16 | |||
3–2 | October 28 | |||
See main article: MLS Player of the Month.
Month | Player | Club | Stats | Ref | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
March | Felipe Gutiérrez | Sporting Kansas City | 5G | align=center | [5] | ||
April | Miguel Almirón | Atlanta United FC | 5G, 2A | align=center | [6] | ||
May | Zack Steffen | Columbus Crew | 0 GA | [7] | |||
June | Adama Diomande | Los Angeles FC | 7G | align=center | [8] | ||
July | Josef Martínez | Atlanta United FC | 9G, 1A | align=center | [9] | ||
August | Josef Martínez | Atlanta United FC | 4G, 1A | align=center | [10] | ||
September | Luciano Acosta | D.C. United | 4G, 6A | align=center | [11] | ||
October | Wayne Rooney | D.C. United | 5G | align=center | [12] |
See main article: List of Major League Soccer transfers 2018.
The MLS SuperDraft is an annual event, taking place in January of each year, in which the teams of Major League Soccer select players who have graduated from college or otherwise been signed by the league. The first two rounds of 2018 MLS SuperDraft were held on January 19 in Philadelphia. Rounds three and four of the 2018 SuperDraft were held via conference call on January 21. Los Angeles FC selected João Moutinho with the first overall pick.
The allocation ranking is the mechanism used to determine which MLS club has first priority to acquire a player who is in the MLS allocation list. The MLS allocation list contains select U.S. National Team players and players transferred outside of MLS garnering a transfer fee of at least $500,000. The allocations are ranked in reverse order of finish for the 2017 season, taking playoff performance into account.[116] As an expansion team, Los Angeles FC took the top spot.
Once the club uses its allocation ranking to acquire a player, it drops to the bottom of the list. A ranking can be traded provided that part of the compensation received in return is another club's ranking. At all times each club is assigned one ranking. The rankings reset at the end of each MLS season.
Original ranking | Current ranking | Club | Date allocation used (Rank on that date) | Player signed | Previous club | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3 | 1 | |||||
4 | 2 | |||||
5 | 3 | |||||
11 | 4 | [117] [118] | ||||
7 | 5 | |||||
8 | 6 | |||||
9 | 7 | |||||
10 | 8 | |||||
1 | 9 | |||||
12 | 10 | |||||
13 | 11 | |||||
14 | 12 | |||||
15 | 13 | |||||
16 | 14 | |||||
2 | 15 | [119] | ||||
19 | 16 | |||||
20 | 17 | |||||
21 | 18 | |||||
22 | 19 | |||||
23 | 20 | |||||
17 | 21 | (17) | [120] | |||
6 | 22 | (1) | [121] | |||
18 | 23 | (1) | ||||