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The 2015 Major League Soccer 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 winners.

It is the first season for expansion teams Orlando City SC and New York City FC, who both join the Eastern Conference, while both the Houston Dynamo and Sporting Kansas City move from the Eastern Conference to the Western Conference. Chivas USA folded at the end of the 2014 season.

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), 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).

Franchise changes

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 team that played in the league then known as USL Pro from 2010–2014, a team that relocated to Louisville for the 2015 season of the rebranded United Soccer League.

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, Los Angeles FC, in 2017.

Realignment and playoffs

With the addition and subtraction of the above-mentioned teams, the 2015 season saw a realignment of MLS's 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 scheduled 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's 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. The 2015 MLS all star game will be on Fox Sports, and MLS Cup 2015 will air on ESPN. 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 and Ireland. 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.

Teams

Stadiums and locations

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: 18,000	Capacity: 20,145	Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 20,500	Capacity: 22,000
LA Galaxy	Montreal Impact	FireRapidsCrewD.C. UnitedFC DallasDynamoGalaxyImpactRevolutionNYC FCRed BullsOrlando CityUnionTimbersReal Salt LakeEarthquakesSounders FCSporting KCToronto FCWhitecaps FCclass=notpageimage| Locations of teams for the 2015 Major League Soccer season Eastern Conference; Western Conference		New England Revolution	New York City FC
StubHub Center	Saputo Stadium			Gillette Stadium	Yankee Stadium
Capacity: 27,000	Capacity: 20,801			Capacity: 22,385	Capacity: 33,444
New York Red Bulls	Orlando City SC			Philadelphia Union	Portland Timbers
Red Bull Arena	Citrus Bowl			PPL Park	Providence Park
Capacity: 25,000	Capacity: 23,000			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: 39,115	Capacity: 18,500	Capacity: 30,991	Capacity: 21,000

Personnel and sponsorship

Note: All teams use Adidas as kit manufacturer.

Team	Head coach	Captain	Shirt sponsor
Chicago Fire	Brian Bliss	Jeff Larentowicz	Quaker
Colorado Rapids	Pablo Mastroeni	Drew Moor	Transamerica
Columbus Crew	Gregg Berhalter	Michael Parkhurst	Barbasol
D.C. United	Ben Olsen	Bobby Boswell	Leidos
FC Dallas	Óscar Pareja	Matt Hedges	AdvoCare
Houston Dynamo	Owen Coyle	Brad Davis	BHP Billiton
LA Galaxy	Bruce Arena	Robbie Keane	Herbalife
Montreal Impact	Mauro Biello	Patrice Bernier	Bank of Montreal
New England Revolution	Jay Heaps	Jermaine Jones	UnitedHealthcare
New York City FC	Jason Kreis	David Villa	Etihad Airways
New York Red Bulls	Jesse Marsch	Dax McCarty	Red Bull
Orlando City SC	Adrian Heath	Kaká	Orlando Health
Philadelphia Union	Jim Curtin	Maurice Edu	Bimbo
Portland Timbers	Caleb Porter	Will Johnson	Alaska Airlines
Real Salt Lake	Jeff Cassar	Kyle Beckerman	LifeVantage
San Jose Earthquakes	Dominic Kinnear	Chris Wondolowski	None
Seattle Sounders FC	Sigi Schmid	Brad Evans	Xbox
Sporting Kansas City	Peter Vermes	Matt Besler	Ivy Funds
Toronto FC	Greg Vanney	Michael Bradley	Bank of Montreal
Vancouver Whitecaps FC	Carl Robinson	Pedro 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	October 16, 2014	Preseason	Dominic Kinnear	October 16, 2014
Houston Dynamo	Dominic Kinnear	Signed by San Jose Earthquakes	October 16, 2014		Owen Coyle	December 8, 2014
New York Red Bulls	Mike Petke	Fired	January 7, 2015		Jesse Marsch	January 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

Player transfers

Allocation ranking

The allocation ranking is the mechanism used to determine which MLS club has first priority to acquire a U.S. National Team player who signs with MLS after playing abroad, or a former MLS player who returns to the league after having gone to a club abroad for a transfer fee. The allocation rankings may also be used in the event two or more clubs file a request for the same player on the same day. The allocations will be ranked in reverse order of finish for the 2014 season, taking playoff performance into account.

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
20	1	LA Galaxy†
6	2	Chicago Fire
7	3	Houston Dynamo
9	4	Philadelphia Union
10	5	Portland Timbers
11	6	Sporting Kansas City
12	7	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
13	8	Columbus Crew
14	9	FC Dallas
15	10	Real Salt Lake
3	11	Montreal Impact‡
18	12	Seattle Sounders FC
19	13	New England Revolution
5	14	Colorado Rapids†
1	15	New York City FC	January 13, 2015 (1)	Mix Diskerud	Rosenborg
8	16	Toronto FC	January 16, 2015 (6)	Jozy Altidore	Sunderland
17	17	New York Red Bulls‡	January 28, 2015 (1)	Sacha Kljestan	Anderlecht
2	18	Orlando City SC♯	December 19, 2014 (2)	Brek Shea	Stoke City
			February 2, 2015 (17)	Eric Avila	Santos Laguna
16	19	D.C. United	February 10, 2015 (12)	Michael Farfan	Cruz Azul
4	20	San Jose Earthquakes	July 17, 2015 (1)	Marc Pelosi	Liverpool U-21

Regular season

Conference tables

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Overall table

MLS Cup Playoffs

Template:2015 MLS Cup Playoff Bracket

Attendance

Average home attendances

Ranked from highest to lowest average attendance.

Highest attendances

Regular season

Updated to games played on October 25, 2015. Source: MLS Soccer

Statistics

Top scorers Rank Player Club Goals 1 Sebastian Giovinco Toronto FC 22 Kei Kamara Columbus Crew 3 Robbie Keane LA Galaxy 20 4 David Villa New York City FC 18 5 Cyle Larin Orlando City SC 17 Bradley Wright-Phillips New York Red Bulls 7 Chris Wondolowski San Jose Earthquakes 16 Fanendo Adi Portland Timbers 9 Obafemi Martins Seattle Sounders 15 10 Jozy Altidore Toronto FC 13 Updated: October 25

Top assists Rank Player Club Assists 1 Sebastian Giovinco Toronto FC 16 2 Benny Feilhaber Sporting Kansas City 15 Cristian Maidana Philadelphia Union 4 Sacha Kljestan New York Red Bulls 14 5 Ethan Finlay Columbus Crew 13 6 Javier Morales Real Salt Lake 11 7 Brad Davis Houston Dynamo 10 Mauro Díaz FC Dallas Lee Nguyen New England Revolution Clint Dempsey Seattle Sounders Updated: October 25

Shutouts Rank Player Club Shutouts 1 Adam Kwarasey Portland Timbers 13 David Ousted Vancouver Whitecaps FC 3 David Bingham San Jose Earthquakes 12 4 Stefan Frei Seattle Sounders FC 10 5 Evan Bush Montreal Impact 9 Luis Robles New York Red Bulls 7 Bill Hamid D.C. United 8 Clint Irwin Colorado Rapids Tim Melia Sporting Kansas City Nick Rimando Real Salt Lake Bobby Shuttleworth New England Revolution Updated: October 25

Hat-tricks Player For Against Result Date Robbie Keane LA Galaxy Toronto FC 4–0 July 4 Sebastian Giovinco Toronto FC New York City FC 4–4 July 12 Robbie Keane LA Galaxy San Jose Earthquakes 5–2 July 17 Cyle Larin Orlando City SC New York City FC 3–5 July 26 Sebastian Giovinco Toronto FC Orlando City SC 4–1 August 5 Didier Drogba Montreal Impact Chicago Fire 4–3 September 5 Cyle Larin Orlando City SC New York Red Bulls 5–2 September 25

Awards

Monthly awards

MLS Player of the Month

Month	Player	Club	Stats	Ref
March	Octavio Rivero	Vancouver Whitecaps FC	3G, 0A
April	Benny Feilhaber	Sporting Kansas City	2G, 3A
May	Krisztián Németh	Sporting Kansas City	3G, 2A
June	David Ousted	Vancouver Whitecaps FC	30SV, 4GA
July	Sebastian Giovinco	Toronto FC	5G, 3A
August	Sebastian Giovinco	Toronto FC	4G, 3A
September	Didier Drogba	Montreal Impact	7G, 1A
October	Didier Drogba	Montreal Impact	4G, 0A

Weekly awards

Week	MLS Player of the Week		Goal of the Week		MLS Save of the Week
	Player	Club	Player	Club	Player	Club
Week 1	Jozy Altidore	Toronto FC	Clint Dempsey	Seattle Sounders FC	Nick Rimando	Real Salt Lake
Week 2	David Villa	New York City FC	Innocent Emeghara	San Jose Earthquakes	Tyler Deric	Houston Dynamo
Week 3	Bradley Wright-Phillips	New York Red Bulls	Octavio Rivero	Vancouver Whitecaps FC	Tyler Deric	Houston Dynamo
Week 4	Kelyn Rowe	New England Revolution	Jack McInerney	Montreal Impact	Tyler Deric	Houston Dynamo
Week 5	Shaun Maloney	Chicago Fire	Javier Morales	Real Salt Lake	Brek Shea	Orlando City SC
Week 6	Jaime Penedo	LA Galaxy	Dillon Serna	Colorado Rapids	Nick Rimando	Real Salt Lake
Week 7	Fabián Castillo	FC Dallas	Obafemi Martins	Seattle Sounders FC	Adam Kwarasey	Portland Timbers
Week 8	Ethan Finlay	Columbus Crew	Benny Feilhaber	Sporting Kansas City	Jeff Attinella	Real Salt Lake
Week 9	Fabián Castillo	FC Dallas	Obafemi Martins	Seattle Sounders FC	Stefan Frei	Seattle Sounders FC
Week 10	Bradley Wright-Phillips	New York Red Bulls	Diego Valeri	Portland Timbers	David Ousted	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Week 11	Chad Barrett	Seattle Sounders FC	Devon Sandoval	Real Salt Lake	Steve Clark	Columbus Crew
Week 12	Kei Kamara	Columbus Crew	Dom Dwyer	Sporting Kansas City	Evan Bush	Montreal Impact
Week 13	Sebastian Giovinco	Toronto FC	Marco Pappa	Seattle Sounders FC	Stefan Frei	Seattle Sounders FC
Week 14	Sebastian Giovinco	Toronto FC	Thomas McNamara	New York City FC	Andrew Dykstra	D.C. United
Week 15	David Villa	New York City FC	Diego Fagúndez	New England Revolution	Stefan Frei	Seattle Sounders FC
Week 16	Gyasi Zardes	LA Galaxy	Matías Pérez García	San Jose Earthquakes	David Ousted	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Week 17	Fanendo Adi	Portland Timbers	Olmes Garcia	Real Salt Lake	David Ousted	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Week 18	Robbie Keane	LA Galaxy	Tyrone Mears	Seattle Sounders FC	David Ousted	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Week 19	Sebastian Giovinco	Toronto FC	Marco Donadel	Montreal Impact	Evan Bush	Montreal Impact
Week 20	Robbie Keane	LA Galaxy	Javier Morales	Real Salt Lake	Tyler Deric	Houston Dynamo
Week 21	Cyle Larin	Orlando City SC	Benny Feilhaber	Sporting Kansas City	Jeff Attinella	Real Salt Lake
Week 22	Pa Modou Kah	Vancouver Whitecaps FC	Taylor Kemp	D.C. United	Jeff Attinella	Real Salt Lake
Week 23	Kei Kamara	Columbus Crew	Sebastian Giovinco	Toronto FC	Luis Robles	New York Red Bulls
Week 24	Paulo Nagamura	Sporting Kansas City	Obafemi Martins	Seattle Sounders FC	Adam Kwarasey	Portland Timbers
Week 25	Robbie Keane	LA Galaxy	Cristian Techera	Vancouver Whitecaps FC	Stefan Frei	Seattle Sounders FC
Week 26	Bradley Wright-Phillips	New York Red Bulls	Bradley Wright-Phillips	New York Red Bulls	Stefan Frei	Seattle Sounders FC
Week 27	Didier Drogba	Montreal Impact	Didier Drogba	Montreal Impact	Stefan Frei	Seattle Sounders FC
Week 28	Kei Kamara	Columbus Crew	Krisztián Németh	Sporting Kansas City	Nick Rimando	Real Salt Lake
Week 29	Benny Feilhaber	Sporting Kansas City	Gonzalo Pineda	Seattle Sounders FC	Luis Robles	New York Red Bulls
Week 30	Didier Drogba	Montreal Impact	Didier Drogba	Montreal Impact	Nick Rimando	Real Salt Lake
Week 31	Tim Melia	Sporting Kansas City	Krisztián Németh	Sporting Kansas City	Luis Robles	New York Red Bulls
Week 32	None awarded
Week 33	Fanendo Adi	Portland Timbers	Ignacio Piatti	Montreal Impact	Luis Robles	New York Red Bulls
Week 34	Darlington Nagbe	Portland Timbers

Scoring

• First goal of the season: Jose Villarreal for LA Galaxy against Chicago Fire, 65 minutes (March 6, 2015)

Discipline

• First yellow card of the season: Shaun Maloney for Chicago Fire against LA Galaxy, 22 minutes (March 6, 2015)
• First red card of the season: Bobby Burling for Colorado Rapids against Philadelphia Union, 68 minutes (March 7, 2015) - Second yellow card
• First straight red card of the season: Aurélien Collin for Orlando City against New York City FC, 83 minutes (March 8, 2015)

References

1. "MLS draws a crowd on opening weekend", Washington Post, Steven Goff, March 9, 2015.
2. "MLS experiences TV ratings boost for 2015 opening weekend", SI.com, Richard Deitsch, March 11, 2015.
3. ^ "MLS announces new strategy for Los Angeles market, 2015 conference realignment," from MLSSoccer.com, October 27, 2014
4. "2015 Major League Soccer national television schedule". www.philly.com. January 21, 2015. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
5. "MLS, U.S. Soccer sign landmark TV and media rights partnerships with ESPN, FOX & Univision Deportes," from MLSSoccer.com, December 5, 2014
6. "MLS and British broadcaster Sky Sports announce groundbreaking partnership". February 25, 2015. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
7. "MLS and Eurosport announce four-year partnership to broadcast games in Europe". March 5, 2015. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
8. "Former Earthquakes coach Watson takes high road over firing". mercurynews.com.
9. ^ "Dominic Kinnear to coach San Jose Earthquakes". ESPNFC.com. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
10. Alicia Tolar. "Reports: Owen Coyle signs three-year deal with Houston Dynamo". Dynamo Theory. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
11. "New York Red Bulls part ways with head coach Mike Petke". MLSsoccer.com. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
12. "Red Bulls name Jesse Marsch as head coach ahead of 2015 season". New York Red Bulls. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
13. ^ "Frank Klopas fired as Montreal Impact head coach; Mauro Biello to take over". si.com. August 30, 2015.
14. ^ "Fire dismisses head coach Yallop". TSN.ca. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
15. MLS Soccer Media (January 27, 2015). "MLS Allocation Ranking". mlssoccer.com. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
16. ^ "Two-time MLS Cup winner Marcelo Sarvas joins the Colorado Rapids". Colorado Rapids. January 15, 2015. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
17. ^ "Impact makes major trade with New York Red Bulls". Montreal Impact. January 27, 2015. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
18. MLS Soccer Media (January 13, 2015). "New York City FC ink USMNT playmaker Mix Diskerud ahead of MLS expansion season". mlssoccer.com. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
19. Toronto FC (January 16, 2015). "Toronto FC sign U.S. international Jozy Altidore". TorontoFC.ca. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
20. "Red Bulls sign United States International Sacha Kljestan". New York Red Bulls. January 28, 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
21. Orlando City SC Media (December 19, 2014). "Brek Shea Signs with Orlando City SC". orlandocitysc.com. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
22. MLS Soccer staff (February 2, 2015). "Orlando City SC acquire former Chivas USA midfielder Eric Avila". MLSSoccer.com. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
23. Tenorio, Paul (February 2, 2015), Orlando City signs former Chivas USA midfielder Eric Avila, Orlando Sentinel, retrieved July 20, 2015
24. "Michael Farfan making return to MLS, signs with DC United after season at Cruz Azul". MLSsoccer.com. February 10, 2015.
25. "San Jose Earthquakes sign US youth international midfielder Marc Pelosi". MLSsoccer.com. July 17, 2015.
26. "12/19: Orlando City SC use No. 1 allocation spot to to sign Brek Shea" (MLS Allocation Ranking, mlssoccer.com).
27. "10-08-15_Stats_Standings.pdf". mlssoccer.com. Major League Soccer.
28. "Major League Soccer - Statistics - Goals".
29. "Major League Soccer - Statistics - Assists".
30. "Major League Soccer - Statistics - Goals".
31. "Vancouver Whitecaps FC's Octavio Rivero wins Etihad Airways MLS Player of the Month for March". MLSsoccer.com. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
32. "Sporting Kansas City's Benny Feilhaber wins Etihad Airways Player of the Month for April". MLSsoccer.com. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
33. "Sporting Kansas City's Krisztian Nemeth wins Etihad Airways Player of the Month for May". MLSsoccer.com. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
34. "Vancouver Whitecaps goalkeeper David Ousted wins Etihad Airways Player of the Month for June". MLSsoccer.com. Retrieved July 2, 2015.
35. "Toronto FC attacker Sebastian Giovinco wins Etihad Airways Player of the Month award for July". MLSsoccer.com. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
36. "Toronto FC attacker Sebastian Giovinco wins Etihad Airways Player of the Month award for August". MLSsoccer.com. September 3, 2015. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
37. "Didier Drogba, Impact striker, named MLS player of the month". CBC.ca. October 2, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
38. "Montreal Impact's Didier Drogba wins second straight Etihad Airways Player of the Month award". MLSsoccer.com. October 28, 2015. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
39. "Goal of the Week". MLSSoccer.com. Retrieved October 27, 2015.

External links

• Official website

• 2015 Major League Soccer season
• Major League Soccer seasons
• 2015 in American soccer leagues
• Current association football seasons