2015 Major League Soccer season


The 2015 Major League Soccer season featured 20 total clubs. The regular season was held from March 6 through to October 25, whereas the MLS Cup Playoffs began on October 28 and ended with MLS Cup 2015 on December 6. The defending MLS Cup champions were the LA Galaxy, while Seattle Sounders FC were the defending Supporters' Shield winners.
It was the first season for expansion teams Orlando City SC and New York City FC, who both joined the Eastern Conference, while both the Houston Dynamo and Sporting Kansas City moved from the Eastern Conference to the Western Conference. Chivas USA folded at the end of the 2014 season.
At the end of the regular season, the New York Red Bulls of the Eastern Conference won the Supporters' Shield, while the team on top of the Western Conference was FC Dallas. The Portland Timbers won their first MLS Cup, winning 2–1 at Columbus Crew SC.

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, and Seattle — with seven of the weekend's ten matches selling out. Additionally, MLS saw strong TV ratings on ESPN2, Unimas, and Fox Sports 1.

Franchise changes

The 2015 MLS season featured the addition of two expansion teams, New York City FC and Orlando City SC. New York City FC became the second MLS team in the New York metropolitan area. Orlando was a new market for MLS, which returned 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; that team that relocated to Louisville for the 2015 season of the rebranded United Soccer League.
While MLS added two teams, one team closed down. Chivas USA, which had called the Los Angeles area home since 2005 and shared the StubHub Center with the LA Galaxy. Chivas 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 announced plans to add a second LA-area club, Los Angeles FC, in 2018.

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: NYCFC and Orlando City joined the East, while Houston Dynamo and Sporting Kansas City moved from the East to the West.
Each team played 34 regular season matches: two or three against conference rivals and once against teams from the opposite conference. The regular season concluded with all teams playing at the same scheduled time, a league first.
12 teams advanced to the MLS Cup Playoffs, up from 10 the previous 3 seasons. The top six teams per conference qualified. The first round per conference had the third-seed hosting the sixth-seed, and the fourth hosting the fifth. In the Conference Semifinals, the top seed played the lowest remaining seed and the second played the next-lowest.

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. The deal, formally announced in May 2014, sees regular weekly game broadcasts on ESPN2 and Fox Sports 1, 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 U.S. 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 was 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


Personnel and sponsorship

Note: All teams use Adidas as kit manufacturer.
TeamHead coachCaptainShirt sponsor
Chicago Fire Quaker
Colorado Rapids Transamerica
Columbus Crew Barbasol
D.C. United Leidos
FC Dallas AdvoCare
Houston Dynamo BHP Billiton
LA Galaxy Herbalife
Montreal Impact Bank of Montreal
New England Revolution UnitedHealthcare
New York City FC Etihad Airways
New York Red Bulls Red Bull
Orlando City SC Orlando Health
Philadelphia Union Bimbo
Portland Timbers Alaska Airlines
Real Salt Lake Jeff Cassar LifeVantage
San Jose Earthquakes -
Seattle Sounders FC Xbox
Sporting Kansas City Ivy Funds
Toronto FC Bank of Montreal
Vancouver Whitecaps FC Bell Canada

Managerial changes

Regular season

Conference tables

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Overall table

MLS Cup Playoffs

Attendance

Average home attendances

Ranked from highest to lowest average attendance.
Team
Seattle Sounders FC17752,19264,35839,17544,247
Orlando City SC17558,40762,51023,37232,847
New York City FC17493,26748,04720,46129,016
Toronto FC17398,67130,26616,38223,451
LA Galaxy17397,66827,00013,39123,392
Portland Timbers17359,41821,14421,14421,144
San Jose Earthquakes17356,64650,42218,00020,979
Houston Dynamo17351,18722,65116,01820,658
Vancouver Whitecaps FC17348,62422,50018,08320,507
Real Salt Lake17342,71821,00418,89520,160
Sporting Kansas City17334,68421,50518,86419,687
New York Red Bulls17334,17225,21912,54019,657
New England Revolution17333,65242,94710,66819,627
Montreal Impact17301,74225,24510,03517,750
Philadelphia Union17296,67418,88315,37417,451
Columbus Crew17288,74722,71910,30216,985
D.C. United17276,15221,51711,21816,244
FC Dallas17272,22121,90712,64016,013
Chicago Fire17272,04320,12411,19616,003
Colorado Rapids17266,16818,59710,43915,657
Total3407,335,05364,35810,03521,574

Highest attendances

Regular season
RankHome teamScoreAway teamAttendanceDateStadium
1Seattle Sounders FC2–1Portland Timbers64,358CenturyLink Field
2Orlando City SC1–1New York City FC62,510Citrus Bowl
3Seattle Sounders FC1–1LA Galaxy56,097CenturyLink Field
4Seattle Sounders FC3–1Real Salt Lake55,435CenturyLink Field
5Seattle Sounders FC0–3Vancouver Whitecaps FC53,125CenturyLink Field
6San Jose Earthquakes3–1LA Galaxy50,422Stanford Stadium
7New York City FC1–3New York Red Bulls48,047Yankee Stadium
8New York City FC2–0New England Revolution43,507Yankee Stadium
9Orlando City SC2–1New York City FC43,179Citrus Bowl
10New England Revolution0–1Montreal Impact42,947Gillette Stadium

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

Statistics

Top scorers

Top assists

Shutouts

Hat-tricks

PlayerForAgainstResultDate
LA GalaxyToronto FC4–04 7 2015
Toronto FCNew York City FC4–412 7 2015
LA GalaxySan Jose Earthquakes5–217 7 2015
Orlando City SCNew York City FC3–526 7 2015
Toronto FCOrlando City SC4–15 8 2015
Montreal ImpactChicago Fire4–35 9 2015
Orlando City SCNew York Red Bulls5–225 9 2015

Awards

Monthly awards

Weekly awards

Scoring

MLS Best XI

Source:

Player transfers

Allocation ranking

The allocation ranking was 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.
MLS streamlined the allocation mechanism in the middle of 2015 season. Effective on May 1, 2015, the allocation ranking is the mechanism used to determine which MLS club has first priority to acquire a player who is in MLS allocation list. 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 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		Final
Ranking		ClubDate Allocation Used
Player SignedPrevious ClubRef
201LA Galaxy
62Chicago Fire
73Houston Dynamo
94Philadelphia Union
105Portland Timbers
116Sporting Kansas City
127Vancouver Whitecaps FC
138Columbus Crew SC
149FC Dallas
1510Real Salt Lake
311Montreal Impact
1812Seattle Sounders FC
1913New England Revolution
514Colorado Rapids
115New York City FC Mix Diskerud Rosenborg
816Toronto FC Jozy Altidore Sunderland
1717New York Red Bulls Sacha Kljestan Anderlecht
218Orlando City SC♯ Brek Shea Stoke City
218Orlando City SC♯ Eric Avila Santos Laguna
1619D.C. United Michael Farfan Cruz Azul
420San Jose Earthquakes Marc Pelosi Liverpool U-21

On January 15, 2015, LA Galaxy acquired the then-number 3 allocation ranking and allocation money from Colorado Rapids in exchange for the then-number 18 allocation ranking, Marcelo Sarvas, and an international roster slot.
On January 27, 2015, New York Red Bulls acquired the then-number 1 allocation ranking and Felipe from Montreal Impact in exchange for the then-number 14 allocation ranking, Ambroise Oyongo, Eric Alexander, allocation money, and an international roster slot for the 2015 season.
♯ On December 19, 2014, Orlando used its original ranking to acquire Shea. Orlando used their allocation a second time when 16 teams passed and they picked Avila with the then-number 17 allocation ranking.

Coaches

Eastern Conference