2016 Major League Soccer season
The 2016 Major League Soccer season featured 20 total clubs. The regular season began on March 6 and ended on October 23. The playoffs began on October 26 and ended on December 10. The defending MLS Cup champions were the Portland Timbers, while the New York Red Bulls were the defending Supporters' Shield winners. FC Dallas won the Supporter's Shield for the first time, and the Seattle Sounders FC won their first MLS Cup in their history after defeating Toronto FC 5–4 in a penalty kick shootout, after playing to a 0–0 result after regulation and added extra time.
Teams
Stadiums and locations
Personnel and Sponsorship
Note: All teams use Adidas as kit manufacturer.Team | Head coach | Captain | Shirt sponsor |
Chicago Fire | Valspar | ||
Colorado Rapids | Transamerica | ||
Columbus Crew SC | 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 | Sutter Health | ||
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
Bracket
Knockout Round
Conference Semifinals
Conference Finals
MLS Cup
Attendance
Average home attendances
Ranked from highest to lowest average attendance.Team | ||||||
1 | Seattle Sounders FC | 17 | 724,809 | 53,302 | 39,269 | 42,636 |
2 | Orlando City SC | 17 | 502,478 | 60,147 | 23,802 | 31,324 |
3 | New York City FC | 17 | 462,336 | 37,858 | 22,736 | 27,196 |
4 | Toronto FC | 17 | 451,917 | 30,262 | 22,212 | 26,583 |
5 | LA Galaxy | 17 | 427,492 | 27,167 | 19,651 | 25,147 |
6 | Vancouver Whitecaps FC | 17 | 379,603 | 27,038 | 18,836 | 22,330 |
7 | Portland Timbers | 17 | 359,448 | 21,144 | 21,144 | 21,144 |
8 | Montreal Impact | 17 | 351,366 | 27,545 | 16,318 | 20,669 |
9 | New York Red Bulls | 17 | 350,535 | 25,218 | 15,167 | 20,620 |
10 | New England Revolution | 17 | 343,150 | 39,587 | 10,144 | 20,185 |
11 | San Jose Earthquakes | 17 | 338,816 | 50,816 | 18,000 | 19,930 |
12 | Real Salt Lake | 17 | 335,909 | 20,389 | 18,036 | 19,759 |
13 | Sporting Kansas City | 17 | 333,155 | 20,618 | 18,563 | 19,549 |
14 | Houston Dynamo | 17 | 323,361 | 21,601 | 15,045 | 19,597 |
15 | Philadelphia Union | 17 | 297,825 | 18,681 | 15,011 | 17,519 |
16 | Columbus Crew SC | 17 | 291,128 | 20,389 | 13,114 | 17,125 |
17 | D.C. United | 17 | 290,381 | 30,943 | 12,094 | 17,081 |
18 | Colorado Rapids | 17 | 276,721 | 18,759 | 10,670 | 16,278 |
19 | Chicago Fire | 17 | 265,234 | 18,976 | 12,073 | 15,602 |
20 | FC Dallas | 17 | 239,601 | 16,215 | 10,381 | 14,094 |
– | Total | 340 | 7,375,144 | 60,147 | 10,144 | 21,692 |
Highest attendances
Regular seasonRank | Home team | Score | Away team | Attendance | Date | Week | Stadium |
1 | Orlando City SC | 2–2 | Real Salt Lake | 60,147 | 1 | Orlando Citrus Bowl | |
2 | Seattle Sounders FC | 3–1 | Portland Timbers | 53,302 | August 21, 2016 | 25 | CenturyLink Field |
3 | San Jose Earthquakes | 1–1 | Los Angeles Galaxy | 50,816 | 15 | Stanford Stadium | |
4 | Seattle Sounders FC | 2–1 | Real Salt Lake | 50,022 | October 23, 2016 | 34 | CenturyLink Field |
5 | Seattle Sounders FC | 1–1 | Los Angeles Galaxy | 48,458 | July 31, 2016 | 22 | CenturyLink Field |
6 | Seattle Sounders FC | 0–2 | New York City FC | 47,537 | June 25, 2016 | 15 | CenturyLink Field |
7 | Seattle Sounders FC | 1–0 | Vancouver Whitecaps FC | 47,111 | September 17, 2016 | 30 | CenturyLink Field |
8 | Seattle Sounders FC | 0–1 | Colorado Rapids | 41,028 | 11 | CenturyLink Field | |
9 | Seattle Sounders FC | 0–1 | Los Angeles Galaxy | 40,813 | July 9, 2016 | 18 | CenturyLink Field |
10 | Seattle Sounders FC | 5–0 | FC Dallas | 40,101 | July 13, 2016 | 19 | CenturyLink Field |
Player statistics
Goals
Assists
Rank | Player | Club | Assists |
1 | Sacha Kljestan | New York Red Bulls | 20 |
2 | Sebastian Giovinco | Toronto FC | 15 |
3 | Mauro Díaz | FC Dallas | 13 |
3 | Benny Feilhaber | Sporting Kansas City | 13 |
3 | Justin Meram | Columbus Crew | 13 |
6 | Giovani Dos Santos | LA Galaxy | 12 |
7 | Luciano Acosta | D.C. United | 11 |
7 | Steven Gerrard | LA Galaxy | 11 |
7 | Andrea Pirlo | New York City FC | 11 |
7 | Joao Plata | Real Salt Lake | 11 |
Shutouts
Hat-tricks
Player | For | Against | Result | Date |
New York Red Bulls | Toronto FC | 3–0 | 28 5 2016 | |
Columbus Crew SC | Real Salt Lake | 4–3 | 28 5 2016 | |
Philadelphia Union | Chicago Fire | 4–3 | 22 6 2016 | |
Montreal Impact | Philadelphia Union | 5–1 | 23 7 2016 | |
Toronto FC | D.C. United | 4–1 | 23 7 2016 | |
New York City FC | Colorado Rapids | 5–1 | 30 7 2016 | |
Toronto FC | New England Revolution | 4–1 | 6 8 2016 | |
Seattle Sounders FC | Orlando City SC | 3–1 | 7 8 2016 | |
D.C. United | Chicago Fire | 6–2 | 27 8 2016 | |
Houston Dynamo | Portland Timbers | 3–1 | 24 9 2016 | |
Toronto FC | New York City FC | 5–0 | 6 11 2016 |
Scoring
- First goal of the season: Thomas McNamara for New York City FC against Chicago Fire, 10 minutes
- Fastest goal of the season: Octavio Rivero for Vancouver Whitecaps against New York City FC, 38 seconds
- Latest goal of the season: Marco Pappa for Colorado Rapids against LA Galaxy, 95 minutes
Discipline
- First yellow card of the season: Daniel Lovitz for Toronto FC against New York Red Bulls, 38 minutes
- First red card of the season: Demar Phillips for Real Salt Lake against Orlando City SC, 20 minutes – Second yellow card
- First straight red card of the season: Darwin Cerén for Orlando City SC against Real Salt Lake, 47 minutes
- First player suspended by yellow card accumulation: Carlos Gruezo for FC Dallas
Awards
Monthly awards
Weekly awards
Team of the Week
End of season awards
MLS Best XI
Source:Player transfers
Allocation ranking
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 will be ranked in reverse order of finish for the 2015 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 | Player Signed | Previous Club | Ref |
1 | 1 | Chicago Fire | ||||
4 | 2 | New York City FC | ||||
5 | 3 | Real Salt Lake | ||||
6 | 4 | Houston Dynamo | ||||
7 | 5 | Orlando City SC | ||||
8 | 6 | San Jose Earthquakes | ||||
9 | 7 | Toronto FC | ||||
10 | 8 | New England Revolution | ||||
11 | 9 | Sporting Kansas City | ||||
12 | 10 | LA Galaxy | ||||
13 | 11 | D.C. United | ||||
14 | 12 | Montreal Impact | ||||
15 | 13 | Seattle Sounders FC | ||||
16 | 14 | Vancouver Whitecaps FC | ||||
17 | 15 | FC Dallas | ||||
18 | 16 | New York Red Bulls | ||||
19 | 17 | Columbus Crew SC | ||||
20 | 18 | Portland Timbers | ||||
2 | 19 | Colorado Rapids | 20 3 2016 | Tim Howard | Everton | |
3 | 20 | Philadelphia Union | 3 8 2016 | Alejandro Bedoya | Nantes |
Television
United States
In the 2016 MLS season, 96 games aired in the United States on national television. English-language broadcasts once again included Soccer Sunday doubleheaders — 29 games on ESPN and 5 on ESPN2, 4 on Fox, and 30 on Fox Sports 1. The 2016 season marked MLS's debut on the Fox network channel. Spanish-language broadcasts included 28 games on UniMás.Date | ESPN | FS1 | UDN | Ref | Notes | |
1 | March 6 | 362 | 267 | 148 | The UDN match aired from 10:00pm to 12:08am, outside its usual window. | |
2 | March 11–13 | 197 | 175 | 84 | ||
3 | March 18–20 | 179 | 184 | 98 | MLS matches went head-to-head against the NCAA Basketball Tournament. | |
4 | March 25–27 | No Games on TV. | ||||
5 | April 1–3 | 261 | 185 | No Games on ESPN. | ||
6 | April 8–10 | 386 | 183 270 | 192 | Two Games on FS1, 183k NYCFC-CHI, 270k LAG-POR | |
7 | April 15–17 | 229 | 138 | 109 | ||
8 | April 22–24 | 180 | 176 | No Games on Unimas. | ||
9 | April 29–May 1 | 302 | 199 | 51 | ||
10 | May 6–8 | 225 | 199 | 93 | ||
May 20–22 | 463 | 636* 210 | 190 | *New York derby was broadcast on FOX instead of FS1. | ||
July 1–3 | 439 | 136 | ||||
July 8–10 | 223 | 171 | 84 | |||
July 15–17 | 322 | 118 | ||||
AVG | 2016 | 262.1 | 205.8 | 120 | 2016 Average |
Notes:
- All viewership numbers are in thousands.
- Average viewership for the previous 2015 season was 245,000, 197,000, and 244,000.
Other countries
MLS aired on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom, Eurosport in Continental Europe, Abu Dhabi Media in the Middle East and North Africa, Letv Sports in China, beIN Sports in Asia-Pacific, ESPN and Fox Sports in Latin America, SporTV in Brazil and Fox Sports in Africa.
2016 attendances
The following is a list of the average attendance for each of the twenty MLS teams at their regular-season games. It includes the team, the average attendance for the 2016 regular season and the 2015 regular season, the percentage change in attendance from season-to-season, the home venue, the home venue's capacity, and the percent of capacity.Note: Vancouver's and Seattle's attendances are both over 100% capacity because, for select games, they open up additional sections above the regular limited capacity. Orlando's and New England's attendances are over 100% because their capacities are artificial; both teams regularly sell more tickets than the limit. San Jose's attendance is over 100% capacity because they played one game at Levi's Stadium.
Coaches
Eastern Conference
- Chicago Fire: Veljko Paunović
- Columbus Crew SC: Gregg Berhalter
- D.C. United: Ben Olsen
- Montreal Impact: Mauro Biello
- New England Revolution: Jay Heaps
- New York City FC: Patrick Vieira
- New York Red Bulls: Jesse Marsch
- Orlando City SC: Jason Kreis
- Philadelphia Union: Jim Curtin
- Toronto FC: Greg Vanney
Western Conference
- Colorado Rapids: Pablo Mastroeni
- FC Dallas: Óscar Pareja
- Houston Dynamo: Owen Coyle, Wade Barrett and Wilmer Cabrera
- Los Angeles Galaxy: Bruce Arena
- Portland Timbers: Caleb Porter
- Real Salt Lake: Jeff Cassar
- San Jose Earthquakes: Dominic Kinnear
- Seattle Sounders FC: Sigi Schmid and Brian Schmetzer
- Sporting Kansas City: Peter Vermes
- Vancouver Whitecaps FC: Carl Robinson