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MLS

Major League Soccer (MLS) is the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. Launched in 1996, MLS began with 10 teams and now consists of 27 clubs, 22 of which are based in the U.S. and 5 in Canada. The MLS Regular Season consists of 34 matches for each club, with the season stretching from early March to mid-October. At the end of the regular season, the top six teams in each Conference qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs. The two teams that reach the MLS Cup have the chance to compete for the MLS Cup Championship. MLS has boasted several stars, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Carlos Valdes, Jozy Altidore, and David Villa. These players have brought quality talent and fans from around the globe. MLS continues to be a leader in MLS international player development, which has seen the likes of Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, and Kaka come to the U.S. to compete in the league. Since the league's formation, MLS has qualified multiple teams to the CONCACAF Champions League, a Continental Cup competition for clubs based in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. In 2019, Atlanta United FC became the fourth team in league history, after D.C. United (1998), LA Galaxy (2000), and Real Salt Lake (2011) to be crowned champions in CONCACAF. Another important milestone in MLS history was achieved in the early 2000s, when the USA soccer team ended a long drought and earned a spot in the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup. This marked the first time that the U.S. National Team qualified for a FIFA tournament since the 1990 World Cup. Since then, the success of MLS has allowed the U.S. National Team to regularly qualify for tournaments, most recently finishing runner up in the 2019 FIFA World Cup in France. Overall, MLS has enjoyed tremendous success over the past two decades. The league has been able to attract some of the top talent in the soccer world and continues to provide a platform for fans to watch some of the best players in the world. With the growth of the sport in the US, MLS looks set to continue to reach new heights in the coming years.