The 2017 Major League Soccer season was the 22nd season of Major League Soccer, top division of soccer in the United States and Canada. The regular season began on March 3, 2017 and concluded on October 22, 2017. The MLS Cup Playoffs began on October 25, 2017 and concluded with MLS Cup 2017 on December 9, 2017.
Two new clubs joined the league as expansion franchises: Atlanta United FC and Minnesota United FC. The two franchises were the 21st and 22nd teams in the league.
Seattle Sounders FC were the defending MLS Cup champions, while FC Dallas were the defending Supporters' Shield champions. Toronto FC became the first Canadian team to win the Cup and Shield. Toronto's win of the Canadian Championship in the same year earned them the first domestic treble by an MLS side.
Teams
Stadiums and locations
Personnel and sponsorship
Note: All teams use Adidas as kit manufacturer.
Coaching changes
Regular season
Format
Current teams: Each team in the league (except for expansion teams Atlanta United FC and Minnesota United FC) played 17 home and 17 away games (for a total of 34 games) using the following format:
- 2 games (home and away) against 10 teams in its conference (20 games).
- 1 extra game against 3 of its conference rivals (3 games).
- 1 game against 11 teams in the other conference (11 games).
Expansion teams: As expansion teams to the league in 2017, Atlanta United and Minnesota United played 17 home and 17 away games (for a total of 34 games) in a secondary format:
- 2 games (home and away) against 10 teams in its conference (20 games).
- 1 extra game against 2 of its conference rivals (2 games).
- 1 game against 10 teams in the other conference (10 games).
- 2 games (1 home and 1 away) against each other (2 games).
Eastern Conference
Western Conference
Overall standings
MLS Cup Playoffs
Bracket
Knockout round
Conference semifinals
Conference finals
MLS Cup
Attendance
Average home attendances
Ranked from highest to lowest average attendance.
- game played at East Hartford
Highest attendances
Regular season
Player statistics
Hat-tricks
4 Scored 4 goals
Awards
Player of the Month
Player and Team of the week
- Bold denotes player of the week.
Goal of the Week
End-of-season awards
MLS Best XI
Player contracts
Highest-paid players
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 2016 season, taking playoff performance into account. Two expansion teams will take the top spots.
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.
Coaches
Eastern Conference
- Atlanta United FC: Gerardo Martino
- Chicago Fire: Veljko Paunović
- Columbus Crew SC: Gregg Berhalter
- D.C. United: Ben Olsen
- Montreal Impact: Mauro Biello
- New England Revolution: Jay Heaps and Tom Soehn
- 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: Wílmer Cabrera
- LA Galaxy: Curt Onalfo and Sigi Schmid
- Minnesota United FC: Adrian Heath
- Portland Timbers: Caleb Porter
- Real Salt Lake: Jeff Cassar and Mike Petke
- San Jose Earthquakes: Dominic Kinnear and Chris Leitch
- Seattle Sounders FC: Brian Schmetzer
- Sporting Kansas City: Peter Vermes
- Vancouver Whitecaps FC: Carl Robinson
References
