The 2012 Major League Soccer season was the 17th season of Major League Soccer. It was also the 100th season of FIFA-sanctioned soccer in the United States, and the 34th with a national first-division league.
The Montreal Impact became the 19th MLS club, replacing a team of the same name that previously played in the NASL.
The regular season began on March 10 and concluded on October 28. The MLS Cup Playoffs began on October 31 and ended on December 1, when the LA Galaxy claimed their fourth league title by defeating the Houston Dynamo, 3–1, in MLS Cup. It was the first rematch in the Cup final since Houston defeated the New England Revolution in the 2006 and 2007 editions.
Overview Season format The season began on March 10 and concluded with MLS Cup on December 1. The 19 teams were split into two conferences, with 10 teams in the Eastern Conference and 9 teams in the Western Conference. Each team played 34 games that were evenly divided between home and away. Western Conference teams played each conference rival three times, and played each Eastern Conference team once. Eastern Conference teams played seven of their conference rivals three times, the remaining two conference rivals twice, and each Western Conference team once.
The top three teams in each conference earned a bye to the conference semifinals, while the next two teams with the most points in each conference earned wild card berths. The wild card round included two single-elimination matches where the winners advanced to the conference semifinals. In all rounds, draws were broken with two 15-minute periods of extra time, followed by penalty kicks if necessary. The away goals rule was not used in any round.
The team with the most points in the regular season was awarded the MLS Supporters' Shield and qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League. Additionally, the winner of MLS Cup, and the runner-up, also qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League. An additional berth in the Champions League was also awarded to the winner of the U.S. Open Cup. If a team qualified for multiple berths into the Champions League, then additional berths were awarded to the highest overall finishing MLS team(s) not already qualified. Also, Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, and Montreal Impact, as Canadian-based teams, could not qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League through MLS, and had to instead qualify through the Canadian Championship.
Stadiums and locations
Team Stadium Capacity Chicago Fire Toyota Park 20,000 Chivas USA Home Depot Center 27,000 Colorado Rapids Dick's Sporting Goods Park 18,061 Columbus Crew Columbus Crew Stadium 22,555 D.C. United RFK Stadium 45,596 FC Dallas FC Dallas Stadium 21,193 Houston Dynamo Robertson Stadium 32,000 LA Galaxy Home Depot Center 27,000 Montreal Impact Saputo Stadium 20,801 New England Revolution Gillette Stadium 68,756 New York Red Bulls Red Bull Arena 25,000 Philadelphia Union PPL Park 18,500 Portland Timbers Jeld-Wen Field 18,627 Real Salt Lake Rio Tinto Stadium 20,213 San Jose Earthquakes Buck Shaw Stadium 10,525 Seattle Sounders FC CenturyLink Field 68,740 Sporting Kansas City Livestrong Sporting Park 18,467 Toronto FC BMO Field 21,566 Vancouver Whitecaps FC BC Place 22,120
Personnel and sponsorships
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players and Managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Team Head coach Captain Shirt sponsorChicago Fire QuakerChivas USA CoronaColorado Rapids —Columbus Crew BarbasolD.C. United VolkswagenFC Dallas AdvoCareHouston Dynamo Greenstar RecyclingLA Galaxy HerbalifeMontreal Impact Bank of MontrealNew England Revolution UnitedHealthcareNew York Red Bulls Red BullPhiladelphia Union BimboPortland Timbers Alaska AirlinesReal Salt Lake XanGoSan Jose Earthquakes —Seattle Sounders FC XboxSporting Kansas City —Toronto FC Bank of MontrealVancouver Whitecaps FC Bell Canada
Player transfers
Major League Soccer employs no fewer than 12 methods to acquire players. These include: signing players on transfers/free transfers as is done in most of the world; via trades; drafting players through mechanisms such as the MLS SuperDraft, MLS Supplemental Draft, or MLS Re-Entry Draft; rarely used methods which cover extreme hardship and injury replacement; signing players as Designated Players or Homegrown Players; placing a discovery claim on players; waivers; and methods peculiar to MLS such as through allocation or a weighted lottery.
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 2011 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 League season.
Original rankingClubDate allocation usedPlayer signedPlayer nationPrevious clubClub nationRef 1 Montreal Impact February 17, 2012 Eddie Johnson Fulham 2 Philadelphia Union June 26, 2012 Bakary Soumaré US Boulogne 3 New England Revolution August 27, 2012 Juan Toja Aris 4 Seattle Sounders FC∞ September 14, 2012 Marcus Hahnemann Everton 5 Chivas USA 6 San Jose Earthquakes 7 D.C. United 8 Portland Timbers 9 Chicago Fire 10 Columbus Crew 11 Colorado Rapids March 28, 2012 Kamani Hill Vitória 12 FC Dallas 13 New York Red Bulls August 8, 2012 Luis Robles Karlsruher SC
Montreal immediately traded Johnson to Seattle in exchange for Mike Fucito and Lamar Neagle.
Vancouver originally had the No. 2 ranking, but traded it to Philadelphia on June 26.
∞Toronto originally had the No. 4 ranking, but traded it to Seattle on September 14.
The remaining order after FC Dallas is: Vancouver Whitecaps FC (from Philadelphia), Toronto FC (from Seattle), Sporting Kansas City, Real Salt Lake, Houston Dynamo and Los Angeles Galaxy. In the unlikely event that all clubs use an allocation, the order begins anew with Montreal Impact, Colorado Rapids, Philadelphia Union, New York Red Bulls New England Revolution and Seattle Sounders FC.
Weighted lottery Some players are assigned to MLS teams via a weighted lottery process. A team can only acquire one player per year through a weighted lottery. The players made available through lotteries include: (i) Generation adidas players signed after the MLS SuperDraft; and (ii) Draft eligible players to whom an MLS contract was offered but who failed to sign with the League prior to the SuperDraft.
The team with the worst record over its last 30 regular season games (dating back to previous season if necessary and taking playoff performance into account) will have the greatest probability of winning the lottery. Teams are not required to participate in a lottery. Players are assigned via the lottery system in order to prevent a player from potentially influencing his destination club with a strategic holdout.
The results of 2012 weighted lotteries thus far:
Lottery datePlayerPlayer nationPositionWinning clubOther clubs participatingRef December 15, 2011 Lee Nguyen MF Vancouver Whitecaps FC Toronto FC, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, Real Salt Lake, Los Angeles Galaxy September 13, 2012 Marcus Tracy FW San Jose Earthquakes New England Revolution, FC Dallas, Philadelphia Union, Real Salt Lake, Chicago Fire, New York Red Bulls, Seattle Sounders FC
Ownership changes Club New owner Previous owner Date DC United Erick Thohir and Jason Levien D.C. United Holdings
Standings Eastern Conference
Western Conference
Overall standings
MLS Cup playoffs
Bracket
Player statistics Goals Rank Player Club Goals1 Chris WondolowskiSan Jose Earthquakes272 Kenny CooperNew York Red Bulls183 Álvaro SaboríoReal Salt Lake174 Robbie KeaneLA Galaxy165 Thierry HenryNew York Red Bulls156 Eddie JohnsonSeattle Sounders FC147 Alan GordonSan Jose Earthquakes13 Fredy MonteroSeattle Sounders FC9 Will BruinHouston Dynamo12 Chris PontiusD.C. United
Assists Rank Player Club Assists1 Graham ZusiSporting Kansas City152 Landon DonovanLA Galaxy143 Marvin ChávezSan Jose Earthquakes13 Mauro RosalesSeattle Sounders FC5 Brad DavisHouston Dynamo12 Dwayne De RosarioD.C. United Thierry HenryNew York Red Bulls8 Felipe MartinsMontreal Impact109 David BeckhamLA Galaxy9 David FerreiraFC Dallas Robbie KeaneLA Galaxy Javier MoralesReal Salt Lake
Clean sheets RankPlayerClubCleansheets1 Jimmy NielsenSporting Kansas City152 Tally HallHouston Dynamo12 Nick RimandoReal Salt Lake4 Josh SaundersLA Galaxy95 Joe CannonVancouver Whitecaps FC8 Andy GruenebaumColumbus Crew Michael GspurningSeattle Sounders FC Bill HamidD.C. United Zac MacMathPhiladelphia Union10 Jon BuschSan Jose Earthquakes7 Dan KennedyChivas USA Matt PickensColorado Rapids
Awards Individual awards AwardPlayerClubMost Valuable Player Chris WondolowskiSan Jose EarthquakesDefender of the Year Matt BeslerSporting Kansas CityGoalkeeper of the Year Jimmy NielsenSporting Kansas CityCoach of the Year Frank YallopSan Jose EarthquakesRookie of the Year Austin BerryChicago FireNewcomer of the Year Federico HiguaínColumbus CrewComeback Player of the Year Eddie JohnsonSeattle Sounders FCGolden Boot Chris WondolowskiSan Jose EarthquakesGoal of the Year Patrick IanniSeattle Sounders FCSave of the Year Nick RimandoReal Salt LakeFair Play Award Logan PauseChicago FireHumanitarian of the Year Chris Seitz FC Dallas
Best XI GoalkeeperDefendersMidfieldersForwards Jimmy Nielsen, Sporting KC Víctor Bernárdez, San Jose Matt Besler, Sporting KC Aurélien Collin, Sporting KC Osvaldo Alonso, Seattle Landon Donovan, LA Galaxy Chris Pontius, D.C. United Graham Zusi, Sporting KC Thierry Henry, Red Bulls Robbie Keane, LA Galaxy Chris Wondolowski, San Jose
Player of the Month MonthPlayerClubStatsMarch Thierry HenryNew York Red Bulls5G, 3AApril Chris WondolowskiSan Jose Earthquakes3GMay Dwayne De RosarioD.C. United4G, 3AJune Chris WondolowskiSan Jose Earthquakes3GJuly Robbie KeaneLA Galaxy5G, 4AAugust Patrice BernierMontreal Impact3G, 3ASeptember Chris WondolowskiSan Jose Earthquakes4G, 2AOctober Chris WondolowskiSan Jose Earthquakes5G
Weekly awards