The 1997 Major League Soccer season was the second season of

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

. It was also the 85th season of FIFA-sanctioned soccer in the United States, and the 19th with a national first-division league. Following the 1996 season, the Wiz changed names, becoming the Wizards, following legal action from electronics retailer

The Wiz ''The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical "Wonderful Wizard of Oz"'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls (and others) and book by William F. Brown. It is a retelling of L. Frank Baum's children's novel '' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' ...

. The regular season began on March 29, and concluded on September 28. The 1997 MLS Cup Playoffs began on October 4, and concluded with

MLS Cup 1997 MLS Cup 1997 was the second edition of the MLS Cup, the post-season championship match of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the United States. It was played on October 26, 1997, between D.C. United and the Colorado Rapids to determine the champion ...

on October 26. D.C. United won their first Supporters' Shield and defended their MLS Cup championship becoming the first team to win back-to-back cups.

Overview

Season format

The season began on March 22 and concluded with

MLS Cup MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Playoffs. The game is held in November or December and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Confere ...

on October 26. The 10 teams were split evenly into two conferences. Each team played 32 games that were evenly divided between home and away. Each team played every other team in their conference four times, for a total of 16 games. The rest of the schedule consisted of three games against each team from the opposite conference, with four games against one designated team. The top four teams from each conference qualified for the MLS Cup Playoffs. The conference semifinals and finals were played as a best-of-three series, and the winners advanced to

. In all rounds, draws were broken by penalty shootout if necessary. The

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

was not used in any round. The team with the most points in the regular season was awarded the

MLS Supporters' Shield The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since 199 ...

. The winner of

, and the runner-up, qualified for the

CONCACAF Champions' Cup The CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly known as CONCACAF Champions League (2008–2023), is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America, a ...

Stadiums and locations

Personnel and sponsorships

Coaching changes

Standings

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Overall standings

MLS Cup Playoffs

Bracket

*The ties were a best-of-three series.

Conference semifinals

Eastern Conference *D.C. United advance to the Conference Finals. ---- *Columbus Crew advance to the Conference Finals. ---- Western Conference *Dallas Burn advance to the Conference Finals. ---- *Colorado Rapids advance to the Conference Finals.

Conference finals

Western Conference *Colorado Rapids advance to MLS Cup. ---- Eastern Conference *D.C. United advance to MLS Cup.

Overview

Season format

Stadiums and locations

Personnel and sponsorships

Coaching changes

Standings

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Overall standings

MLS Cup Playoffs

Bracket

Conference semifinals

Conference finals

MLS Cup

Player statistics

Goals

Hat-tricks

Assists

Clean sheets

Awards

Individual awards

Best XI

Player of the Month

Weekly awards

Attendance

References

External links