The 1998 Major League Soccer season was the third 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 86th season of FIFA-sanctioned soccer in the United States, and the 20th with a national first-division league. The Chicago Fire and

Miami Fusion Miami Fusion F.C. was an American professional soccer club based in the Miami metropolitan area. The club competed in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team played from 1998 to 2001. Announced in 1997 as one ...

played their inaugural seasons as the league's first two expansion teams. The NY/NJ MetroStars dropped the New York/New Jersey from their name and rebranded as just MetroStars, with no city, state or regional name attached to it. The regular season began on March 15, and concluded on September 27. The MLS Cup Playoffs began on September 30, 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 25. Chicago became the first expansion team to win MLS Cup and the first to win it in its inaugural season.

Overview

Season format

The season began on March 15 and concluded with

on October 25. The 12 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 20 games. The remaining schedule consisted of two games against each team from the opposite conference. 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 ...

and qualified automatically 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 ...

. Additionally, the winner of

, and the runner-up, also qualified for the Champions' Cup.

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 2–0, to the Conference Finals. ---- *Columbus Crew advance 2–0, to the Conference Finals. ---- Western Conference *Los Angeles Galaxy advance 2–0, to the Conference Finals. ---- *Chicago Fire advance 2–0, to the Conference Finals.

Conference finals

Eastern Conference *D.C. United advance 2–1, to MLS Cup ---- Western Conference *Chicago Fire advance 2–0, to MLS Cup

MLS Cup

Player statistics

Goals

Hat-tricks

Assists

Clean sheets

Awards

Individual awards

Best XI

Player of the Month

Weekly awards

Attendance

References

MLS Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:1998 Major League Soccer Season 1998 in American soccer leagues Major League Soccer seasons