What Is The Major League Soccer Supporters Shield?
Aug 3, 2013; Kansas City, KS, USA; The Supporters Shield is displayed before the game between New York Red Bulls and Sporting KC at Sporting Park. New York won 3-2. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports
In soccer, every trophy deserves a prize for being the best team in the regular season. There are a number of leagues around the world that don’t have a playoffs or a finals series and so the home-and-away fixture list is what determines the best team in the competition. Many notable leagues that determine a champion through the home-and-away include the Premier League in England, the Bundesliga in Germany, Serie A in Italy, Ligue 1 in France, and La Liga in Spain.
Here in North America, we have our version of the prize for the best regular season record in MLS. It’s called the Supporters Shield. It’s comparable to the Presidents’ Trophy in the National Hockey League and the Premiership Plate in the Hyundai A-League in Australia and New Zealand. As with MLS Cups, D.C. United and the Los Angeles Galaxy are tied for the most Supporters Shields won with four each.
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Now, in the early days, there was no shield. You only earned the top seed in the playoffs for having the best regular season. For a number of years, the thought of a Supporters Shield was tossed around but never cam to fruition until a man by the name of Sam Pierron came up with the idea of fundraising a trophy to honor the team with the best regular season record.
In 1999, at the second MLS Supporters’ Summit, the Galaxy were awarded with their first-ever Shield, while the now-defunct Tampa Bay Mutiny and D.C. United were retroactively awarded the Shield for the 1996 and 1997 season. There was no incentive for winning the Shield during the early to mid-2000s, but in 2006, the United States Soccer Federation decided to give the Supporters’ Shield winner a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League. Through the 2013 season, the winner of the Supporters Shield has gone on to secure a Double with winning MLS Cup in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2008 and 2011.
Ever since the 2000 season, Major League Soccer used the international standard of awarding points. That now brings up an important question: how do the tiebreakers go? This is the order.
- Most Wins
- Goal Difference (GD)
- Goals For (GF)
- Fewest Disciplinary Points
- Road Goals
- Road GD
- Home Goals
- Home GD
- Coin Toss (2 teams) or Drawing of Lots (3 or more teams)
Here are the list of winners of the Supporters Shield from 1996 through 2013.
| Season | Winner | Record | Points[B] / Pts per game | Playoff Result | Win # | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games | Won | Lost | Tied[A] | |||||
| 1996 | Tampa Bay Mutiny | 32 | 20 | 12 | — | 58 / 1.81 | Lost Conference Final (DC) | 1 |
| 1997 | D.C. United | 32 | 21 | 11 | — | 55 / 1.72 | Won MLS Cup | 1 |
| 1998 | Los Angeles Galaxy | 32 | 24 | 8 | — | 68 / 2.12 | Lost Conference Final (CHI) | 1 |
| 1999 | D.C. United | 32 | 23 | 9 | — | 57 / 1.78 | Won MLS Cup | 2 |
| 2000 | Kansas City Wizards | 32 | 16 | 7 | 9 | 57 / 1.78 | Won MLS Cup | 1 |
| 2001 | Miami Fusion | 26 | 16 | 5 | 5 | 53 / 2.04 | Lost Semifinal (SJ) | 1 |
| 2002 | Los Angeles Galaxy | 28 | 16 | 9 | 3 | 51 / 1.82 | Won MLS Cup | 2 |
| 2003 | Chicago Fire | 30 | 15 | 7 | 8 | 53 / 1.77 | Lost MLS Cup (SJ)^ | 1 |
| 2004 | Columbus Crew | 30 | 12 | 5 | 13 | 49 / 1.63 | Lost Conference Semifinals (NE) | 1 |
| 2005 | San Jose Earthquakes | 32 | 18 | 4 | 10 | 64 / 2.00 | Lost Conference Semifinals (LA) | 1 |
| 2006 | D.C. United | 32 | 15 | 7 | 10 | 55 / 1.72 | Lost Conference Final (NE) | 3 |
| 2007 | D.C. United | 30 | 16 | 7 | 7 | 55 / 1.83 | Lost Conference Semifinals (CHI) | 4 |
| 2008 | Columbus Crew | 30 | 17 | 7 | 6 | 57 / 1.90 | Won MLS Cup | 2 |
| 2009 | Columbus Crew | 30 | 13 | 7 | 10 | 49 / 1.63 | Lost Conference Semifinals (RSL) | 3 |
| 2010 | Los Angeles Galaxy | 30 | 18 | 7 | 5 | 59 / 1.97 | Lost Conference Final (FCD) | 3 |
| 2011 | Los Angeles Galaxy | 34 | 19 | 5 | 10 | 67 / 1.97 | Won MLS Cup | 4 |
| 2012 | San Jose Earthquakes | 34 | 19 | 6 | 9 | 66 / 1.94 | Lost Conference Semifinals (LA) | 2 |
| 2013 | New York Red Bulls | 34 | 17 | 9 | 8 | 59 / 1.74 | Lost Conference Semifinals (HOU) | 1 |
For this year’s edition, the Seattle Sounders only need to draw this Saturday against the Los Angeles Galaxy to win their first ever Supporters Shield. They have the first tiebreker, which is most wins. You can tune in to NBC on Oct. 25 at 11:30 p.m. PT/2:30 p.m. ET to find out in Seattle will make history and secure a unique Double and possibly be in the driver’s seat to secure a historic Treble.