2008 Major League Soccer season

The 2008 Major League Soccer season was the 13th season of Major League Soccer. It was also the 96th season of FIFA-sanctioned soccer in the United States, and the 30th with a national first-division league.

The San Jose Earthquakes returned to the league, following a two-year hiatus that began after the 2005 season.

The Kansas City Wizards left Arrowhead Stadium and moved to the Kansas side of the metropolitan area, occupying CommunityAmerica Ballpark in Kansas City. The league also debuted its newest soccer-specific stadium in October when Real Salt Lake opened Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah.

The regular season began on March 29, and concluded on October 26. The 2008 MLS Cup Playoffs began on October 30, and concluded with MLS Cup 2008 on November 23. The Columbus Crew captured the league double by winning their second Supporters' Shield and by defeating the New York Red Bulls, 3-1, in MLS Cup.

Overview

Season format

The season began on March 29 and concluded with MLS Cup on November 23. The 14 teams were split evenly into two conferences. Each team played 30 games that were evenly divided between home and away. Each team played every other team twice, home and away, for a total of 26 games. The remaining four games were played against four regional rivals, two at home and two away.

The top three teams from each conference automatically qualified for the MLS Cup Playoffs. In addition, the two highest remaining point totals, regardless of conference, also qualified. In the first round, aggregate goals over two matches determined the winners. The conference finals were played as a single match, and the winners advanced to MLS Cup. 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, as a Canadian-based team, could not qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League through MLS, and had to instead qualify through the Canadian Championship.

Automatic qualification for the U.S. Open Cup was awarded to the top six overall finishers, as opposed to the top three finishers in each conference. The rest of the U.S.-based MLS teams had to qualify for the remaining two berths via a series of play-in games.

Due to fixture congestion, qualification for the SuperLiga was limited to the top four overall finishers not already qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League. This applied retroactively to the 2008 season, and thus was related to qualification for MLS teams to SuperLiga 2009.

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	46,000
FC Dallas	Pizza Hut Park	21,193
Houston Dynamo	Robertson Stadium	32,000
Kansas City Wizards	CommunityAmerica Ballpark	10,385
LA Galaxy	Home Depot Center	27,000
New England Revolution	Gillette Stadium	68,756
New York Red Bulls	Giants Stadium	80,200
Real Salt Lake	Rice-Eccles Stadium Rio Tinto Stadium	45,017 20,213
San Jose Earthquakes	Buck Shaw Stadium	10,525
Toronto FC	BMO Field	21,566

Personnel and sponsorships

Team	Head coach	Captain	Shirt sponsor
Chicago Fire	Template:Flagicon Denis Hamlett		Best Buy
Chivas USA	Template:Flagicon Preki		Comex
Colorado Rapids	Template:Flagicon Fernando Clavijo		—
Columbus Crew	Template:Flagicon Sigi Schmid	Template:Flagicon Frankie Hejduk	Glidden
D.C. United	Template:Flagicon Tom Soehn		Volkswagen
FC Dallas	Template:Flagicon Schellas Hyndman		—
Houston Dynamo	Template:Flagicon Dominic Kinnear	Template:Flagicon Wade Barrett	—
Kansas City Wizards	Template:Flagicon Curt Onalfo		—
LA Galaxy	Template:Flagicon Ruud Gullit		Herbalife
New England Revolution	Template:Flagicon Steve Nicol		—
New York Red Bulls	Template:Flagicon Juan Carlos Osorio	Template:Flagicon Claudio Reyna	Red Bull
Real Salt Lake	Template:Flagicon Jason Kreis	Template:Flagicon Kyle Beckerman	—
San Jose Earthquakes	Template:Flagicon Frank Yallop	Template:Flagicon Nick Garcia	—
Toronto FC	Template:Flagicon John Carver		—

Coaching changes

Team	Outgoing coach	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Incoming coach	Date of appointment
FC Dallas	Template:Flagicon Steve Morrow	Fired	May 20, 2008	Template:Flagicon Marco Ferruzzi	May 20, 2008
FC Dallas	Template:Flagicon Marco Ferruzzi	End of interim period	June 16, 2008	Template:Flagicon Schellas Hyndman	June 16, 2008

Results table

Abbreviation and Color Key: Chicago Fire - CHI • Chivas USA - CHV • Colorado Rapids - COL • Columbus Crew - CLB • D.C. United - DC FC Dallas - DAL • Houston Dynamo - HOU • Kansas City Wizards - KC • Los Angeles Galaxy - LA • New England Revolution - NE New York Red Bulls - NY • Real Salt Lake - RSL • San Jose Earthquakes - SJ • Toronto FC - TOR Win  • Loss  • Tie  • Home
Club	Match
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Chicago Fire	RSL	NE	SJ	KC	COL	NE	DC	HOU	NY	DC	DAL	CHV	SJ	CLB	TOR	RSL	KC	CHV	NE	DC	LA	HOU	NY	COL	DAL	LA	KC	CLB	TOR	NY
	1-1	0-4	1-0	1-0	1-2	3-0	2-0	2-1	5-1	2-1	0-1	0-2	0-0	2-2	1-2	0-0	0-0	0-1	2-1	1-0	1-0	1-2	0-1	0-2	4-1	1-3	1-1	2-2	2-3	2-5
Chivas USA	DAL	RSL	CLB	DAL	LA	HOU	NE	DC	COL	CLB	NY	RSL	CHI	NY	SJ	LA	CHI	KC	LA	HOU	SJ	TOR	TOR	NE	RSL	KC	DC	SJ	COL	HOU
	1-1	1-3	3-4	2-0	2-5	0-0	2-1	1-3	2-1	0-2	0-1	1-0	0-2	1-1	0-1	1-1	0-1	2-3	2-2	0-4	0-0	1-2	3-1	0-4	1-0	1-2	3-0	1-0	2-1	1-1
Colorado Rapids	LA	KC	NE	SJ	CHI	DC	HOU	RSL	CHV	DAL	LA	TOR	HOU	CLB	NY	SJ	DAL	CLB	TOR	KC	DC	RSL	DAL	CHI	NE	NY	HOU	LA	CHV	RSL
	0-4	2-3	1-0	2-0	1-2	0-2	1-2	0-2	2-1	1-2	2-3	1-3	0-0	1-2	0-4	1-1	2-2	2-0	0-1	1-2	0-3	0-2	1-0	0-2	1-1	5-4	3-1	2-3	2-1	1-1
Columbus Crew	TOR	NY	CHV	DC	HOU	KC	SJ	TOR	NE	CHV	SJ	KC	LA	COL	CHI	RSL	KC	COL	HOU	DAL	RSL	DAL	NE	TOR	NY	NE	LA	CHI	NY	DC
	0-2	0-2	3-4	2-1	0-1	1-2	3-2	0-0	1-0	0-2	2-0	3-0	3-3	1-2	2-2	0-2	3-3	2-0	0-2	1-2	0-3	2-1	0-4	1-1	1-3	1-0	0-1	2-2	1-3	0-1
D.C. United	KC	TOR	RSL	CLB	RSL	COL	CHI	CHV	TOR	TOR	NE	CHI	NY	SJ	LA	HOU	KC	NY	CHI	NE	COL	NY	SJ	DAL	LA	DAL	CHV	HOU	NE	CLB
	0-2	1-4	0-4	2-1	1-4	0-2	2-0	1-3	0-1	2-3	2-2	2-1	1-4	1-3	1-4	2-0	0-2	4-1	1-0	1-2	0-3	0-0	1-2	2-2	2-5	0-3	3-0	0-0	1-2	0-1
FC Dallas	CHV	HOU	NY	CHV	NE	SJ	RSL	LA	RSL	HOU	COL	NE	CHI	NY	HOU	KC	COL	LA	TOR	CLB	KC	CLB	COL	DC	CHI	DC	SJ	TOR	RSL	LA
	1-1	3-3	0-2	2-0	1-0	0-0	1-2	5-1	1-2	2-2	1-2	1-2	0-1	0-1	1-1	1-1	2-2	0-4	2-0	1-2	1-1	2-1	1-0	2-2	4-1	0-3	1-1	2-2	1-3	2-2
Houston Dynamo	NE	DAL	KC	LA	CLB	CHV	COL	CHI	SJ	DAL	NY	TOR	NE	COL	DAL	RSL	DC	CLB	RSL	CHV	NY	CHI	KC	SJ	TOR	COL	DC	SJ	LA	CHV
	0-3	3-3	0-0	2-2	0-1	0-0	1-2	2-1	1-2	2-2	0-1	1-3	2-0	0-0	1-1	0-0	2-0	0-2	3-4	0-4	0-3	1-2	1-3	1-1	1-1	3-1	0-0	1-2	0-3	1-1
Kansas City Wizards	DC	COL	NE	HOU	CHI	TOR	CLB	NY	LA	RSL	CLB	TOR	RSL	DAL	NY	CLB	CHI	DC	CHV	COL	DAL	SJ	HOU	LA	TOR	CHV	CHI	NE	SJ	NE
	0-2	2-3	3-1	0-0	1-0	0-2	1-2	1-1	1-3	0-0	3-0	0-0	0-1	1-1	1-2	3-3	0-0	0-2	2-3	1-2	1-1	1-2	1-3	0-2	0-2	1-2	1-1	0-1	2-3	3-1
Los Angeles Galaxy	COL	SJ	TOR	HOU	CHV	RSL	NY	DAL	KC	TOR	COL	SJ	CLB	DC	NE	CHV	NY	DAL	SJ	CHV	CHI	NE	RSL	KC	DC	CHI	CLB	COL	HOU	DAL
	0-4	0-2	3-2	2-2	2-5	2-2	2-1	5-1	1-3	0-2	2-3	3-0	3-3	1-4	2-1	1-1	2-2	0-4	2-3	2-2	1-0	2-2	2-2	0-2	2-5	1-3	0-1	2-3	0-3	2-2
New England Revolution	HOU	CHI	KC	COL	NY	DAL	CHI	CHV	SJ	CLB	DC	DAL	HOU	NY	RSL	TOR	LA	CHI	SJ	DC	TOR	LA	CLB	CHV	COL	CLB	RSL	KC	DC	KC
	0-3	0-4	3-1	1-0	1-1	1-0	3-0	2-1	0-2	1-0	2-2	1-2	2-0	1-1	1-2	1-2	2-1	2-1	0-4	1-2	1-1	2-2	0-4	0-4	1-1	1-0	2-2	0-1	1-2	3-1
New York Red Bulls	CLB	DAL	NE	SJ	TOR	LA	KC	CHI	HOU	CHV	DC	NE	DAL	CHV	COL	KC	LA	SJ	DC	TOR	HOU	DC	CHI	RSL	CLB	COL	TOR	RSL	CLB	CHI
	0-2	0-2	1-1	0-2	1-1	2-1	1-1	5-1	0-1	0-1	1-4	1-1	0-1	1-1	0-4	1-2	2-2	1-1	4-1	0-2	0-3	0-0	0-1	1-2	1-3	5-4	3-1	1-1	1-3	2-5
Real Salt Lake	CHI	CHV	DC	TOR	DC	LA	DAL	COL	DAL	SJ	KC	CHV	SJ	NE	KC	HOU	CLB	CHI	TOR	HOU	CLB	COL	LA	NY	CHV	SJ	NE	NY	DAL	COL
	1-1	1-3	0-4	0-1	1-4	2-2	1-2	0-2	1-2	1-3	0-0	1-0	0-0	1-2	0-1	0-0	0-2	0-0	1-2	3-4	0-3	0-2	2-2	1-2	1-0	3-2	2-2	1-1	1-3	1-1
San Jose Earthquakes	LA	CHI	COL	NY	DAL	CLB	NE	HOU	RSL	CLB	LA	RSL	DC	CHI	CHV	COL	TOR	NY	LA	NE	CHV	KC	DC	HOU	RSL	DAL	CHV	HOU	KC	TOR
	0-2	1-0	2-0	0-2	0-0	3-2	0-2	1-2	1-3	2-0	3-0	0-0	1-3	0-0	1-0	1-1	0-0	1-1	2-3	0-4	0-0	1-2	1-2	1-1	3-2	1-1	1-0	1-2	2-3	0-2
Toronto FC	CLB	DC	LA	RSL	KC	NY	CLB	DC	DC	LA	HOU	COL	KC	NE	CHI	SJ	RSL	DAL	COL	NY	NE	CHV	CHV	CLB	KC	HOU	NY	DAL	CHI	SJ
	0-2	1-4	3-2	0-1	0-2	1-1	0-0	0-1	2-3	0-2	1-3	1-3	0-0	1-2	1-2	0-0	1-2	2-0	1-0	0-2	1-1	1-2	3-1	1-1	0-2	1-1	3-1	2-2	2-3	0-2

MLS Cup Playoffs

¹ The New York Red Bulls earned the eighth and final playoff berth, despite finishing fifth in the Eastern Conference. They represent the fourth seed in the Western Conference playoff bracket, as only three teams in the Western Conference qualified for the playoffs.

Player statistics

Goals

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Template:Flagicon Landon Donovan	LA Galaxy	20
2	Template:Flagicon Kenny Cooper	FC Dallas	18
3	Template:Flagicon Edson Buddle	LA Galaxy	15
4	Template:Flagicon Juan Pablo Ángel	New York Red Bulls	14
5	Template:Flagicon Brian Ching	Houston Dynamo	13
6	Template:Flagicon Luciano Emilio	D.C. United	11
	Template:Flagicon Conor Casey	Colorado Rapids
8	Template:Flagicon Jaime Moreno	D.C. United	10
9	Template:Flagicon Chad Barrett	Chicago Fire Toronto FC	9
	Template:Flagicon Chris Rolfe	Chicago Fire

Hat-tricks

Player	Club	Against	Result	Date
Template:Flagicon Landon Donovan	LA Galaxy	Chivas USA	5–2	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Edson Buddle	LA Galaxy	FC Dallas	5–1	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Edson Buddle	LA Galaxy	San Jose Earthquakes	3–0	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Luciano Emílio	D.C. United	New York Red Bulls	4–1
Template:Flagicon Landon Donovan	LA Galaxy	D.C. United	5–2	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Conor Casey	Colorado Rapids	New York Red Bulls	5–4	Template:Dts
Template:Flagicon Chris Rolfe	Chicago Fire	New York Red Bulls	5–2	Template:Dts

Assists

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Template:Flagicon Guillermo Barros Schelotto	Columbus Crew	16
2	Template:Flagicon Javier Morales	Real Salt Lake	11
3	Template:Flagicon Terry Cooke	Colorado Rapids	10
4	Template:Flagicon David Beckham	LA Galaxy	8
	Template:Flagicon Justin Mapp	Chicago Fire
6	Template:Flagicon Christian Gómez	Colorado Rapids	7
7	Template:Flagicon Cuauhtémoc Blanco	Chicago Fire	6
	Template:Flagicon Brad Davis	Houston Dynamo
	Template:Flagicon Landon Donovan	LA Galaxy
	Template:Flagicon Jaime Moreno	D.C. United
	Template:Flagicon Ronnie O'Brien	San Jose Earthquakes

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Template:Flagicon Jon Busch	Chicago Fire	10
	Template:Flagicon Kevin Hartman	Kansas City Wizards
	Template:Flagicon Will Hesmer	Columbus Crew
4	Template:Flagicon Joe Cannon	San Jose Earthquakes	9
5	Template:Flagicon Nick Rimando	Real Salt Lake	8
6	Template:Flagicon Jon Conway	New York Red Bulls	7
	Template:Flagicon Pat Onstad	Houston Dynamo
	Template:Flagicon Darío Sala	FC Dallas
9	Template:Flagicon Matt Reis	New England Revolution	6
	Template:Flagicon Greg Sutton	Toronto FC

Awards

Individual awards

Award	Player	Club
Most Valuable Player	Template:Flagicon Guillermo Barros Schelotto	Columbus Crew
Defender of the Year	Template:Flagicon Chad Marshall	Columbus Crew
Goalkeeper of the Year	Template:Flagicon Jon Busch	Chicago Fire
Coach of the Year	Template:Flagicon Sigi Schmid	Columbus Crew
Rookie of the Year	Template:Flagicon Sean Franklin	LA Galaxy
Newcomer of the Year	Template:Flagicon Darren Huckerby	San Jose Earthquakes
Comeback Player of the Year	Template:Flagicon Kenny Cooper	FC Dallas
Golden Boot	Template:Flagicon Landon Donovan	LA Galaxy
Goal of the Year	Template:Flagicon Will Johnson	Real Salt Lake
Fair Play Award	Template:Flagicon Michael Parkhurst	New England Revolution
Humanitarian of the Year	Template:Flagicon José Burciaga Jr.	Colorado Rapids

MLS Best XI

Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Template:Flagicon Jon Busch, Chicago	Template:Flagicon Jimmy Conrad, Kansas City Template:Flagicon Chad Marshall, Columbus Template:Flagicon Bakary Soumaré, Chicago	Template:Flagicon Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Chicago Template:Flagicon Shalrie Joseph, New England Template:Flagicon Sacha Kljestan, Chivas USA Template:Flagicon Robbie Rogers, Columbus Template:Flagicon Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Columbus	Template:Flagicon Kenny Cooper, Dallas Template:Flagicon Landon Donovan, LA Galaxy

Player of the Month

Week	Player	Club
April	Template:Flagicon Landon Donovan	LA Galaxy
May	Template:Flagicon Cuauhtémoc Blanco	Chicago Fire
June	Template:Flagicon Luciano Emilio	D.C. United
July	Template:Flagicon Nick Rimando	Real Salt Lake
August	Template:Flagicon Guillermo Barros Schelotto	Columbus Crew
September	Template:Flagicon Darren Huckerby	San Jose Earthquakes
October	Template:Flagicon Juan Pablo Ángel	New York Red Bulls

Attendance

Rank	Team	GP	Cumulative	High	Low	Mean
1	LA Galaxy	15	390,762	27,000	20,426	26,051
2	Toronto FC	15	303,623	22,264	19,657	20,242
3	D.C. United	15	297,531	35,979	13,329	19,835
4	New England Revolution	15	263,706	54,045	7,606	17,580
5	Chicago Fire	15	255,618	20,492	13,274	17,041
6	Houston Dynamo	15	254,093	30,361	10,908	16,940
7	Real Salt Lake	15	242,619	26,391	10,333	16,175
8	New York Red Bulls	15	238,925	46,754	9,053	15,928
9	Chivas USA	15	226,717	27,000	10,267	15,114
10	Columbus Crew	15	219,332	22,685	6,733	14,622
11	San Jose Earthquakes	15	205,875	39,872	9,046	13,725
12	Colorado Rapids	15	205,114	18,943	10,609	13,674
13	FC Dallas	15	196,455	23,500	7,103	13,097
14	Kansas City Wizards	15	160,384	26,211	8,096	10,692
Total		210	3,461,013	54,045	6,733	16,481

Related competitions

International competitions

CONCACAF Champions' Cup 2008

The Houston Dynamo and D.C. United earned berths in the CONCACAF Champions' Cup by virtue of their MLS Cup and Supporters' Shield wins, respectively. Houston and D.C. were both victorious in their quarterfinal ties and advanced to the semifinals. For the second straight year, however, both lost their respective semifinals, and were eliminated.

SuperLiga 2008

D.C. United, Chivas USA, the New England Revolution, and the Houston Dynamo were MLS's entrants into SuperLiga 2008, based on their top-four finish in the 2007 regular season.

Following the Group Stage, which took place from July 12 to July 20, Houston and New England each won their respective groups to advance to the Semifinals, where they faced 2007 champion Pachuca on July 29 and Atlante on July 30, respectively. D.C. United finished last and Chivas USA finished third in their respective groups and failed to advance.

Both MLS teams were victorious in the Semifinals, setting up a rematch of the 2006 and 2007 MLS Cups in the Final on August 5 at Gillette Stadium.

The teams played to a 2–2 draw after extra time. New England eventually defeated Houston 6–5 on penalty kicks.

CONCACAF Champions League 2008–09

The Houston Dynamo (MLS Cup winner), D.C. United (Supporters' Shield Winner), the New England Revolution (U.S. Open Cup winner and MLS Cup runner-up), and Chivas USA (Supporters' Shield runner-up) were the representatives in the rebranded successor to the CONCACAF Champions' Cup.

New England and Chivas USA entered at the preliminary round, and were eliminated over two legs by Joe Public of Trinidad and Tobago and Tauro of Panama, respectively.

D.C. and Houston were seeded into the Group Stage as the top seeds in Groups A and B, respectively.

D.C. was eliminated from Group A with two games remaining in group play, while Houston qualified for the Championship Round with a 1–0 win in their last match against Luis Ángel Firpo on November 26, which was postponed from Matchday 1 due to Hurricane Ike.

Houston was eliminated in the Quarterfinals over two legs by Atlante.

National competitions

2008 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup

MLS awarded the top three finishers in each conference last season automatic berths into the 2008 U.S. Open Cup's Third Round. D.C. United, the New England Revolution, and the New York Red Bulls qualified from the Eastern Conference while Chivas USA, the Houston Dynamo, and FC Dallas qualified from the Western Conference. The rest of MLS's U.S.-based teams would have to compete for the final two berths into the third round via a seven-team playoff. Eventually Chicago Fire and the Kansas City Wizards qualified by beating the Columbus Crew and the Colorado Rapids respectively.

Each of the qualified MLS teams was matched up against the winner of a Second Round game, all of whom came from either one of the USL's three divisions or the USASA, in the third round on July 1. Three MLS teams were eliminated by these lower division clubs. Chivas USA was eliminated by USL-1's Seattle Sounders, the New York Red Bulls were upset by Crystal Palace Baltimore of USL-2, and the Houston Dynamo lost a penalty shootout to the USL-1's Charleston Battery.

In the Quarterfinals on July 8, FC Dallas and the Kansas City Wizards were eliminated by the Charleston Battery and the Seattle Sounders, respectively. This meant an MLS team, either D.C. United or the New England Revolution would face a USL-1 team in the final.

In the Semifinals on August 12, D.C. United upset the Open Cup holding Revolution by a score of 3 to 1. This earned United a berth in the final against the USL-1's Charleston Battery on September 3 at RFK Stadium.

In the Final on September 3, D.C. United won their second U.S. Open Cup in a 2–1 win over the Charleston Battery.

2008 Canadian Championship

Due to the fact that none of the Canadian teams playing in the American soccer pyramid can qualify for Canada's berth in the CONCACAF Champions League through their leagues or the U.S. Open Cup, the Canadian Soccer Association was forced to develop a tournament to determine the country's representative in the Champions League. The country's top three teams, MLS's Toronto FC and the USL-1's Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps FC were entered into the inaugural Canadian Championship. The tournament was played as a double round robin group from May 27 to July 22. The Montreal Impact finished first, claiming the Canadian berth in the Champions League.

All-Star game

The 2008 MLS All-Star Game was held at BMO Field in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, home of Toronto FC, on July 24. The opponent was West Ham United, of England's Premier League. It was the first time that the game was played outside the United States.

The game was won by the MLS All-Stars by a score of 3–2. Cuauhtémoc Blanco was named MVP of the game after assisting the All-Stars' first goal and scoring their second.

See also

• List of transfers for the MLS 2008 Season
• 2007 MLS Expansion Draft

External links

• Official Site of Major League Soccer