2012 Major League Soccer season
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 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 sponsor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chicago Fire |  sortname|Frank|KlopasPlayer transfersMajor 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 rankingThe 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.
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