MLS FIELD GUIDE

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Ten things

Minnesota in the west

1

There are 22 Major League Soccer teams this season (with at least six more expansion franchises expect to join in coming years). They comprise an 11-team Eastern conference and 11-team Western conference. Minnesota United plays in the Western conference.

34-game season

2

The regular season runs March through October, with each team playing 34 games, roughly once a week with a short summer break. The team with the best record overall at the end of the regular season wins the Supporters’ Shield. The top six teams in each conference move on to the playoffs, contested in November and December.

Getting a champion

3

The top two teams in each conference receive a bye to the conference semifinals while the remaining four teams play in the knockout first round. The conference semifinals and finals are a home-and-away series decided by the aggregate goals while the MLS Cup final is a single game. Added extra time and penalty shootouts are used, if needed, to determine a winner.

Paying for big names

4

MLS has a team salary cap of $3.845 million this season. To attract bigger name players in a world soccer market, teams can sign three designated players where only part of their salary counts against the cap. The rest is covered by the team. United doesn’t currently have any designated players.

This season’s pitch

5

Minnesota United’s home games this season will be played at TCF Bank Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus. And probably the 2018 season as well, until the team’s 20,000-seat, soccer-specific stadium in St. Paul is completed.

How to get a ticket

6

Single-match and season tickets are available for purchase at MNUFC.com or by calling 763-476-2237.

Loons in the playoffs this year?

7

History argues no. Of the 13 expansion sides that have joined MLS since its founding in 1996, only Chicago Fire won the league in its first season in 1998. Miami Fusion made the playoffs that season, too, but lost in the first round. Seattle Sounders FC also lost in the first round of the playoffs in 2009. No other expansion team has made the playoffs, four have finished dead last in the overall standings, and two, including Miami, don’t exist anymore.

On a nickname basis

8

Coach Adrian Heath is “Inchy” for his 5-6 stature. Best buds forward Christian Ramirez is “Superman’’ and midfielder Miguel Ibarra is “Batman.’’ Together, they’re “Rambarra.” Defender Kevin Venegas goes by “Viva.”

New face, familiar place

9

Adrian Heath, hired in November to coach the Loons, has done this expansion thing before. The 56-year-old Englishman was coach at Orlando City when the franchise moved from the United Soccer League to MLS in 2015. His teams won league titles twice in the USL, where he was named coach of the year in 2010 and 2012. In MLS play, Orlando City was 16-18-16 in 1½ seasons under Heath. He was let go in the middle of last season.

Back on top after 40 years

10

Pro soccer made its Minnesota debut in 1976 when the Minnesota Kicks drew big crowds to Metropolitan Stadium in what was then the nation’s top soccer league. The franchise folded in 1981 and others came and went. Minnesota United’s lineage dates back to 1990, when plans for a high-level amateur team called the Thunder evolved into a lower-level pro team. The Thunder later gave way to the Minnesota Stars, but it wasn’t until Twin Cities businessman Bill McGuire bought the team in 2012 and rebranded it as Minnesota United that it made its way to America’s top soccer league.