Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
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This MLS trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and sticks to Major League Soccer itself rather than the wider game. It starts with the founding story - the 1993 launch tied to the World Cup bid, the ten charter clubs, the first match at Spartan Stadium and the shootouts and countdown clock the league finally dropped after 1999 - then follows the growth of the league through the 2002 contraction, the first soccer-specific stadium, the Beckham Rule and the era of Zlatan, Kaka, Henry, Rooney and Messi. There are questions on the trophies too: MLS Cup finals, Supporters' Shields, the Leagues Cup, LAFC's record season, Atlanta's record crowd, and the expansion fees that pushed the league to 30 teams. It suits anyone who watches Season Pass every weekend as well as friends who only know Beckham and Messi; roughly a third of the questions are warm-ups, and the hardest few reach back to the 'magic triangle' and Kansas City's original name. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and the primary sources it cites, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01MLS was founded in 1993 as part of the United States' successful bid to host which event?
The 1994 FIFA World Cup
FIFA wanted a top-flight professional league as a condition of awarding the tournament, so the league existed on paper three years before a ball was kicked.
Q 02How many teams contested MLS's inaugural season in 1996?
10 clubs
Each of them played 32 games, and only after two expansion sides arrived in 1998 did the league reach a dozen clubs.
Q 03Who scored the only goal of the first ever MLS match on April 6, 1996?
Eric Wynalda
The game was carried live by ESPN and the winner arrived in the 88th minute, sparing the new league a goalless opening night.
Q 04At which venue was the first MLS match played?
Spartan Stadium
About 31,000 fans turned up to the San Jose State campus ground, comfortably above the modest crowds the league would average that year.
Q 05D.C. United won three of the first four MLS Cups. In which year did they win their fourth?
2004
The club had also become the first American side to win a CONCACAF club championship back in 1998.
Q 06Who scored the golden goal that decided the very first MLS Cup final in 1996?
Eddie Pope
The final was played in a downpour at Foxboro, and the winner came four minutes into overtime after a two-goal comeback.
Q 07Which 1996 regular-season leader was retroactively awarded the first Supporters' Shield?
Tampa Bay Mutiny
The Shield itself was only introduced in 1999, so the first three winners were named after the fact.
Q 08Which player was named MLS Most Valuable Player for the inaugural 1996 season?
Carlos Valderrama
The big-haired Colombian playmaker had captained his country at the 1994 World Cup before joining the league.
Q 09Which pair of Americanised rules did MLS scrap after the 1999 season?
The shootout and the countdown clock
Early MLS games could not end in a draw, and the clock counted down to zero as in the NHL and NBA before the league fell in line with FIFA norms.
Q 10Who succeeded Doug Logan as MLS commissioner in August 1999?
Don Garber
He came from the NFL's international arm and was still in the job when the league reached 30 clubs in 2025.
Q 11Under MLS's 'single-entity' structure, who technically owns each team?
The league itself
Investors operate clubs rather than owning them outright, a design that lets the league hold player contracts centrally and control spending.
Q 12Both clubs MLS contracted in January 2002 were based in which state?
Florida
One had won the previous season's Supporters' Shield; low attendance, a poor stadium deal and a lack of local ownership doomed the pair anyway.
Q 13Which club opened the first stadium in the United States built specifically for soccer?
Columbus Crew
Q 21Chivas USA ceased operations after which season?
2014
The league bought the franchise from its owner that February and later awarded Los Angeles a new club that debuted as LAFC in 2018.
Q 22How many goals did Carlos Vela score in 2019 to set the MLS single-season record?
34
The previous mark of 27 had stood since the league's first season and had been equalled twice without being beaten.
Q 23What record crowd watched Atlanta United win the 2018 MLS Cup?
73,019
It was the city's first major-league championship since the Braves won the 1995 World Series.
Q 24Who was Atlanta United's first head coach?
The ground was later renamed Historic Crew Stadium when the club moved to a new downtown home in 2021.
Q 14The Kansas City Wiz became the Wizards after legal action from what kind of business?
An electronics retailer
The club rebranded again as Sporting Kansas City when it moved into a new stadium.
Q 15The MetroStars were rebranded after being bought in 2006 by which company?
Red Bull GmbH
The takeover changed the name, colours and logo overnight, and the club has still never won an MLS Cup despite three regular-season titles.
Q 16What guaranteed annual salary did David Beckham's five-year 2007 MLS contract pay?
$6.5 million
The widely reported $250 million figure bundled hypothetical endorsement income into one headline number.
Q 17Beckham's contract gave him the option to buy an MLS expansion franchise for what fixed price?
$25 million
The clause excluded the New York market, and he eventually exercised it in Miami, where later franchises paid twenty times as much.
Q 18Which club was MLS's first Canadian franchise?
Toronto FC
The club did not reach the playoffs until its ninth season, then set a points record and became the first Canadian MLS Cup winner two years later.
Q 19The 2017 Supporters' Shield winners set a then-record MLS regular-season points total of how many?
69
The mark edged the 1998 Galaxy side by a single point and was itself beaten within two years.
Q 20Chivas USA was a subsidiary of which Mexican club?
C.D. Guadalajara
It shared its parent's branding and, from 2005, shared a stadium in Carson with its city rival.
Gerardo Martino
The Argentine had previously coached Barcelona and would go on to lead Mexico before reuniting with Lionel Messi in Miami.
Q 25Which club in 2022 became the first MLS side to win the CONCACAF Champions League?
Seattle Sounders FC
The 5-2 aggregate win over Pumas UNAM earned the club a place at the FIFA Club World Cup, another MLS first.
Q 26The Cascadia Cup is contested by three Pacific Northwest clubs: Vancouver, Seattle and which other?
Portland Timbers
Supporters' groups created the two-foot silver cup years before any of the trio joined MLS, and a fans' council still owns the trademark.
Q 27Which British-Egyptian businessman leads the ownership group of San Diego FC?
Mohamed Mansour
He co-owns the club with the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, the first Native American tribe with a stake in an MLS franchise.
Q 28What expansion fee was reportedly paid for San Diego FC, MLS's 30th team?
$500 million
The club then finished top of the Western Conference in its debut 2025 season with an expansion-record 63 points.
Q 29Inter Miami beat which club on penalties to win the 2023 Leagues Cup, the franchise's first trophy?
Nashville SC
The shoot-out finished 10-9 after a 1-1 draw, just five weeks after Messi's arrival.
Q 30The Leagues Cup pits MLS clubs against teams from which league?
Liga MX
Since 2023 both leagues have paused their seasons for a month so every club can take part.