This season, Major League Soccer will celebrate 25 years of competitive play. In that period, the league has changed and adapted greatly and is almost unrecognisable from the competition that began in 1996.
In a country dominated by the NFL, NBA and the MBL, where the average soccer fan has preferred to look overseas for their fix of the sport rather than in their own home-towns and cities, the continued growth of MLS is something to be proud of.
The league is now at 26 teams, which is a whole lot better and more competitive than even 10 years ago when there were 16 teams kicking off the 2010 season.