The inaugural MLS season was wild. It truly was a Motley Crue of players, coaches and teams just trying to make soccer happen in the USA. Some 26-years later, it is safe to say the experiment worked. These days, hipsters in every city want a team and purpose-built stadium for their hometown.
World Cup ’94 made soccer popular in America; however, there wasn’t a domestic league and no plans for one until after the event. Eventually a group of investors raised enough money and launched Major League Soccer. On April 6, 1996, the San Jose Clash hosted DC United in the very first game.
There was a lot going on in the inaugural MLS season. Even the most diehard fans may not remember some of the ridiculous things from that first year.
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The Tampa Bay Mutiny won the Supporters’ Shield
Indeed, the best regular season team during the inaugural MLS season was the now defunct Tampa Bay Mutiny led by league MVP Carlos Valderrama. Unfortunately, they lost in the playoffs and would fold a few years later. I always felt the Mutiny color scheme, logo and branding seemed more fitting for a Super Nintendo game than a professional sports team.
Shootouts!
You may actually remember the old school shootouts. There was this belief that the American public wouldn’t accept ties. That led to the MLS adopting shootouts which had been made famous by the NASL 20+ years earlier. Games where the scores were level after 90 minutes went to the shootout.
What you may not recall is the structure of these. The attacker would sprint towards the goal and the goalkeeper would sprint out towards the shooter. There was five seconds for this to happen and clusterfuck doesn’t begin to describe it. These are so fascinating and almost jarring today. The league did away with these in 2000, although some poor, misguided souls are calling for the shootout to make a comeback.
80% of teams made the playoffs
The MLS has always let a comical number of teams into the playoffs each season, but those first few years were ridiculous. Eight out of the league’s 10 teams qualified for the postseason. You might think some bad clubs snuck in there, but that’s not really the case. In an odd quirk, seven clubs finished within a game of or at .500. Three cheers for parody!
Practice in the park
Jeff Carlisle and Noah Davis wrote an awesome article interviewing people involved with the inaugural MLS season. Multiple players shared experiences of practicing in local parks or even parking lots. In the feature, Cobi Jones noted how the LA Galaxy would have to battle with people playing Frisbee for space to practice at the park.
Nobody beats The Wiz
Before they were Sporting Kansas City and before they were the Kansas City Wizards, they were the Kansas City Wiz. Apparently, neither the owners nor the league did any research about this name. Hell, if they had watched a New York Yankees game, they would have seen advertising for an electronics store brand known as The Wiz on the outfield wall.
That electronics store sued the team for using its trademark after the inaugural MLS season and won, forcing Kansas City to become the Wizards. As for The Wiz, you may best know them from The Junk Mail episode of Seinfeld that aired in 1997. That was their high-water mark as the company closed in 2003. It seems like someone beat them after all.
Related: More 5 things you don’t remember
