Major League Soccer (MLS) – Top level men’s league.

MLS teams also play in other international and domestic competitions. Each season, up to five MLS teams—four from the U.S. and one from Canada—play in the CONCACAF Champions Cup (CCC) against other clubs from the CONCACAF region. Two U.S.-based MLS teams qualify based on regular-season results from the previous year: the teams with the highest point total from each of the two conferences, one of whom is the Supporter’s Shield champion. The third U.S. team to qualify is the reigning MLS Cup champion. A fourth U.S.-based team can qualify by winning the U.S. Open Cup.^[33] In 2024, the league will send eight teams to participate in the U.S. Open Cup instead of every U.S.-based club, with MLS Next Pro teams as representatives for some teams. MLS had announced their intention to remove itself from the tournament entirely,^[34] but reached a compromise with U.S. Soccer to send representatives from clubs that were not participating in the Champions Cup, with the exception of the defending Open Cup champions.^[35][36] If a team qualifies through multiple berths, or if any of the three MLS berths are taken by a Canadian team, the berth is reallocated to the highest-placed U.S.-based team in the previous season’s overall table that has otherwise not qualified. Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver compete against other Canadian sides in the Canadian Championship for the one CONCACAF Champions Cup berth allocated to Canada.^[37]Seattle Sounders FC became the first MLS team to win the CONCACAF Champions Cup under the competition’s updated format in 2022.^[38][39]