Just 89 days remain until the 2020 MLS regular season officially kicks off, with two new expansion teams joining the league for an all-time high 26 clubs competing to reach 2020 MLS Cup.
Inter Miami CF and Nashville SC will be in separate conferences for their debut season after the conference alignment was confirmed by the league for next year. Inter Miami join the East, while Nashville SC will compete in the West, ensuring both conferences will feature 13 clubs.
Each club will continue to play a 34-game regular season with 17 home matches and 17 away matches. Every team will play their 12 intra-conference opponents twice – once home and once away for a total of 24 matches – with the other 10 regular-season matches coming against the opposite conference. Those inter-conference opponents will be revealed with the full 2020 schedule release.
On Monday's episode, the Extratime crew broke down what the new conference aligment means for Nashville, Miami and MLS in 2020:
Three more expansion teams are slated to join the league in the coming years: Austin FC (2021), Sacramento Republic FC (2022) and St. Louis (2022).
Eastern Conference (13 clubs)
- Atlanta United
- Chicago Fire FC
- Columbus Crew SC
- D.C. United
- FC Cincinnati
- Inter Miami CF
- Montreal Impact
- New England Revolution
- New York City FC
- New York Red Bulls
- Orlando City
- Philadelphia Union
- Toronto FC
Western Conference (13 clubs)
- Colorado Rapids
- FC Dallas
- Houston Dynamo
- LAFC
- LA Galaxy
- Minnesota United
- Nashville SC
- Portland Timbers
- Real Salt Lake
- San Jose Earthquakes
- Seattle Sounders
- Sporting Kansas City
- Vancouver Whitecaps
