Despite each receivingFIFA-affiliated status in 1913, both theUnited States andCanada have lacked a consistent, multi-division soccer system until recently. Consequently, the determination of champions has been problematic at times. The United States did not have a truly national top flight league until the FIFA-sanctionedUnited Soccer Association and the "outlaw"National Professional Soccer League, which had a network television contract, merged in November 1967 to form theNorth American Soccer League (NASL). The NASL considered the two pre-merge forerunner leagues as part of its history.

Before 1967, there were several regional and city leagues of various levels of quality. For example, the first and second incarnations of theAmerican Soccer League constituted the premier level of professional soccer in the Northeastern United States, but they and teams from theSt. Louis Soccer League would regularly defeat the best the other had to offer. These are only two of the most notable leagues of the regional era, as there were professional and amateur competitions in Chicago, California, the greater Western United States, Ontario, and Western Canada, among several other regions.

While the creation of theNASL in 1968 brought bonafide top-flight competition to the U.S. and Canada, its collapse in1984 saw a temporary return to the fragmented regional structure. The merger of theWestern Soccer League and third iteration of theAmerican Soccer League created a national second division in the U.S. known as theAmerican Professional Soccer League (APSL) in 1990. The APSL later absorbed theCanadian Soccer League, which at the time was an attempt at a wholly first division within Canada.

It was not until the establishment ofMajor League Soccer (MLS) in1996 as part of FIFA's agreement to award the United States the1994 World Cup that there was again a truly national, sanctioned first division in either country. Top Canadian teams resided at the second division until MLS expanded to Canada in2007.

Given the tumultuous history of professional soccer in the United States and Canada, there is a broad history of champions of various kinds in both countries, both in leagues that comprised both nations and cups that were held in only one. This article takes into account all these competitions to compile an accurate listing of American and Canadian soccer champions with an eye towards maintaining continuity.

For teams in the United States and Canada, there are three major domestic trophies.^[1][2]

The primary focus is the league championship, a postseason knockout tournament held between the best teams from the regular season. This is presently determined via theMLS Cup. American and Canadian sports leagues typically have such playoff systems. These have their roots in long travel distances common in U.S. and Canadian sports; to cut down on travel, leagues are typically aligned in geographic divisions and feature unbalanced schedules with teams playing more matches against opponents in the same division. Due to the unbalanced schedule typical in U.S. and Canadian leagues, not all teams face the same opponents, and some teams may not meet an even number of times during a regular season, if at all. This results in teams with identical records that have faced different opponents differing numbers of times, making team records alone an imperfect measure of league supremacy. The playoffs allow for head-to-head elimination-style competition between teams to counterbalance this.

Secondary is the recognition of the best regular season record (an accomplishment known as theleague premiership in Australia and New Zealand, countries with similar league structure to the U.S. and Canada).^[1] The MLS team with the highest point total during the regular season is awarded theSupporters' Shield.

Thirdly, there are the two countries' respective domestic cup competitions: theU.S. Open Cup and theCanadian Championship. These tournaments are unique to soccer among professional sports in the U.S. and Canada, as no other major team sport conducts competition outside of regular league play.

Additionally, American and Canadian clubs participate in theCONCACAF Champions Cup, a continental club competition in which the United States is allocated four qualification spots and Canada one. For American clubs, the winners of the MLS Cup, Supporters' Shield, and U.S. Open Cup all qualify, along with the regular season conference champion that does not win the Shield. The lone Canadian berth is determined by the Canadian Championship. Finally, there is the world championship as determined by theFIFA Club World Cup, a berth to which is earned by winning the Champions Cup.

American and Canadian soccer clubs exist in afranchise system, rather than apromotion and relegation system. As a result, teams do not systematically move between levels each season. This is standard among American and Canadian major and minor sports leagues and is part of the franchise rights granted by the leagues. Recently, a trend has developed where a club from the lower divisions may be "promoted" via anexpansion franchise awarded by Major League Soccer.

The results in this article come from theUnited States Soccer Federation,^[3] theCanadian Soccer Association,^[4] theRec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation,^[5] and the American Soccer History Archives.^[6]

At various times, Canadian clubs have competed in the top-tier of American soccer, either in place of or alongside a Canadian top-tier league. Currently, three Canadian clubs compete in Major League Soccer.

Year	Champions	Runners-up	Regular season	Runners-up	Leading goalscorer(s)	Goals
1967	Los Angeles Wolves	Washington Whips	Washington Whips	Los Angeles Wolves	Roberto Boninsegna (Chicago Mustangs)	10

Year	Champions	Runners-up	Regular season	Runners-up	Leading goalscorer(s)	Goals
1967	Oakland Clippers	Baltimore Bays	Oakland Clippers	Baltimore Bays	Yanko Daucik (Toronto Falcons)	20

• Oakland also won the NPSL Commissioner's Cup nine days after winning the NPSL Finals.^[7]

Year	Champions(tot)	Runners-up	Reg Season(tot)	Runners-up	Leading goalscorer(s)	Goals
1968	Atlanta Chiefs	San Diego Toros	San Diego Toros	Oakland Clippers	John Kowalik (Chicago Mustangs)	30
1969	N/A1	N/A1	Kansas City Spurs	Atlanta Chiefs	Kaizer Motaung (Atlanta Chiefs)	16
1970	Rochester Lancers	Washington Darts	Washington Darts	Atlanta Chiefs	Kirk Apostolidis (Dallas Tornado)	16
1971	Dallas Tornado	Atlanta Chiefs	Rochester Lancers	Atlanta Chiefs	Carlos Metidieri (Rochester Lancers)	19
1972	New York Cosmos	St. Louis Stars	New York Cosmos	St. Louis Stars	Randy Horton (New York Cosmos)	9[8]
1973	Philadelphia Atoms	Dallas Tornado	Dallas Tornado	Philadelphia Atoms	Warren Archibald (Miami Toros) Ilija Mitic (Dallas Tornado)	12
1974	Los Angeles Aztecs	Miami Toros	Los Angeles Aztecs	Miami Toros	Paul Child (San Jose Earthquakes)	15
1975	Tampa Bay Rowdies	Portland Timbers	Portland Timbers	Tampa Bay Rowdies	Steve David (Miami Toros)	23
1976	Toronto Metros-Croatia	Minnesota Kicks	Tampa Bay Rowdies	New York Cosmos	Derek Smethurst (Tampa Bay Rowdies)	20
1977	Cosmos (2)2	Seattle Sounders	Ft. Lauderdale Strikers	Dallas Tornado	Steve David (Los Angeles Aztecs)	26
1978	Cosmos (3)2	Tampa Bay Rowdies	Cosmos (2)2	Vancouver Whitecaps	Giorgio Chinaglia (Cosmos)	34
1979	Vancouver Whitecaps	Tampa Bay Rowdies	New York Cosmos (3)	Houston Hurricane	Giorgio Chinaglia (New York Cosmos)	26
1980	New York Cosmos (4)	Ft. Lauderdale Strikers	New York Cosmos (4)	Seattle Sounders	Giorgio Chinaglia (New York Cosmos)	32
1981	Chicago Sting	New York Cosmos	New York Cosmos (5)	Chicago Sting	Giorgio Chinaglia (New York Cosmos)	29
1982	New York Cosmos (5)	Seattle Sounders	New York Cosmos (6)	Seattle Sounders	Ricardo Alonso (Jacksonville Tea Men)	21
1983	Tulsa Roughnecks	Toronto Blizzard	New York Cosmos (7)	Vancouver Whitecaps	Roberto Cabanas (New York Cosmos)	25
1984	Chicago Sting (2)	Toronto Blizzard	Chicago Sting	San Diego Sockers	Steve Zungul (Golden Bay Earthquakes)	20

• ^Note 1 – The 1969 season featured no playoffs; the league title was awarded to the team with the most points in the season.
• ^Note 2 – TheNew York Cosmos dropped "New York" from name for the 1977 and 1978 seasons, then returned to the full name in 1979 season.

Year	MLS Cup (Total)	Runners-up	Supporters' Shield (Total)	Runners-up	Leading goalscorer(s)	Goals
1996	D.C. United	Los Angeles Galaxy	Tampa Bay Mutiny	Los Angeles Galaxy	Roy Lassiter (Tampa Bay Mutiny)	27
1997	D.C. United (2)	Colorado Rapids	D.C. United	Kansas City Wizards	Jaime Moreno (D.C. United)	16
1998	Chicago Fire	D.C. United	Los Angeles Galaxy	D.C. United	Stern John (Columbus Crew)	26
1999	D.C. United (3)	Los Angeles Galaxy	D.C. United (2)	Los Angeles Galaxy	Jason Kreis (Dallas Burn) Roy Lassiter (D.C. United) Stern John (Columbus Crew)	18
2000	Kansas City Wizards	Chicago Fire	Kansas City Wizards	Chicago Fire	Mamadou Diallo (Tampa Bay Mutiny)	26
2001	San Jose Earthquakes	Los Angeles Galaxy	Miami Fusion	Chicago Fire	Alex Pineda Chacon (Miami Fusion)	19
2002	Los Angeles Galaxy	New England Revolution	Los Angeles Galaxy (2)	San Jose Earthquakes	Carlos Ruiz (Los Angeles Galaxy)	24
2003	San Jose Earthquakes (2)	Chicago Fire	Chicago Fire	San Jose Earthquakes	Carlos Ruiz (Los Angeles Galaxy) Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution)	15
2004	D.C. United (4)	Kansas City Wizards	Columbus Crew	Kansas City Wizards	Brian Ching (San Jose Earthquakes) Eddie Johnson (Dallas Burn)	12
2005	Los Angeles Galaxy (2)	New England Revolution	San Jose Earthquakes	New England Revolution	Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution)	17
2006	Houston Dynamo	New England Revolution	D.C. United (3)	FC Dallas	Jeff Cunningham (Real Salt Lake)	16
2007	Houston Dynamo (2)	New England Revolution	D.C. United (4)	Chivas USA	Luciano Emilio (D.C. United)	20
2008	Columbus Crew	New York Red Bulls	Columbus Crew (2)	Houston Dynamo	Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)	20
2009	Real Salt Lake	Los Angeles Galaxy	Columbus Crew (3)	Los Angeles Galaxy	Jeff Cunningham (FC Dallas)	17
2010	Colorado Rapids	FC Dallas	Los Angeles Galaxy (3)	Real Salt Lake	Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)	18
2011	Los Angeles Galaxy (3)	Houston Dynamo	Los Angeles Galaxy (4)	Seattle Sounders FC	Dwayne De Rosario (D.C. United) Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)	16
2012	Los Angeles Galaxy (4)	Houston Dynamo	San Jose Earthquakes (2)	Sporting Kansas City	Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)	27
2013	Sporting Kansas City (2)	Real Salt Lake	New York Red Bulls	Sporting Kansas City	Camilo (Vancouver Whitecaps FC)	22
2014	Los Angeles Galaxy (5)	New England Revolution	Seattle Sounders FC	Los Angeles Galaxy	Bradley Wright-Phillips (New York Red Bulls)	27
2015	Portland Timbers	Columbus Crew SC	New York Red Bulls (2)	FC Dallas	Sebastian Giovinco (Toronto FC) Kei Kamara (Columbus Crew SC)	22
2016	Seattle Sounders FC	Toronto FC	FC Dallas	Colorado Rapids	Bradley Wright-Phillips (New York Red Bulls)	24
2017	Toronto FC	Seattle Sounders FC	Toronto FC	New York City FC	Nemanja Nikolić (Chicago Fire)	24
2018	Atlanta United FC	Portland Timbers	New York Red Bulls (3)	Atlanta United FC	Josef Martínez (Atlanta United FC)	31
2019	Seattle Sounders FC (2)	Toronto FC	Los Angeles FC	New York City FC	Carlos Vela (Los Angeles FC)	34
2020	Columbus Crew SC (2)	Seattle Sounders FC	Philadelphia Union	Toronto FC	Diego Rossi (Los Angeles FC)	14
2021	New York City FC	Portland Timbers	New England Revolution	Colorado Rapids	Valentín Castellanos (New York City FC)	19
2022	Los Angeles FC	Philadelphia Union	Los Angeles FC (2)	Philadelphia Union	Hany Mukhtar (Nashville SC)	23
2023	Columbus Crew (3)	Los Angeles FC	FC Cincinnati	Orlando City SC	Denis Bouanga (Los Angeles FC)	20
2024	Los Angeles Galaxy (6)	New York Red Bulls	Inter Miami CF	Columbus Crew	Christian Benteke (D.C. United)	23
2025			Philadelphia Union (2)	FC Cincinnati	Lionel Messi (Inter Miami CF)	29

• ^Note 3 – Championship awarded to Paterson when Scullin were unable to field a team for the replay, due to injuries and players under baseball contracts beginning the baseball season
• ^Note 4 – Before theSpring 1931 season,Fall River F.C. moved to New York City and merged withNew York Soccer Club to become theNew York Yankees. However, they began the 1931 tournament under the name Fall River, and as such were required to play as Fall River for the remainder of it, and won the Cup. Before theFall 1931 season, the Yankees moved again, this time back north toNew Bedford, Massachusetts. They merged withFall River F.C. to become theNew Bedford Whalers, and again won the Cup in 1932. TheUSSF officially credits "Fall River F.C." with four championships in total, and "New Bedford Whalers" with one.
• ^Note 5 –St. Louis Soccer League team names were determined by the club's respective corporate sponsor. The team known asHellrungs from 1929 to 1931 was also known as "Stix, Baer and Fuller F.C." from 1931 to 1934, "St. Louis Central Breweries F.C." from 1934 to 1935, and "St. Louis Shamrocks" from 1935 to 1938. As the change was only cosmetic and no relocations or mergers with clubs resulting in new rosters were made, the club's title history continues with the name changes.
• ^Note 6 – Aggregate drawn 2–2, Championship shared when details for a third game could not be agreed upon.
• ^Note 7 –Brooklyn Dodgers S.C. returned to their original name of "Brooklyn Italians" before the 1990s (the club states the change was in 1974, though later U.S. Open Cup tournaments have them registered under the Dodgers name).

In 2017, Toronto FC completed atreble of Supporters' Shield, MLS Cup and Canadian Championship, the first treble of any kind achieved by either an American or Canadian club since the beginning of Major League Soccer in1996.

Listed here are the teams to achievetwo major accomplishments in one season since1968.

As of October 2025

Defunct franchises: †.

• ^Note 8 – If the full histories of the domestic cups were included, the table would be some 150 teams long and include dozens of defunct, historical, and strictly amateur (North American Division 4 or 5) squads. As North American Soccer League teams did not compete for the domestic cups, and for the sake of practicality, only the modern eras of the two domestic cup trophies (since 1995 for the U.S. Open Cup and since the inception of the Canadian Championship in 2008) are included in this particular chart. For full domestic cup histories and totals, see below.
• ^Note 9 – The current incarnation of the franchise is a namesakephoenix club that owns the rights to the club's name and history.
• ^Note 10 – Team currently exists as a professional franchise in a Division II or Division III league, and as such are prevented from competing for two of the three domestic majors due to a lack of promotion and relegation.
• ^Note 11 – The current incarnation of the franchise rebranded but owns the rights to the club's name and history.
• ^Note 12 – Canadian soccer team.

Before the 1976 season, theAmerican Soccer League placed its first teams on the west coast, going national. For the first time, the United States and Canada had a national-level second-division league. For 2017 the USSF granted provisional D2 status for both the NASL and the USL.

• ^Note 13 – In 1989 the two largest U.S. leagues, theAmerican Soccer League and theWestern Soccer League, played a title game between their respective postseason champions as a precursor to the next season's merger.

• ^Note 14 – East Newark Clark and West Hudson finished tied and were declared co-champions.

The American Soccer League was the most prominent soccer league in the United States during the early 20th century.^[13] Some modern sources consider it to have been a major professional league.^[14]

TheLewis Cup was an American soccer trophy originally given to the champion of the Blue Mountain League of northwestern Pennsylvania and later awarded to the winners of the American Soccer League's League Cup.

• In 1985, several independent teams on the west coast formed the Western Soccer Alliance. Dedicated to fiscal austerity, it succeeded where the United Soccer League, founded the year before, failed. In 1987, the Lone Star Soccer Alliance imitated the success of the WSA in creating a viable regional league. In 1988, the third version of the American Soccer League, was established as a regional, east-coast league.

As of November 22, 2025

Defunct franchises: †.

• ^Note 15 – Only the teams from the five women's D1 leagues are listed.