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Days in first place: MLS conference and Supporters' Shield races, 1996 to 2025

The longest anyone has led an MLS race without winning it: San Jose Earthquakes ended 42 of the 2002 Supporters' Shield race's 51 playing days in first place, 82% of them, and finished behind LA Galaxy. The longest unbroken spell of that lead ran 40 days. At the other end, Colorado Rapids won the 2021 Western race having led on one of its 80 playing days. Both lists below rank by the share of a race's playing days a team spent in first place. How that is counted is spelled out under the lists.

Companion pages: Closest MLS races and Biggest MLS comebacks and collapses.

Longest leads lost

  1. San Jose Earthquakes led the 2002 Supporters' Shield race on 42 of its 51 playing days, 82% of them, and finished behind LA Galaxy.
  2. San Jose Earthquakes led the 2001 Western race on 30 of its 39 playing days, 77% of them, and finished behind LA Galaxy.
  3. Seattle Sounders FC led the 2021 Western race on 60 of its 80 playing days, 75% of them, and finished behind Colorado Rapids.
  4. Kansas City Wizards led the 2000 Supporters' Shield race on 41 of its 56 playing days, 73% of them, and finished behind Chicago Fire FC.
  5. Tampa Bay Mutiny led the 2000 Central race on 32 of its 46 playing days, 70% of them, and finished behind Chicago Fire FC.
  6. Atlanta United led the 2018 Eastern race on 59 of its 86 playing days, 69% of them, and finished behind Red Bull New York.
  7. D.C. United led the 2015 Eastern race on 64 of its 94 playing days, 68% of them, and finished behind Red Bull New York.
  8. San Jose Earthquakes led the 2003 Supporters' Shield race on 38 of its 57 playing days, 67% of them, and finished behind Chicago Fire FC.
  9. LA Galaxy led the 2004 Western race on 30 of its 47 playing days, 64% of them, and finished behind Kansas City Wizards.
  10. LA Galaxy led the 1996 Supporters' Shield race on 58 of its 91 playing days, 64% of them, and finished behind Tampa Bay Mutiny.

Winners who led least

  1. Colorado Rapids won the 2021 Western race having led on 1 of its 80 playing days, 1% of them, and took first place for good on November 7, 2021.
  2. Chicago Fire FC won the 2000 Supporters' Shield race having led on 1 of its 56 playing days, 2% of them, and took first place for good on September 9, 2000.
  3. New England Revolution won the 2002 Eastern race having led on 2 of its 48 playing days, 4% of them, and took first place for good on September 21, 2002.
  4. Red Bull New York won the 2016 Eastern race having led on 5 of its 87 playing days, 6% of them, and took first place for good on October 16, 2016.
  5. Portland Timbers won the 2013 Western race having led on 6 of its 78 playing days, 8% of them, and took first place for good on October 26, 2013.
  6. Red Bull New York won the 2018 Supporters' Shield race having led on 8 of its 99 playing days, 8% of them, and took first place for good on October 28, 2018.
  7. Philadelphia Union won the 2020 Supporters' Shield race having led on 8 of its 69 playing days, 12% of them, and took first place for good on November 8, 2020.
  8. New York City Football Club won the 2019 Eastern race having led on 10 of its 86 playing days, 12% of them, and took first place for good on September 7, 2019.
  9. LA Galaxy won the 2001 Western race having led on 5 of its 39 playing days, 13% of them, and took first place for good on September 8, 2001.
  10. Sporting Kansas City won the 2011 Eastern race having led on 13 of its 91 playing days, 14% of them, and took first place for good on October 15, 2011.

How these lists are ranked

Everything on this page comes from the same season files the charts draw, with standings read as each day ended. All 92 charted MLS races from 30 finished seasons enter: every conference and Supporters' Shield race from 1996 to 2025. Wild card races are not ranked; their story is the playoff cutoff, not first place. The 2026 season joins these lists when it ends. A team's time in first place is counted once per season, at its longest, whichever of its charted races it came in.

Longest leads lost is the club that ended the most of a race's playing days in first place and did not finish first. Any club in the race qualifies, not the runner-up alone, because a club can lead for four months and finish fifth.

Winners who led least is the same count for the club that did win, ranked from the fewest days up. Each row closes on the day that winner took first place for good, which the comebacks page ranks on.

Only days this race's teams played are counted, the same rule the closest races page counts closeness over. A strike or a pause freezes the standings, and a leader sitting out an idle stretch would collect time on top for nothing.

The ranking is by share rather than by the raw count, because a league's seasons are not all the same length and a short one would otherwise win by being short. Seasons cut short by a strike or a stoppage are ranked on what was played, which is the same rule and the reason for it. The count and the total are printed beside the share, so the order can be checked; where two rows print the same whole percent, the unrounded share put them in that order.

A day two clubs end level at the top is a day in first place for both of them, which is what holding first place means in English. So the two counts of one race can add up to more than the race's playing days. Races whose top two the standings cannot separate appear on neither list: with no winner, the data can name neither the club that lost a lead nor the club that kept one.

A lead measured in days and a lead measured in points are different questions, and the two lists often disagree about which season was the bigger collapse; the comebacks page ranks the same blown leads by size. Only finished seasons are ranked; every irregularity in the record is listed in the data notes.