April 6, 1996: The 1st Major League Soccer Game

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April 6, 1996, 30 years ago: Major League Soccer debuts, ending North America's 12-year drought without a top-flight soccer league.

MLS had hoped to start a year earlier, within months of the 1994 World Cup on American soil. But, given how other insurgent leagues failed, it was probably for the best that they had an additional year to get their administrative act in order. And the timing was right, after all: They played their season concurrent with baseball, and baseball was in a bad spot at the time, following the Strike of '94. So there was room for another major league sport in fans' hearts.

The 1st game is played at Spartan Stadium in San Jose, California. The San Jose Clash hosted Washington-based D.C. United. The game was scoreless until the 88th minute, when Eric Wynalda scored to win it for the Clash, 1-0.

Previously, the San Francisco Bay Area had been represented by the Oakland Clippers, the one and only champions of the National Professional Soccer League in 1967; the San Francisco Golden Gate Gales, who played in the United Soccer Association that year, the league's only season; the Oakland Stompers in the North American Soccer League in 1978; and the San Jose Earthquakes in the NASL from 1974 until that league folded following the 1984 season.

The Earthquakes then played in the Western Soccer Alliance until it folded in 1988. The Western Soccer League was founded in 1989, with a team named the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks. In 1994, they were renamed the San Jose Clash, and were taken into MLS.

They bought the rights to the Earthquakes name in 1999, and won the MLS Cup in 2001 and 2003. Like so many other Bay Area teams, they developed a rivalry with the Los Angeles team in their league, the L.A. Galaxy, a rivalry that became known as the California Clásico.

After the 2005 season, the team's owners, upset at being unable to get a soccer-specific stadium -- Spartan Stadium, now CEFCU Stadium, was built for San Jose State University football in 1933 -- moved them, and they became the Houston Dynamo. Rubbing further salt in the Bay Area's wounds, the Dynamo won the MLS Cup in the franchise's 1st 2 seasons in Texas.

But Lewis Wolff, then the owner of the Oakland Athletics, bought the rights to an MLS expansion team, and the 3rd edition of the San Jose Earthquakes began play at Spartan Stadium in 2008. In 2015, they opened Avaya Stadium, an 18,000-seat soccer-specific stadium, now named PayPal Park.

Although D.C. United lost the 1st MLS game, they won the 1st MLS Cup in 1996, and the 2nd in 1997, and the 4th in 1999, and the 9th in 2004. They also won the U.S. Open Cup (America's version of the FA Cup) in 1996 (making them the 1st MLS team to win "The Double"), 2008 and 2013; the Supporters' Shield, as regular-season Champions, in 1997, 1999, 2006 and 2007; and the CONCACAF Champions League in 1998.

The next week saw the debuts of these teams:

* On April 13, the lone teams then representing the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas played each other. The Los Angeles Galaxy beat the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, 2-1 at the Rose Bowl in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California. The MetroStars, or "Metro" for short, became the New York Red Bulls in 2005.

* Also on the 13th, the Columbus Crew beat D.C., 4-0 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

* Also on the 13th, the Kansas City Wizards (now Sporting Kansas City) beat the Colorado Rapids (Denver's team), 3-0 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* Also on the 13th, the Tampa Bay Mutiny beat the New England Revolution (Boston's team), 3-2 at Tampa Stadium. The Mutiny folded after the 2001 season.

* On April 14, the Dallas Burn played the Clash to a scoreless tie at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, and then won a shootout, 3-2. The team is now known as F.C. Dallas.