D.C. United is an American professional soccer club based in Washington, D.C. that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), the top tier professional soccer league in the United States of America and Canada. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having competed in the league since its inception, in 1996. Over the club's history, D.C. United has been considered to be the flagship franchise of MLS winning 13 international and domestic titles. Domestically, United has won the U.S. Open Cup twice, and holds an MLS record for most MLS Cup and MLS Supporters' Shields apiece, winning each honor four times. United was also the first club to win both the Supporters' Shield and MLS Cup consecutively.