The playoff picture is officially set in Major League Soccer as Decision Day saw Sporting Kansas City, Charlotte FC, the New York Red Bulls, San Jose Earthquakes and FC Dallas all clinch their spots in the playoffs on the final day of the regular season. The Red Bulls have made the playoffs for 14 consecutive years, which is a new MLS record, breaking the previous record of 13 years held by the Seattle Sounders between 2009-2021. Peter Vermes was also able to lead a turnaround as the longest tenured MLS head coach guided his team to the playoffs against the odds.
The newly created wild-card round will see Sporting KC host the San Jose Earthquakes and the Red Bulls host Charlotte FC with the winners of those one-off matches then facing the No. 1 seeds in their respective conferences. The first round of the playoffs will be a best-of-three series with the first team to two wins moving on. There is no extra time so if a game is level at the end of regulation, it will go straight to penalties to determine the winner which isn’t something that the Vancouver Whitecaps will want to hear after Ryan Gauld missed not one but two penalties which would have secured a top four spot and homefield advantage in the first round for the Whitecaps.
After the first round, it will flip back to a single-elimination format for the remainder of the playoffs. Hosting rights for MLS Cup come down to points gained during the season so despite St. Louis City FC winning the West, they won’t host MLS Cup if they’re pitted against FC Cincinnati, Orlando City or the Columbus Crew.
In the Eastern Conference, the dust has settled and the following teams have clinched a playoff berth: FC Cincinnati, Orlando City SC, Philadelphia Union, Columbus Crew, New England Revolution, Atlanta United, Nashville SC, New York Red Bulls and Charlotte FC.
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