Next year’s MLS playoffs will include two additional teams and there will be conferences, that much we know for certain. What is less clear, but should be clarified at halftime of the MLS Cup, is how many teams from each conference will make the playoffs.
Major League Soccer Playoffs: Two More Teams Added For Next Year
MLS Commissioner Don Garber has spoken repeatedly at his frustration over two teams from the Western Conference playing for the Eastern Conference championship and has not hidden his desire to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
With 10 teams in the playoffs, the expectation is that the bottom four seeds would play in the first round and the winners would face the top seeds in either conference. Such a format would allow for the top three teams from each conference to qualify for the playoffs with the bottom four playoff spots possibly being reserved for wild cards. This format would also eliminate the possibility of two “wrong” conference teams meeting in the conference finals.
It seems that a balanced schedule will remain for next season, but that will change in 2012 when the league admits its 19th team. How the conferences will be aligned is also likely to be revealed at halftime, but with balanced schedules the most likely scenario would seem to be no changes. Since Montreal obviously makes more sense in the East and the conferences will have to be unbalanced in 2012, there seems to be little reason not to put Portland and Vancouver in the West and live with 10-team and eight-team conferences next season.
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