With just about three weeks before the start of the 2011 season, MLS has finally released the playoff format. As promised during the MLS Cup, 10 of the league’s 18 teams will make the playoffs, with three from each conference guaranteed berths. The final four spots will be “wild cards” and compete in a play-in round. Beside the play-in round and the number of teams that qualify, everything else remained the same.
MLS Releases 2011 Playoff Format: 10 Teams, Four ‘Wild Cards’
The play-in round will pit the No. 1 wild card against the No. 4 wild card and the No. 2 against the No. 3. The higher-seeded wild card will host the one-game playoff. The lowest seed to emerge from the play-in round will then enter whichever bracket has the Supporters’ Shield winner. The conference semifinals will remain a two-game, aggregate goal affair, while the conference finals will continue to be one game hosted by the higher seed and the MLS Cup to be one game at a predetermined location.
Last year, this format would have resulted in Kansas City making the playoffs as the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference and the Chicago Fire making the playoffs as the No. 4 wild card team. In this scenario, the Seattle Sounders would have played the Fire and the Colorado Rapids would have played the San Jose Earthquakes in the two play-in games. The Sounders would have played the New York Red Bulls if they had won and the Fire would have played the Los Angeles Galaxy if they had won.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber had previously stated that one of his goals with the new format was that he wanted to avoid a situation like last year where two teams from the “wrong” conference face off in the conference finals. This format will keep that from happening, but still allows for the possibility of two teams from the same conference meeting in the MLS Cup championship.
SB Nation had proposed a system similar to the one that was eventually adopted, but urged that the play-in games be played midweek following the end of the regular season and the conference semifinals to be played the following weekend. That remains a possibility, as the league has yet to release a playoff schedule.
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