After a busy decision day on Saturday, the MLS Playoffs are finally here. The multi-week postseason begins Tuesday with a wild-card match between Montreal and Atlanta United and ends with the MLS Cup final on Dec. 7.
Inter Miami CF, led by Lionel Messi, took home the Supporters’ Shield this season. The franchise, which has never advanced beyond the first round, will now look to make a deep playoff push to replicate its regular season success.
Meanwhile, two teams will look for history to repeat itself. Last season, the Columbus Crew defeated LAFC in the MLS Cup. Both teams are back in the 2024 playoffs, with second-seeded Columbus looking for a repeat and first-seeded LAFC looking for revenge.
But before these teams can think about the cup, they must first get through the first round. Here’s everything you need to know about the 2024 MLS Playoffs.
Playoff format
After its introduction last year, the MLS is once again sticking to the new play-off format. The playoffs begin with two single-elimination wild-card games between the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds in each conference. The winners of those matches will face the No. 1 seed – Inter Miami in the East, LAFC in the West – in the next round.
After the wildcard, the remaining 16 teams will compete against each other in a best-of-three series for the first round. The round will follow a home-away-home format, with the higher seed hosting Game 1 and the lower seed hosting Game 2, with an if-needed Game 3 returning to the higher seed’s city.
There are no ties in this format and the total score is not used. Instead, every game will have to end with a winner. However, there will be no extra time and the teams will go straight to penalties to break the tie.
After the first round, the winners of these series will advance to the conference semifinals, followed by the conference finals. Both are single-game elimination matches hosted by the higher seed. In the event of a tie, the matches will follow the standard format for extra time penalties.
The final event is the MLS Cup, a single match hosted by the team with more regular season points. The Cup takes place on December 7.
Wildcard round
The MLS Playoffs kick off this week with a pair of wild card matchups:
Tuesday, October 22, 4:30 PM PT: No. 9 Atlanta United at No. 8 CF Montréal
Montreal, which had a relatively easy schedule to end the season, won five of its last seven games; one of those wins was against Atlanta, with a 2-1 victory on October 2.
Wednesday, October 23, 7:30 PM PT: No. 9 Portland Timbers at number 8 Vancouver Whitecaps
Portland and Vancouver have had similar struggles to end the season (neither has won a game in a month), but they are relatively well matched. Their most recent match was a 1-1 draw on September 28.
First round: Eastern Conference
In the East, the team to watch will certainly be Inter Miami, who finished the regular season with a record 74 points. Miami begins the playoffs on Friday and will face the winner of the wild-card round.
Columbus Crew, the reigning MLS champions, had another strong season, finishing with 66 points – more than any team in the West. Columbus will face the New York Red Bulls as the No. 2-No. 7 matchup. The Red Bulls had some problems towards the end of the season, ending with a 3-2 Decision Day loss to Columbus.
NYCFC and FC Cincinnati, the conference’s No. 3 and No. 6 seeds, have faced off four times in multiple competitions this season. While Cincinnati has defeated the NYC team three times, NYCFC had the last laugh with a 3-2 home win on October 2.
Orlando City SC and Charlotte FC, the Nos. 4 and No. 5, finished with similar records, although Orlando recorded an easy 2-0 home win over Charlotte last month.
First round: Western Conference
In the Western Conference, LAFC reigns as the first overall seed and will face the winner of the Cascadia wild card.
The LA Galaxy (No. 2) lost the No. 1 seed on goal difference thanks to a wild last-minute goal from the Houston Dynamo that sent the standings into turmoil. The Galaxy have a chance to wipe away the sting of the loss with a matchup against the No. 7 Colorado Avalanche.
Real Salt Lake vs. Minnesota, the No. 3-ranked. 6 matchup, has the potential to be interesting: both matches between the two clubs this season have ended with a draw and a red card for the home team. The final match will see the Seattle Sounders take on the Houston Dynamo. Seattle had a bit of a dip in the middle of the season, but has ended on a stronger note; the Sounders won their last game against Houston, a 1–0 win on September 28.
How to watch
Like the rest of the season, the entire MLS Playoffs will air on Apple TV. The eight games in the first round are all free on the platform, but the rest of the matches require AppleTV’s MLS Season Pass.
The full schedule can be found here.
