The MLS Cup playoffs are broken. How to repair them

The MLS Cup playoffs resume on Saturday, with the second round taking place over a month after the regular season ended. Viewers will return to a bracket in a state of relative carnage, with Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami and defending champion Columbus Crew exiting in the first round.

The potential for upsets is a deciding factor that makes or breaks neutral postseason intrigue. These came in spades, from sixth-seeded Minnesota United, giving the West a worthy underdog to each of the East’s top three teams bowing to lower-ranked opponents. Still, the current format — which since 2023 has seen MLS teams play a best-of-three series — had plenty of opponents before the league’s most famous member was eliminated from contention.

Supporters Shield-winning juggernaut Miami fell at the first hurdle. So did the defending MLS Cup champion (the Crew) and the 2023 regular season champion (FC Cincinnati).

Is it fine from an entertainment point of view? Absolutely. A knockout format is best when upsets are possible, and four of the eight matchups in the first round saw the bottom seed advance to the next round.

Where the format is clearly flawed, however, is in rewarding teams for outstanding season performances. Soccer is not a sport that often sees teams play each other back-to-back, much less in a three-game set. When a cup draw pits two teams together immediately before or after a regular season matchup, it is cited as an oddity, a unique variable that both teams must account for.

Atlanta perfectly executed the ideal approach to pull off a first-round upset in this format. With the first game at the higher seeded venue, one should frustrate the favorite: make some difficult challenges, score a shock goal or two and send a signal of intent. With the second game at the bottom seed’s stadium, MLS’ home court advantage could help flip the script and gain a playoff berth. Game three is back in the stadium of the higher seeds, but the stakes put all the pressure on the favorite — another ideal factor if you’re an underdog on the brink of a series victory.

Miami didn’t handle that pressure well. Tata Martino – who resigned on Tuesday – continued to tinker with both his system and lineup, and the result was a far worse version than the side that became the face of MLS. Atlanta didn’t have to be one of the top four teams in the field to secure a spot in the next round; they simply had to game plan appropriately for one opponent over the course of weeks.

Players have raised further disapproval of the current format. One continuous line – which Riqui Puig wrote after his LA Galaxy was dismantled Colorado Rapids in two games — is that the schedule doesn’t account for the predetermined international window in November, halting postseason momentum and fervor at an inopportune time.

There is also criticism of how bindings in regulation are settled and whether this leads to a fair result. The first round skips the usual half hour of extra time and sends a match tied after 90 minutes to a penalty shootout. It makes for a high-stakes spectacle, but also means teams can advance without winning a single playoff game outright.

Two series saw teams advance after winning a pair of shootouts to end deadlocks in regulation, with the Seattle Sounders and Minnesota advancing to the next round without a single victory. Even on the right side of the score, Seattle – who won the MLS Cup in 2016 and 2019 and finished as runners-up in 2017 – seem overwhelmed by the performance.

“I don’t like the structure of the playoffs, especially the first round,” said Stefan Frei after his team’s win in the series opener last week. “You can lose the first game 5-0, draw two games and win both PKs and now you’re through? I don’t like that.”

When a draw is enough to advance through the bracket, the format does not encourage the “winner-take-all” atmosphere that often accompanies a thrilling knockout tournament. If MLS didn’t already heed the concerns of skeptics, they may now have financial reasons to reassess the format as the business end kicks off without Messi in contention.

Is that what the league wants? This isn’t to say that the first round should be a formality, with each conference’s top four teams advancing to the next round, but there’s definitely a better balance between entertainment and competitiveness to be found.

It is possible – and in a format that will require fewer explanatory crash courses for both casuals and diehards.

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Let’s first consider the given constraints when designing an alternative format. Cutting games isn’t an option – inventory is a real consideration for any broadcast partner, especially one as invested in the product as Apple is with MLS. Team owners value the guarantee of postseason game revenue, and limiting the number of teams that can host would be a problem.

And of course there is the pesky international window which is already scheduled for the 10th-18th. November 2025. With the mid-season League Cup break seemingly immovable, getting a three-week post-season between the October and November windows is almost impossible. We work with the calendar we have been given.

This could all be moot if MLS changes its calendar in 2026, as there are no scheduled international breaks in April or May. All the more reason to find the best format in advance.

A group stage that goes into a knockout bracket comes with immediate familiarity among even the most casual viewers of the sport that mimics the most watched event on the landscape: the World Cup.

It seamlessly integrates MLS’s current qualifying format, where eight teams per conference is completely divisible with four teams per group. If the league wanted to hold a play-in game between the eighth and ninth places, that’s fine – the eighth seed could enjoy the chance to host before the group starts in earnest.

There are a couple of obvious ways groups can be assigned. There could be a fixed format based on the conference table that ensures the highest seed gets a more favorable group. Teams finishing second would still have an advantage but play slightly better opponents in their group. To use this year’s 16 qualifiers as stand-ins, it could look like this…

Alternatively, MLS could have its qualifying coaches and captains fly to their broadcast studio in East Harlem for a series of draws: 1 and 2 atop their groups, then a one-or-other draw between teams 3 and 4, 5 and 6 , and then 7 and 8. It might skew the competitive balance a bit, but it’s another made-for-streaming event that would stand to be appointment viewing for involved fanbases.

The regular season would matter, as a team’s position in each bracket affects which pot they are in, and thus how many games they can host. In this proposal, the group’s highest seed would host all three of its games – just as well paving a path to advancement as they could earn. The second-ranked team would host two matches against lower-ranked opponents, while a team finishing fifth or sixth would still host the final qualifying match of the group.

If you want to host a playoff game, you probably have to finish higher than seventh in your conference – that doesn’t seem unfair.

This works under our given constraints and creates a few advantages. First, you avoid the scenario where a team has to wait over three weeks to play its next game; Even though the Galaxy know it will host Minnesota, each team must maintain that excitement for over half a month. Second, you give even more games to the MLS Season Pass – each team plays three times, guaranteed, which could allow for a more consistent stagger of games over multiple weeks.

Every game matters in a group stage, as even a draw (yes, it should be allowed in the group format) can be a qualification-changing result in itself. It would also give MLS another variation on its regular season’s finest weekend: Decision Day, when all games in a conference start simultaneously. This time it can be spread over two days: an eastern group that ends in the early castle, and a western group that serves as a potent night drink. Repeat with the other two groups tomorrow, with each group’s top two players advancing to the conference semifinals.

At that point, each team that advances would enter the international break with the same two-week window to game plan and ensure player fitness. A single-elimination bracket would not confuse casual viewers whose lens in the sport is a World Cup. A team’s finish in the group would provide the knockout bracket’s seeding, which helps keep first and second place from half-heartedly approaching the group.

And as it is now (and should be), the MLS Cup would be hosted by the higher ranked team that remains.

It takes a lot to create consensus among goalkeepers, attacking midfielders, coaches and fans. The sheer volume of upsets has been fun and good this year, but raises questions about the effectiveness of the format in finding a worthy champion. Why not turn to a tried and true alternative?

(Top photo: Chandan Khanna/AFP)