MLS Cup Playoffs format, bracket: What to know for penalty kicks, extra time Jim Reineking, USA TODAYOctober 22, 2025 at 11:21 PM 0 The 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs are upon us, and the league's postseason can feature as many as 33 playoff games over 46 days from the wildcard matches on Oct.
- - MLS Cup Playoffs format, bracket: What to know for penalty kicks, extra time
Jim Reineking, USA TODAYOctober 22, 2025 at 11:21 PM
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The 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs are upon us, and the league's postseason can feature as many as 33 playoff games over 46 days from the wild-card matches on Oct. 22 to MLS Cup on Dec. 6.
Over the course of its 30 seasons, Major League Soccer has tinkered with its playoff format frequently. The league's current playoff format has been in use since 2023, when it expanded both the playoff field and number of games played.
Here is how the MLS Cup Playoffs work:
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MLS playoff format
There are nine teams from each conference in the playoffs. The field includes:
The top nine finishers in the Eastern Conference
The top nine finishers in the Western Conference
The teams that finish in the eighth- and ninth-place spots in each conference take part in wild-card matches. The winners of those matches will then play the first-place finisher of their respective conference.
The playoffs have five rounds: Wild card, Round 1, conference semifinals, conference finals and MLS Cup.
Here is how each round is formatted:
Wild-card matches -
No. 8 seed hosts No. 9 seed
The winner of the wild-card matches advance to Round 1.
Matches tied after 90 minutes of regulation go to a penalty kick shootout.
Round 1 -
No. 1 seed vs. wild-card winner (No. 8 vs. No. 9)
No. 2 seed vs. No. 7 seed
No. 3 seed vs. No. 6 seed
No. 4 seed vs. No. 5 seed
Round 1 is a best-of-three series following a home-away-home format with the higher seed hosting the first match, the lower seed hosting the second and — if necessary — the higher hosts a third match.
There is no aggregate score kept, and matches tied after 90 minutes of regulation go to a penalty kick shootout.
Conference semifinals -
Winner of No. 1-No. 8/9 series vs. winner of No. 4-No. 5 series
Winner of No. 3-No. 6 series vs. winner of No. 2-No. 7 series
The MLS playoff bracket is fixed, so there is no reseeding of teams following Round 1. The conference semifinal matches are hosted by the higher playoff seeds.
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