| Founded | 1995 |
|---|---|
| Region | Canada United States |
| Number of teams | 10 |
| Current champions | Los Angeles Galaxy (3 titles) |
| Most successful club | D.C. United (4 titles) |
| 2011 MLS Cup Playoffs | |
The MLS Cup Playoffs is the postseason elimination tournament of Major League Soccer held at the end of the regular season en route to the MLS Cup, the league's championship game. 10 teams in total from the Eastern Conference and Western Conference qualify for the tournament based on regular-season records, and a tiebreaking procedure exists in the case of equal records. Awarding the league championship through a postseason tournament differs from most other soccer leagues around the world. In these cases, the team with the most points at the end of the season is deemed champion. However, MLS awards the "regular season" winners with the Supporters' Shield and a direct berth in the CONCACAF Champions League, the continental tournament.
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New for 2011, each conference has a Wild Card playoff game, which is single elimination. The league's 7th seed plays a 10th seed, and the 8th plays the 9th, with the winners playing the top-seeded team in the Conference Semifinals. The lowest-seeded survivor plays the Supporters' Shield winner.
Conference Semifinal series are conducted in a home-and-away, aggregate-goal format. The lower-seeded team in the Conference Semifinal hosts the first game. The winners of those four series advance to single-game Conference Championships that will determine the MLS Cup finalists.
The team that scores the most goals in the home-and-away series advances to the single-elimination Conference Championship. If the teams are tied after two games (180 minutes) in the Conference Semifinal series, a 30-minute extra time period (divided into two 15-minute periods) will be played followed by kicks from the penalty mark, if necessary. The team with the higher seed between the two conference finalists will host the Conference Championship game.
In the case of ties after 90 minutes of regulation in the Wild Card, Eastern and Western Conference Championship games and MLS Cup, 30 minutes of extra time (divided into two 15-minute periods) would be played followed by penalty kicks, if necessary, to determine the winners.
10 teams will qualify for the playoffs – the top 3 teams in each conference plus the remaining 4 teams, regardless of conference, that have the most points in the standings upon the completion of the 34-game regular season.
The seeding is as follows[1]:
*The top 3 teams in each conference qualify and are seeded 1-3 in their respective 5-team playoff conference brackets, and a bye.
- The four teams with the next-most points, regardless of conference, receive "wildcard" berths.
- The four wildcard teams will be seeded according to conference first.
- If more than 5 teams qualify from one conference, the team(s) finishing lower than 5th in its conference will shift over to the other conference bracket. Because of this, it is entirely possible for a Western Conference team to become Eastern Conference champion (or vice versa), as the Colorado Rapids did in the 2010 MLS season - and the MLS Cup Final to be an intra- rather than inter-conference affair.[2]
- A team switching conference brackets will be seeded below all other teams in its new conference playoff bracket.
In the event that two teams finish the regular season with an equal number of points, the following system will be used to break the tie:
NOTE: If two clubs remain tied after another club with the same number of points advances during any step, the tie breaker reverts to step 1 of the two-club format.
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