Major League Soccer Kicks Off Postseason
Image courtesy of goal.com
By Griffin Cappiello
While the World Series might be getting all the media attention, it’s definitely not the only postseason madness in the American sports scene. The Audi MLS Cup Playoffs kicked off this past week, and after one round, it’s safe to say that there will be no shortage of entertainment this year.
After the conclusion of the regular season, the top nine teams in each of the two conferences qualify for the playoffs.
Inter Miami, starring Lionel Messi and his ex-Barcelona friends, topped the Eastern Conference and won the Supporters’ Shield, the trophy for the team with the most points in the regular season.
Denis Bouanga’s LAFC narrowly claimed the Western crown after finishing the season with the same number of points as their cross-town rivals, the LA Galaxy, but winning a tiebreaker on goal difference.
The MLS playoff structure is a bit complicated unnecessarily; the eight seed hosts the nine seed in each conference in the wild card round, followed by a best-of-three series in the first round of the playoffs.
The winners of these series progress to the Conference Semifinals, a single elimination game hosted by the higher seeded team. Then comes the Conference Finals, and finally the Audi MLS Cup Final between the conference champions.
At the time of writing, the opening round of the playoffs is underway, with each team having played their first match in the series.
In the Western Conference wild card round, the eighth seeded Vancouver Whitecaps played the ninth seeded Portland Timbers. Despite Vancouver being the higher seed, Portland hosted the match due to a scheduling conflict at Vancouver’s stadium.
Home field advantage did not appear to be present for the Timbers, however, as the Whitecaps put together a 5-0 thrashing, headlined by a Ryan Gauld hattrick.
In the East, CF Montréal hosted Atlanta United. Josef Martínez scored a brace for Montréal against his former club, but in the end it wasn’t enough. After a 2-2 final score at full time, Atlanta United won the penalty shootout 4-5.
Atlanta moved on to face Inter Miami, but fell victim to goals by Luis Suárez and Jordi Alba, losing 2-1. Orlando City SC also beat Charlotte FC 2-0 with a Charlotte red card coming late in the match.
FC Cincinnati found a 1-0 result against NYCFC with the help of a late New York City red card. Meanwhile, in the other Ohio versus New York matchup, defending MLS Cup champions, the Columbus Crew, were upset 0-1 by the New York Red Bulls.
In the Western Conference first round, the Seattle Sounders drew the Houston Dynamo 0-0 in regular time, before winning 5-4 on penalties. Real Salt Lake and Minnesota United reached a similar 0-0 result, with Minnesota pulling off the upset 4-5 on penalties.
LAFC hosted Vancouver, winning 2-1 after a controversial penalty call, a recurring theme for LAFC this season. The LA Galaxy hosted the Colorado Rapids and put together a convincing 5-0 win, featuring braces from Riqui Puig and Dejan Joveljić.
The Galaxy’s dominant performance raised questions regarding the MLS playoff format, specifically about the need for a three game series in the first round; if teams can win by such large margins, is it really necessary to play multiple matches, especially if all of the following rounds are all single elimination?
Major League Soccer is a league plagued by such questions, as well as others concerning referee performance and potential major changes to the league schedule. While these questions largely will remain unanswered, soccer fans can tune in to the remainder of the playoffs for more entertaining matches with some of the most exciting players in the world.
From experienced European legends, like the LA Galaxy’s Marco Reus and LAFC’s Olivier Giroud, to emerging South American youngsters, such as the Columbus Crew’s Cucho Hernández and Inter Miami’s Diego Gómez, there is no shortage of talent in MLS.
There will be no shortage of drama in the remainder of the playoffs, and MLS fans can potentially watch Lionel Messi lift one of the few trophies he has not yet won: the MLS Cup.
