It's a do-or-die wildcard round followed by the best-of-three first round as MLS begins the march towards a champions

The higher seed are home for the first and — if necessary — third games of the series.The winners advance to the conference semifinals, with that round joining the conference final and MLS Cup Final as single-elimination matches at the home of the higher seed.

Both Estévez and Gallagher noted that playing in four elimination games during the team’s run to the U.S. Open Cup final was good preparation for the playoffs. Austin FC won two of those contests on the road, defeating San Jose in a penalty shootout and beating Minnesota with a goal in extra time.

Dayne St. Clair made one save before getting some help from the post twice after the Loons and Seattle played to a scoreless draw through 90 minutes.

The Union seek to become the first team since 2022 to win the Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup in the same season.

Two MLS clubs that missed the playoffs dumped head coaches on Monday with the Colorado Rapids parting ways with Chris Armas and the New York Red Bulls firing Sandro Schwarz."We're grateful to Chris for the professionalism and passion he brought to the club,

For the first and last time this year, and for the 32nd time in history, the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL will all play games Monday, with MLS throwing in a couple playoff games for good measure. In total, 17 games will begin over the course of less than four hours.

In front of 32,066 people, the largest playoff crowd in club history, the Whitecaps outshot FC Dallas 22–0, pushing past an outstanding goalkeeping performance from Michael Collodi with goals from Daniel Ríos, Thomas Müller and Kenji Cabrera.