Major League Soccer is still negotiating with U.S. Soccer on how exactly their clubs will participate in the 2024 U.S. Open Cup. The North American league previously declared back in December that their teams would not participate in the knockout competition. Instead, the top flight clubs would send their MLS Next PRO reserve teams to […]

MLS Commissioner Don Garber has admitted that MLS' revenue share agreement with Apple for MLS Season Pass contains risk. In a recent keynote address at the Columbia Sports Management Conference, Garber explained Major League Soccer's exclusive global streaming deal with Apple in more detail. "It's a partnership, and that's the most different aspect of it," […]

Columbus Crew beat defending Champions LAFC 2-1 to win the 2023 MLS cup on Saturday evening. The home side put in a brilliant first half display to go 2-0 ahead as LAFC hardly got themselves in the game. It was Cucho Hernanadez who gave his side the lead in the 33rd minute from the spot […]

The MLS Cup is the annual championship final for Major League Soccer. Unlike many leagues around the world, MLS crowns the overall league champion via a post-season playoff tournament, not the most points in the regular season (though that team is recognized with a separate trophy and earns a place in continental play). Which teams […]

From June to September, all we’ve heard from MLS and Apple is Messi, Messi, and Messi. Now that Inter Miami is out of the playoffs and Messi is away on international duty, the focus returns to MLS Cup Playoffs. But without the league’s main focal point, what are the redeeming reasons to watch MLS Cup […]

FC Cincinnati won the Supporters Shield with the best record in the MLS regular season, an award its coach claims is better than the MLS Cup. It is Cincinnati's first trophy since its inception. Having joined MLS in 2019, this is, of course, FC Cincinnati's best finish in an MLS regular season. Pat Noonan, the […]

Major League Soccer is considering some interesting changes to its playoffs and the number of teams involved. The 2023 season set to start in just a few weeks. Despite this, the league does not have a playoff structure currently set in stone. One of the alterations that could be coming to MLS is 18 teams […]

The MLS Cup playoff format could potentially be significantly altered, as early as the 2023 season, according to a report. The latest idea being floated by the league is a best-of-three series for the first round of MLS Cup Playoffs. This proposal now supersedes a previously reported "World Cup style" format that would have featured […]

In 2019, the playoff battle between LAFC v. LA Galaxy ended dramatically, with LAFC the victor, 5-3. The match envenomed the enmity between the cross-county rivals. In 2022, El Tráfico hit the postseason for a galvanizing second edition. Thursday night, the conference semifinal pinned compatriots Carlos Vela versus Javier Hernández– eminent El Tri veterans playing […]

For the past three years, the gulf between the two MLS conferences has seemingly been as deep as the Grand Canyon. In 2011 and 2012, the East's representative in MLS Cup was Houston, a convert from the West. The last time MLS Cup featured an original Eastern Conference team was 2008 when two teams from the […]

In retrospect, it was obvious. Houston is so good playing with an aggregate lead in the playoffs and with DC missing Chris Pontius and a fully healthy Dwayne De Rosario, the task really was impossible. But it didn't feel that way at RFK Stadium Sunday afternoon, as a crowd of over 20,000 (including 350 standing […]

After only twelve goals total being scored in the conference semifinals, fans could be forgiven for expecting low-scoring first legs of the conference finals. Instead, tired legs and teams pressing advantages led to seven goals and seemingly anti-climatic second legs coming up on Sunday, as a repeat of the 2011 MLS Cup looks in the […]

As you may have noticed when you excitedly opened your podcast app this morning, we were unable to record a post-Thursday episode of the MLS Talk podcast due to a variety of conflicts. However, after a wild and crazy first round/conference semi-final round, I wanted to approach a wrap-up from a different perspective. After elections, […]

In MLS, 56% of teams made the playoffs this year, meaning your team had a pretty good chance to make at least the 4 v. 5 game of the playoffs (except you, Toronto fans, sorry). Of course, at the end of the season, 44% of teams didn't. Some just fell short, like Montreal and FC […]

Tonight the road to MLS Cup 2012 begins with Chicago hosting Houston in the Eastern Conference 4/5 game. Over the next month ten teams will battle to determine who is the best team in MLS this season (at least, the best playoff team) and based on the regular season all of these games are must-see […]