MLS playoffs preview: Messi and Inter Miami push for MLS Cup, Columbus hopes for back-to-back championships

After a busy Decision Day on Saturday, the MLS playoffs are finally here. The multi-week postseason begins Tuesday with a wild-card matchup between Montreal and Atlanta United, and will end at the MLS Cup Final on Dec. 7.

Inter Miami CF, led by Lionel Messi, took home the Supporters’ Shield this season. The franchise, which has never made it past the first round, will now attempt to make a deep playoff push to match its regular-season success.

Meanwhile, two teams will be looking for history to repeat itself. Last season, the Columbus Crew defeated LAFC in the MLS Cup. Both teams are back in the 2024 playoffs, with second-seeded Columbus seeking a repeat, and first-seeded LAFC seeking revenge.

But before these teams can think about the Cup, they’ve got to get through the first round. Here’s everything you need to know about the 2024 MLS playoffs.

Playoff format

After introducing it last year, MLS is once again sticking with its new playoff format. The playoffs will begin with two single-elimination wild-card games between the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds in each conference. The winners of those matches will face the No. 1 seed — Inter Miami in the East, LAFC in the West — in the next round.

After the wild card, the remaining 16 teams will face off in a best-of-three series for the first round. The round follows a home-away-home format: the higher seed hosts Game 1 and the lower seed hosts Game 2, with an as-needed Game 3 returning to the higher-seed’s city.

There are no ties in this format, and aggregate score is not used. Instead, each game will have to finish with a winner. However, there will be no overtime, and teams will go straight to penalty kicks to break the tie.

Following the first round, the winners of those series will advance to the conference semifinals, followed by the conference finals. Both of those are single-game elimination matches hosted by the higher seed. The games will follow a standard extra time-penalty kicks format in the event of a tie.

The final event is the MLS Cup, a single match hosted by the team with more regular-season points. The Cup will take place Dec. 7.

Wild-card round

The MLS playoffs get started Tuesday with a pair of wild-card matchups:

Tuesday, Oct. 22, 7:30 p.m. ET: No. 9 Atlanta United at No. 8 C.F. Montréal

Montréal, which had a relatively easy schedule to finish out the season, won five of its last seven games; one of those victories was against Atlanta, with a 2-1 win on Oct. 2.

Wednesday, Oct. 23, 10:30 p.m. ET: No. 9 Portland Timbers at No. 8 Vancouver Whitecaps

Portland and Vancouver have had similar struggles to end the season (neither has won a game in a month), but they’ve been relatively well-matched against each other. Their most recent matchup was a 1-1 draw on Sept. 28.

First round: Eastern Conference

In the East, the team to watch will certainly be Inter Miami, which finished the regular season with a record 74 points. Miami will kick off its playoff run Friday, taking on the winner of the wild-card round.

Columbus Crew, the reigning MLS champs, have had another strong season, ending with 66 points — higher than any team in the West. Columbus will take on the New York Red Bulls as the No. 2-No. 7 matchup. The Red Bulls had some struggles toward the end of the season, and finished with a 3-2 Decision Day loss to Columbus.

NYCFC and FC Cincinnati, the No. 3 and No. 6 teams in the conference, have faced off four times this season across multiple competitions. While Cincinnati has beaten NYCFC three of those times, NYCFC got the last laugh with a 3-2 home win on Oct. 2.

Orlando City SC and Charlotte FC, the No. 4 and No. 5 clubs, ended with similar records, although Orlando put up an easy 2-0 home win over Charlotte last month.

First round: Western Conference

In the Western Conference, LAFC reigns as the first overall seed, and will take on the winner of the Cascadia wild card.

The LA Galaxy (No. 2) lost out on the No. 1 seed on goal differential, thanks to a wild, last-minute goal from the Houston Dynamo to throw the standings into a frenzy. The Galaxy have a chance to wipe away the sting of the loss with a matchup against the No. 7 Colorado Avalanche.

Real Salt Lake vs. Minnesota, the No. 3-No. 6 matchup, has the potential to get interesting: Both of the games between the two clubs this season have ended with draws and a red card awarded to the home team. The final matchup will see the Seattle Sounders taking on the Houston Dynamo. Seattle had a bit of a dip in the middle of the season, but has come back to end on a stronger note; the Sounders won their last matchup against Houston, a 1-0 win on Sept. 28.

How to watch

As with the rest of the season, the entirety of the MLS playoffs will be broadcast on Apple TV. The eight games in the first round will all be free on the platform, but the rest of the matches will require AppleTV’s MLS Season Pass.

The full schedule can be found here.