How the 2026 MLS Cup Playoffs Work: Format, Dates and Bracket

The 2026 MLS Cup Playoffs open Thursday, November 19, with 18 teams: the top nine from the Eastern Conference and the top nine from the West. Seeds 1 through 7 in each conference go straight into the best-of-three first round. Seeds 8 and 9 play a one-game Wild Card for the right to face the No. 1 seed. After that it is a single elimination all the way to MLS Cup on Friday, December 18.

I've covered MLS since 2007, and I still get the same text every fall: wait, how do the playoffs work again? Fair question. Since 2023, the league has run a best-of-three first round series sandwiched between single-elimination rounds, which is not a format anyone draws up on a napkin. Three years in, it's…