MLS: A disputa pelas posições nos playoffs esquenta.

Last Updated on outubro 9, 2026 9:12 pm by Erwin Noguera

What Each Seed Actually Earns

Red Bull New York are in a MLS playoff position with a goal difference of minus seventeen. New York City FC are outside with a goal difference of plus five.

They are level on 33 points. The Red Bulls are eighth because they have won one more match.

That is what the seeding race looks like with seven rounds to go, and it matters far more than the places themselves, because in this format the difference between seventh and eighth is the difference between a three-match series and a single game decided on penalties.

Four Eastern clubs are within one point of the last two places. Five Western clubs are within six points of the conference lead. Nothing below Nashville is settled in either conference.

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Nine teams qualify in each conference, and the seed you finish with changes the tournament you play.

Seeds 1 to 7 go straight into a Round One best-of-three series. First to two wins advances. There are no draws; every match produces a winner. Home matches alternate: Match 1 at the higher seed, Match 2 at the lower seed, Match 3 at the higher seed.

Sementes 8 e 9 do not get a series. They play one Wild Card match, hosted by the eighth seed, on Wednesday 18 November. If it is level after ninety minutes, there is no extra time; it goes straight to penalties. The winner then travels to the conference’s top seed.

The bracket is fixed: 1 vs the Wild Card winner, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6, 4 vs 5.

So the three cliff edges are these.

First place draws whoever survives the Wild Card (the weakest remaining team in the conference) and hosts two of three.

Seventh place avoids the Wild Card entirely. Eighth place plays a coin flip, then the conference winner. One position, two completely different Novembers.

Tenth place goes home.

Conferência Leste

The East: Nashville Are Gone, Everything Below Is a Scramble

Nashville have 60 points and a fourteen-point lead. That race is over.

18 wins, 55 scored, 21 conceded, +34. The best defensive record in the league by a distance, and the only Eastern club with a goal difference better than +14. They will host the Wild Card winner, and they will host two of three in Round One.

Then it compresses violently. New England and Inter Miami are level on 46, Chicago are on 45, Charlotte on 43. Four clubs cover three points for seeds two through five, and seeds two, three, and four all host two of three while the fifth seed hosts one.

New England sit second on the first tiebreaker. MLS splits level teams on wins before goal difference, and the Revolution have 14 to Miami’s 12. That is despite Miami having both the better goal difference (+14 to +9) and the most goals scored in Major League Soccer at 64.

Inter Miami are the most entertaining team in the league and the most porous of the Eastern contenders. 64 scored, 50 conceded. Ten draws (more than anyone in the top six) is what a team that cannot defend a lead looks like in a points column.

Philadelphia in sixth is in an awkward position. 39 points, +10, and four points behind Charlotte. Sixth means travelling to the third seed with no margin.

Conferência Ocidental

The West: Five Clubs, Six Points

Vancouver lead on 50 with a +31 goal difference. They are three points clear, not fourteen.

St. Louis and Dallas are both 13-8-6 on 47 points, identical records. They are separated only by goal difference: +12 to +8. San Jose are on 45, Houston on 44.

Five clubs within six points, and the top seed is genuinely live. Vancouver’s cushion is one bad fortnight.

Houston in fifth are the team the table flatters. 44 points from 13 wins, and a goal difference of +2 on just 34 goals scored, the fewest of any club in the Western top nine. They have won matches narrowly, and they have not been convincing doing it.

LAFC in sixth are the team the table punishes.A +13 goal difference, second best in the conference, and 30 conceded, bettered only by Vancouver. They sit sixth because they have drawn eight and have a match fewer remaining than most. On underlying numbers, this is the second-best team in the West. On points, they are nine behind the lead.

Colorado in eighth is the strangest profile in either conference.11 wins and only three draws, from 27 matches. Thirteen defeats. They either win or lose, almost never anything else, and it has them exactly on the Wild Card line.

The Goal Difference Problem

Two clubs currently in Eastern playoff positions have the two worst goal differences of anyone in the top nine.

Orlando City are seventh with -16. The Red Bulls are eighth with -17. Orlando have conceded 64 goals, the joint-worst defensive record in the conference. Their record is 10-4-13: more defeats than wins, in a seeding place that skips the Wild Card.

New York City FC are ninth with +5. They have conceded 36, which is better than every Eastern club except Nashville.

NYCFC are the better team on every underlying measure, and they are the one in the play-in. The explanation is nine draws. In a league that pays three for a win and one for a draw, being hard to beat is worth less than being able to win.

The same logic is sitting in the West. San Diego have a level goal difference at 32 points and are twelfth. Seattle have a level goal difference at 38 points and are seventh. Six points, identical margins, opposite sides of the line.

On the Wrong Side of the Line

FC Cincinnati are tenth on 33 points with a match in hand, the same points as the eighth and ninth seeds. 55 goals scored and 64 conceded is the most volatile profile in the conference, and with a game to make up, they control more of their fate than the table suggests.

D.C. United are eleventh on 30 with a match in hand and twelve draws. The same problem as NYCFC, one tier worse.

Columbus and Toronto are on 29. Columbus have won eight and lost fourteen; Toronto have drawn eleven. Both need a run rather than a result.

In the West, four clubs sit on 31 or 32 points: Portland, Real Salt Lake, San Diego and Austin. They are four points behind Colorado and the Galaxy. Austin have drawn ten of 27: the draw problem again, and it is the single clearest reason a team misses this cut.

Sporting Kansas City are mathematically finished on 21 points with a -33 goal difference.

The Dates That Matter

Decision Day is Saturday 7 November. All Eastern fixtures kick off at 4pm ET, all Western fixtures at 7pm ET, simultaneous within each conference, which is what makes the final seeding move in real time.

Wild Card matches: Wednesday 18 November. One game, higher seed hosts, no extra time, penalties if level.

Round One best-of-three: 20 November to 2 December.

Conference Semifinals 5-6 December, and Conference Finals 11-12 December, both single elimination.

MLS Cup: Friday 18 December.Hosting rights go to whichever finalist has the better regular-season record, which is a further reason the seeding race is worth more than it looks.

What to Watch Over the Last Seven

Whether Vancouver holds the West. Three points with five clubs chasing is not a lead, and the first seed is worth a Wild Card opponent instead of a seventh seed.

Whether LAFC climb. A +13 goal difference in sixth place is the biggest gap between performance and position in the league. They have one match fewer to fix it.

Whether NYCFC overtake the two negative goal differences above them. One win swaps them with the Red Bulls. Two would put them past Orlando and out of the Wild Card entirely.

And whether anyone catches the Eastern pack. Cincinnati on 33 with a match in hand are closer than tenth place sounds, and a club that scores 55 goals does not need many results to move four places.

Seven matches. One point separates four Eastern clubs from the play-in, six separating five Western clubs from a bye. The places will not be decided by form so much as by which of these teams can stop drawing.