The Galaxy have been out of the postseason so long the playoff format has completely changed since their last visit.
That statement is totally true. But it’s also a bit unfair since the one constant about the MLS playoffs is change.
The format the league is using this year is the third since 2018 and the 10th in the league’s 29-year history. It is also, by far, the most confounding. For starters, 18 of the league’s 29 teams made the postseason, meaning MLS played an eight-month, 34-game regular season to eliminate just 11 teams.
Only the NBA, which allows 20 of its 30 teams into the postseason, has a lower bar.
Then there’s the format itself. For the second year in a row the tournament began with single wild-card games in each conference, followed by best-of-three first-round series in which draws go directly to penalty kicks. The final three rounds — the conference semifinals, finals and the MLS Cup final — will all be single games with extra time, if needed.
Can you spot the round that doesn’t belong?
For much of its history, MLS used a two-leg, home-and-way format for the early rounds of its playoffs, with the winner advancing on aggregate goals, or one-game knockout rounds. Those are familiar formats, ones used in championships around the world. The unwieldy best-of-three format, on the other hand, fits like a square peg in a round hole.
“Don’t like it,” LAFC captain Aaron Long said after his team opened its best-of-three series with Vancouver with a 2-1 win Sunday. “We just don’t like the best of three. I think both other options are better. Most of the guys go that way.”
With Los Angeles being such an important market for MLS, the rise of the Galaxy and LAFC has to be making league commissioner Don Garber happy.
Galaxy coach Greg Vanney agreed.
“To be honest, I was always a big fan of the home and away and the aggregate score,” he said.
With reason. After last Saturday’s 5-0 blowout of the Colorado Rapids in their playoff opener — matching the most one-sided playoff result in the franchise’s storied history — the Galaxy would have to lose by six goals in the second game Friday in suburban Denver to avoid advancing to the next round under the old format.
The Galaxy have never lost a game by six goals.
But rather than being rewarded for the dominant performances in Game 1, under the new set-up the Galaxy will see that score wiped away and the teams will start even in Game 2.
LAFC defeats Vancouver 2-1 in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series as coach Steve Cherundolo tries to guide the team to another MLS Cup title.
“This game is now behind us and whatever we did today, it doesn’t impact the next one,” Vanney said. “It is what it is. I liked [the old format] because I felt like as a coach, there were always different scenarios and nuances that you were always having to prepare for and consider. But in the best-of-three, you take this one and now we have [one] game to win.”
Same for LAFC. Rather than taking a one-goal aggregate difference into Sunday’s game in Vancouver the teams will reset, leaving the Whitecaps needing just a win, by any score, to force a deciding third game.
“For us the best approach is always to try to win each game,” said LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo, who also dislikes the new format but has been careful in sharing that opinion.
MLS said the new format was designed to favor the higher-seeded team, making upsets more difficult. And in the first year it worked, with just one upset in the first round.
But Vanney has a good point about the different scenarios. If aggregate scoring still counted, the Rapids would have much to play for even after falling behind 3-0 early in the second half Saturday. Keep the scoreline close, add a late away goal, and Colorado would be a good position to advance.
Instead, the Rapids appeared to lose interest and never bothered to put a shot on target, knowing it didn’t matter what they did since the only thing that would carry over to Friday was the result. It’s as if MLS gave Colorado a mulligan and the way the game was played suffered as a result.
Dejan Joveljic and Riqui Puig each score twice as the Galaxy cruise to a lopsided 5-0 victory over Colorado to open the MLS Cup playoffs.
“It always had purpose and meaning in the game, no matter what,” Vanney said of aggregate scoring. “There’s always a scenario in which somebody is having to go after the game. Somebody is having to push the attack and you also have to defend because you can’t just concede a bunch of goals.
“Today as it gets to three, four, five [goals], they can think, ‘well, we have another game at home, and this doesn’t really matter anymore’.”
Another problem with the schedule is, well, the schedule. With the MLS playoffs intersected by a FIFA international break, any team that wins the first two games of its first-round series will get a three-week rest between the first and second rounds. While that may sound like a perk, it’s not; after playing a game — or more — nearly every week for eight months, a long break at this point can disrupt a team’s rhythm.
Consider the New England Revolution, which three years ago had the best regular-season record in the MLS modern era. Under a different playoff format that earned New England a first-round bye that was extended further by an international break and after being idled for three weeks, the Revolution were eliminated from the playoffs on penalty kicks in their first game.
For those who, like Vanney, are not fans of the current playoff format, history offers this consolation: just be patience because chances are it’s about to change.
⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.
