Only eight teams remain in the Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs. After this Sunday, we'll be down to the final four.
The remaining MLS Cup contenders will play Leg 2 of their Conference Semifinal series on Sunday, with the four series winners advancing to the Conference Championship series to be played later this month. The 2016 season will culminate at MLS Cup on Dec. 10, when one team will lift the Phillip F. Anschutz Trophy in front of a backdrop of confetti and fireworks.
While the Knockout Rounds were straightforward – winners moved on and losers went home – the Conference Semis and Conference Championships are decided over two-leg, aggregate-goal series. Here's how they work:
Conference Semis
When the playoff field has been trimmed to eight teams, four per conference, the two Knockout Round winners are paired with the top two teams in the conference that enjoyed the Knockout Round bye based on regular-season performance.
The lowest remaining seed in each conference plays the No. 1 seed in the same conference, while the No. 2 seed takes on the remaining Knockout Round survivor in home-and-home Conference Semifinal matches set for Sunday, Oct. 30 and Sunday, Nov. 6.
This year, the East No. 5 seed Montreal Impact moved on to face the East's No. 1 seed New York Red Bulls and East No. 3 Toronto FC face No. 2 New York City FC. Meanwhile, in the West it's No. 1 FC Dallas against No. 4 Seattle Sounders and No. 2 Colorado Rapids taking on No. 3 LA Galaxy.
The lower seeds hosted the first leg last weekend, with all four underdogs earning victories at home. In the East, Montreal topped New York 1-0 at Stade Saputo and Toronto beat NYCFC 2-0 at BMO Field. Things played out similarly out West, where LA beat Colorado 1-0 at StubHub Center and Seattle smashed Dallas 3-0 at CenturyLink Field.
All four series will return to the higher seed, who earned their advantage based on regular season point total, for Sunday's second legs. Why is hosting the second leg an advantage? If the series is tied after that second match and extra time or a penalty-kick shootout is necessary to determine a winner (see below), those tiebreakers will unfold on the higher seed's home field.
Aggregate-Goal Format
The title of the format used for the Conference Semis and Conference Championships sounds more complicated than it actually is: Basically, the team with the most total goals over two legs advances.
However, if the teams score an equal number of goals over the course of both matches, the first tiebreaker is away goals: The team with the most road goals in the series advances to the Conference Championship.
If at the end of the 180 minutes the teams are tied on both total goals and away goals, the teams will play two 15-minute extra time periods in which away goals DO NOT count. If that's not sufficient to break the tie, a penalty-kick shootout will be used to determine a winner.
MLS Cup - December 10
The two teams left standing after the Conference Championships face each other in MLS Cup – a winner-take-all final on Saturday, Dec. 10 at 8 pm ET on FOX, UniMás, TSN, and RDS networks.
Hosted by the team with the most regular season points, MLS Cup will go to extra time and, if necessary, a penalty-kick shootout to break any tie in regulation. The away goals tiebreaker used in the two-leg series does NOT apply.
And with that, the curtain will close on the 2016 season, roughly nine months to the day that it kicked off.
