It is overdue. It doesn't make sense, either. Sure, the argument is that 1 and 2 seeds don't often make appearances together in the AFC, NFC championship games, but this is not the point.
There's nothing wrong with having 1 and 2 seeds play a first round game.

The playoffs and MLS Cup final are being completely revamped in 2012.

Instead of rotating the MLS Cup between different cities, starting in 2012, the MLS Cup final will be played at the home venue of the participating team with a higher regular-season point total. No more neutral fields, which is something that the MLS has done since 1996.

Photo: Courtesy MLS Soccer

MLS

LA Galaxy defeated Houston Dynamo 1–0 to win the MLS Cup. Landon Donovan scored the lone goal and was named MVP. Player ratings are here.

All teams must submit their protected list to the league for Tuesday's Expansion Draft by 5pm today.

The league made two big announcements on Sunday, one concerning the shift to a conference-based schedule, the about changes to the playoff format aimed a rewarding those teams with better regular season records.

As expected the Supporters' Shield winner will host MLS Cup, a welcome and long overdue change.

But the top five in each conference - Montreal joins the now 10-team Eastern Conference while the nine-team Western Conference remains the same - will now qualify for the playoffs. The fourth and fifth place teams will play a single game to determine who advances to play the conference champion in the two-game aggregate score semifinals, while the second and third place teams faceoff in the other semi.

Since the league's inception, Major League Soccer has been trying to find the right playoff format, right meaning one that gave some meaning to the regular season while creating increased fan interest during the post-season. The latest iteration came yesterday, when the MLS Board of Governors approved four major changes in the league playoff format: Top five teams in each conference, no wild-card slots.

MLS has come out today with the schedule and playoff format for the 2012 season, and already the Twitterverse has blown up about it. As expected, gone is the balanced schedule of playing each team home and away. Back is the conference heavy schedule designed to cut down on travel for most teams (save Houston who is still separated from Dallas and will now play their closest rival only once next year).

MLS Commissioner Don Garber confirmed on Thursday that the league would, in fact, go to an unbalanced, 34-game schedule in 2012.
SB Nation Soccer had first reported this likelihood back in September when teams first started to release season-ticket packages and multiple league officials anonymously confirmed that an unbalanced schedule was the plan.

Commissioner Don Garber gave his annual State of the League address via teleconference Thursday afternoon. Several of his comments are receiving media attention, like an imbalanced schedule and potential changes to the playoff format for 2012. Such alterations can easily be modified, though, year-to-year, if and as fans and critics voice their disapproval.

There's only one big game left on the domestic calendar and two friendlies scheduled on the international front as we head towards winter. This month''s State of the States focuses on the MLS playoffs, the dampening of Klinsmania, and the coming expansion of the US top flight.

MLS Playoffs - The final is set.

Red Bulls Fans May Have a Euro 2012 Rooting Interest After AllThe 2011 MLS Cup final participants are now set following yesterday's conference finals, and for the first time in a number of years none of the lowest playoff seeds made it through to the championship. Whether that's the result of a slightly more equitable playoff format that punished poor regular season performance is anyone's guess.

Today's conference finals see a battered Real Salt Lake team visit the unbeaten at home Los Angeles Galaxy while the stalwart Houston Dynamo will have to see off the dynamic attack of Sporting Kansas City at Livestrong Park. In each of the last two years the winner of the MLS Cup has been the lowest ranked team in the playoffs.

Like John Shaft, Sporting Kansas City president Robb Heineman is a complicated man and no one understands him but his woman. That actually might not be true because I actually have no idea if he has a missus or not.
That's pretty much the only thing he doesn't talk about in this wide-ranging interview with Andrew Wiebe that touches on everything from officiating to jersey sponsors to playoff format.

Winning Wednesday night seems such a distant chance. In MLS current, yet short, playoff format only 8 times has a team scored three goals or more in an MLS Playoff game. Only twice have teams come from behind two goals down in a two leg aggregate goals series. The last time that happened was 2004.

There's no good way of putting this: The Seattle Sounders are in a ridiculously deep hole right now. How deep? Since Major League Soccer went to its current playoff format in 2003, no team has ever trailed by three goals and only seven teams have trailed by two after the first leg. Heck, only eight teams have ever trailed by three goals at any point in the entire two-legged conference semifinals.

Just a quick note:

The University of South Florida is actually in Central Florida. A Canadian team once won back-to-back American League championships. Duke basketball has played in the NCAA's West Region five times and its Midwest Region four times. Neither the New York Giants nor New York Jets play in New York, and the Dallas Cowboys play in Arlington.

In "the other wild card" game, two offensive lineman type soccer clubs come together, again.

Reigning champs Colorado have swept the flakes off their pitch to host Abercrombie FC, the Crew(necks.)

Kimura (left), if you didn't know, is Japanese....ironically...

First, some odds:

• 25 to 1: Will Hesmer scores or gets an assist

• 30 to 1: Marvell Wynne, own goal.

In Major League Soccer's odd playoff format this is the only two leg series (tie, whatever). In order to grant the higher seed an actual advantage it hosts the second leg and a potential for overtime on its own soil. Overtime is reached if the scoreline over the two matches in the series are tied with no regard away goals.

Dane Richards will have to step up tonight for New York. (Getty Images)

And so it begins, the 2011 MLS Cup Playoffs kick off tonight with the league's first wild card game between FC Dallas and the New York Red Bulls.

With the new playoff format teams, players, media folks, fans, everyone really has no clue what the wild card round will really bring.

Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to rumble? After 34 weeks of ups, down, shots, goals, and more Adrian Healey than most can handle, we have finally arrived at the promised land of American soccer: the 2011 MLS Cup Playoffs.

This year will, as I'm sure you know, be different from those past.

Photo by Earl Gardner

Union

The Uwishunu photo of the day: A collage from the Union's Toronto tie that put the home team into the playoffs!

The Union reserves fell 3-1 to the TFC reserves. Pfeffer netted for the good guys.

Veljko Paunovic is having an MRI on his hamstring today.

Kasey Keller will have 60k+ fans on hand to see his final home game. (Getty Images)

The all important second-to-last week in the regular season for Major League Soccer. Six playoff spots are still up for grabs and a few clubs could clinch those berths this weekend. MLS is getting exactly what they wanted with this new playoff format, excitement down to the very last week.

Gotta love how he dances around the issues with the new playoff format. Again Don, it isn't the amount of teams it is the format itself. It just isn't good enough. The new format makes it competitive for many teams, sure, but does it make for a better MLS Cup at the end when the best two clubs aren't playing one another?

By FRANCO PANIZO

HARRISON, N.J. -- MLS Commissioner Don Garber held an informal press conference at halftime of the U.S. men's national team friendly with Ecuador Tuesday night, and he discussed a bevy of topics, including MLS scheduling and expansion.

The first thing Garber touched on were the comments made recently by U.

Photo by Wendy Larsen/ISIphotos.com

By THOMAS FLOYD

While the Texas derby between FC Dallas and the Houston Dynamo is an intense affair in its own right, the playoff implications surrounding Saturday's showdown have added a little more spice to the rivalry.

The question I wrestled with in my head last night was this: if there were no playoffs or a playoffs with just four teams instead of 10, would this weekend be as exciting? Regardless of how you feel about the ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

Now in its 16th season, Major League Soccer is continuing to show growth and stability as a major American sports league. The current season features two new teams (Portland Timbers and Vancouver FC), a revamped playoff format, and more sponsorship dollars coming in than ever before. Last week, Visa extended its partnership with the league, and will continue to have exclusive promotional rights at events like the MLS All-Star Game and MLS Cup.

We are exactly three-quarters through the MLS season. Forget adding, subtracting and dividing the number of games your favorite side has played; it's good enough to know that Week 24 just passed in a 32-week season.

So, let the gloriously mean season of meaningful table watching and scoreboard tracking officially begin!

On the latest edition of the Major League Soccer Talk Podcast : This Week in US Soccer ... your hosts Chris Webb and Chris Riordan bring you a view of the beautiful game from an American and regional perspective. As always of late, it's another jam - packed show ... after running through a relatively quiet week of News, Chris and Chris devote top billing to MLS' perfect run in Matchday 1 of the CONCACAF Champions League Group Stage, including FC Dallas's record setting first MLS club victory in Mexico.

Guest Contributor Dillon Young
This Week in American Soccer History: August 1978
This week in 1978 the Minnesota Kicks, one of the divisional champions of the NASL took on the defending NASL Champions the New York Cosmos in a home-and-home playoff series. The Kicks, who had never previously beaten the Cosmos, furiously began the series opener with forward Charlie George crashing into Cosmos goalie Erol Yasin and scoring in the first minute.

Toronto FC has endured a rough season under new head coach Aron Winter, but the last-place team in the Eastern Conference still has playoff aspirations and took a step toward trying to realize those dreams with a pair of major signings.

TFC announced the signings of German midfielder Torsten Frings and Dutch striker Danny Koevermans today, making the pair the second and third Designated Players on Toronto's roster, along with Julian deGuzman.

KYW's Greg Orlandini and the PSP's Dan Walsh are talking Union, the Gold Cup and about the controversial expulsion of New England supporters in this week's edition of the Philly Soccer Show.

In part one, Greg and Dan look at the loss in Vancouver and preview the games against Kansas City and Chivas USA.

Morelia and Pumas will play the first leg of the Mexican Clausura 2011 season tonight, with the return leg scheduled for Mexico City on Sunday. It will be the end of an era as this is the last time the league will decide its champion with a final series preceded by quarterfinals and semifinals.
For the Apertura 2011 season, slated to kick off sometime in August, the Mexican league has changed its playoff format.

The United Soccer Leagues announced on Monday a merger between the United Soccer Leagues (USL) and the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL). The announcement states that the USL will run the MISL for the 2011-2012 season.

The League will be led by Chris Economides, senior director of USL's professional leagues.

From the Missouri Comets.
United Soccer Leagues is pleased to announce it has entered into an agreement with the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) and will operate North America's most storied and tradition-rich professional indoor soccer league beginning with the 2011-12 season.

The MISL represents the top level of professional indoor soccer in North America and currently consists of seven franchises for 2011-12, with additional announcements expected in the coming weeks.

Real Salt Lake have had to slay a number of demons that have plagued Major League Soccer teams in the CONCACAF club competitions. First, they have had to navigate a home-and-away group stage against teams in three countries (albeit one of them was a fellow MLS side) and finish top of their group. Next, they had to master the subtleties of the two-leg playoff format.

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

For the second straight year, Manchester United will serve as the international opponent in the Major League All-Star Game, MLS announced on Monday morning.

The 2011 MLS All-Star Game is scheduled for July 27th at Red Bull Arena, with Manchester United serving as the headliner in a game that is guaranteed to be a sellout.

Vein of Form will not be negative about our 2011 MLS season forecast. While we fully expect there to be slow build ups from the back, shoddy passing, periods of the match where it looks like no one wants to be out there and a ridiculous playoff format there is plenty to be excited about!
Friday Night Football.

Greetings Sanforders. The new season is here, complete with spotty TV coverage, weeks long gaps in the schedule, some new teams, an even dumber playoff format and a bunch of new import stars. The KC Wizz changed their name to try to banish memories of their sole championship and Fat Tony Meola, Toronto ripped it all up and started over for the third time in 3 years, Jewel of MLS and NJ Soft Drink once again cornered the market on dumb rumors and condescending BS from management.

Amanda hosts this week's show, joined by Shana and Rachna. They start things off with a look at the U17 MNT and their just-concluded CONCACAF tournament, wondering why the Baby Nats saved all their goals until extra time. From there, they move on to the WNT and the confusing new MLS playoff format.

Davis and DuBois, talking Dragnet, the Donner Party, MLS playoff format, La Guerra Fria, CONCACAF Champions League drudgery, Garber's interview with AOL Fanhouse, Donovan backing Beckham, Mo Edu repping for Scotland, Baby Bradley not playing, the anticipation for I AM PLAYR, and MLS fantasy. CSRN MEDIA PLAYER