Major League Soccer gave its playoff structure a radical overhaul this year hoping to propel its best teams into the annual MLS Cup final. But heading into Sunday’s 2019 championship, the outcome of the big change is more of the same.

Seattle Sounders FC, the No. 2 seed in the MLS Western Conference, will host Toronto FC, the No. 4 team from the Eastern Conference. The two No. 1 seeds, New York City FC and Los Angeles Football Club, have been sent home–a common outcome in years past the league was trying to fix with its revamp.

MLS made the change last winter to fix what critics perceived as a broken playoff system that did not confer home-field advantage to the higher seeded team. It dumped the European model of playoff rounds that consist of two matches, home and away, decided by aggregate score. In its place is a straight single-elimination bracket, which also had the effect of shortening the season by over a month because there are half as many playoff games.

MLS said the truncated season would allow teams to capitalize on the warmer October weather and avoid a scheduling conflict with the upcoming 2022 World Cup, which begins on Nov. 21 of that year in Qatar.

Under the previous format, playoff teams spent the months of October, November and December criss-crossing the country. Players complained that the travel was exhausting and unnecessary, as it hurt teams that compiled the best records in the regular season as much as teams that barely sneaked into the playoffs. This year, only underdogs hit the road.


“I think it puts more pressure on teams, not just to make it to the playoffs, but to finish as high as you can, because it will help you in a playoff run if you get to play some home games,” said Real Salt Lake midfielder Albert Rusnak. “Home and away…is a lot tougher to play and go through than if you just have a home game.”

For playoff games between 2003, the first year MLS adopted the European format, and 2018, the higher-seeded team advanced out of the conference semifinal round 58% of the time, according to Stats LLC. The conference finals brought more volatility, with higher-seeded teams winning just 36% of matchups.

Teams still had an incentive to finish the regular season with the best record, thus earning the top playoff seed and its accompanying first-round bye. But the second seed proved little better than the seventh. Upon realizing this, coaches became less hellbent on amassing wins in the regular season and the dynamic of the league changed.

“Traditionally the regular season, it lacked a little oomph going into the end of the year,” said Taylor Twellman, a former MLS All Star who now calls games on ESPN. “But now when you have one-off playoff games you have a real urgency to win games and host the playoff games.”

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The results from the first two rounds of the playoffs make it clear that playing in front of friendly fans does matter: home teams won eight out of the 12 playoff games contested so far. No. 4 Minnesota United FC lost 2-1 to the fifth-ranked Los Angeles Galaxy in the first round. In the Eastern Conference Semifinals, No. 4 Toronto FC beat top-seeded New York City FC 2-1.


Coincidentally, the City loss did not occur on home turf at Yankee Stadium. Instead, a playoff run by the stadium’s namesake baseball team moved the soccer game to Citi Field 10 miles away. A spokesperson for NYCFC said the team supports the playoff structure and saw playing at Citi Field as akin to receiving home-field advantage.

Things were going smoothly until the semifinals, when both lower seeded teams pulled off wins. Toronto defeated No. 2 seed Atlanta United 2-1 and the No. 2 Seattle Sounders FC toppled the top seeded Los Angeles FC 3-1.

Had those semifinal games gone the other way, MLS’s new playoff format would have produced just the 8th MLS Cup in 17 years to feature a top seed. The last time the league championship was played between two No. 1 seeded teams was 2003, its first year of existence.

This year’s championship is familiar for another reason, too: It’s the third time in four years that Toronto and Seattle have faced off with the MLS Cup on the line.