Major League Soccer Releases Dates For 2014 Playoffs

The dates for the 2014 MLS Cup Playoffs were revealed on Tuesday by Major League Soccer in a press release. The playoffs begin with the Wild-Card knockout matches to take place on October 29th and 30th and will finish with the MLS Cup Final to be held on Sunday, December 7th.

One of the biggest changes that Major League Soccer implemented was that they scheduled the break between the Conference Semifinals and Conference Championship series around the November international break. That means that the Conference Championship round will not begin until after the FIFA International Window between November 14th and 18th. Last season, MLS rushed in the 1st leg of the Conference Championship series before the November window leaving an awkward, at best, two week gap between the legs in the series.

The playoff format has not changed remaining with 10 teams (Five from each conference) qualifying for the post-season. The 4th and 5th placed team take part in a one-off knockout match hosted by the 4th place club with the winner advancing into the Conference Semifinals to play against the regular season Conference Champion. Both the Conference Semifinals and Finals are two-legged series to take place in each stadium of the represented teams. The winner is decided by who scores more goals over the course of the two legs.

Another fun feature that Major League Soccer has added for this postseason is the away-goals rule. The away-goals rule is designed to encourage the teams that are playing away from home to attack rather than to sit back and defend. It also will drastically reduce the number of series that can go forward into extra time. Essentially the scoreline would need to be exact in both legs for extra time to occur after the second leg. For example, if Team A hosted Team B in the first leg of an aggregate series with the final result finishing 2-1 to Team A and then in the second leg Team B were to win 1-0, Team B would advance on the away goals rule despite the series finishing 2-2 on aggregate.

Here is a look at the dates for the 2014 MLS Cup Playoffs: