2012 MLS Cup playoffs

Main article: 2012 Major League Soccer season

2012 MLS Cup Playoffs

Tournament details
Country	United States Canada
Teams	10
Defending champions	Los Angeles Galaxy

The 2012 MLS Cup Playoffs will be the seventeenth post-season tournament culminating the Major League Soccer regular season. The tournament will begin in early November 2012 and will culminate on December 1, 2012 with MLS Cup 2012, the seventeenth league championship for MLS. It will be the second year that the playoffs will include ten teams, and the first playoff series since 2006 in which teams cannot cross conference brackets. The top five teams in both the Eastern and Western conferences of the league will earn berths, with the top three clubs in each conference earning direct byes to the conference semifinals. The fourth and fifth-place finishers of both conferences will compete in a single-elimination play-in match.

The play-in winner will play their respective conference regular season champion in the conference semifinals, which will be a two-leg aggregate series, without the away goals rule enforced. For the first time in MLS Cup Playoffs history, each Conference Championship, or semifinal round in the general scheme of the tournament, will also be a two-leg aggregate series, as opposed to the traditional single eliminated leg. The MLS Cup championship will still remain a single match, but the team with the stronger regular season record will host the final at their home venue.

Los Angeles Galaxy are the defending champions, who beat Houston Dynamo 1–0 in last year's championship.

Both finalists will directly enter the 2013–14 CONCACAF Champions League, with the champion earning a Pot A seed. They will be joined by the Supporters' Shield winner and the 2012 U.S. Open Cup champion. However, none of these berths are available to the league's three Canadian teams, which instead participate in the Canadian Championship for that country's single berth in the CONCACAF Champions League.

Format

For 2012, the league's previous system of "wild card" qualification—which had the potential for "crossover" series in which one team could play in the other conference's bracket—was scrapped. Instead, the top five teams in each conference will qualify for the playoffs and the two conference brackets are entirely separate. The First Round of each conference is a one-off match between the 4th and 5th place teams, similar to the previous wild card system, with the 4th-place team hosting. The First Round winner advances to play the conference's top seed in the Conference Semifinals.

Conference Semifinals and Conference Championship series are conducted in a home-and-away aggregate-goal format. The lower-seeded team in the Conference Semifinal hosts the first game, and the higher seed hosts the second. If the teams are tied after two games, a 30-minute extra time period (divided into two 15-minute periods) will be played followed by a shootout, if necessary. Neither the away goals rule or golden goal is used in any MLS playoff format.

In the case of ties in the First Round and MLS Cup, extra time and penalty kicks are used in the same manner as above.

Qualification

Eastern Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sporting Kansas City	34	18	7	9	42	27	+15	63	MLS Cup Conference Semifinals
2	D.C. United	34	17	10	7	53	43	+10	58
3	New York Red Bulls	34	16	9	9	57	46	+11	57
4	Chicago Fire	34	17	11	6	46	41	+5	57	MLS Cup Knockout Round
5	Houston Dynamo	34	14	9	11	48	41	+7	53
6	Columbus Crew	34	15	12	7	44	44	0	52
7	Montreal Impact	34	12	16	6	45	51	−6	42
8	Philadelphia Union	34	10	18	6	37	45	−8	36
9	New England Revolution	34	9	17	8	39	44	−5	35
10	Toronto FC	34	5	21	8	36	62	−26	23

Source: MLS

Western Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	San Jose Earthquakes	34	19	6	9	72	43	+29	66	MLS Cup Conference Semifinals
2	Real Salt Lake	34	17	11	6	46	35	+11	57
3	Seattle Sounders FC	34	15	8	11	51	33	+18	56
4	LA Galaxy	34	16	12	6	59	47	+12	54	MLS Cup Knockout Round
5	Vancouver Whitecaps FC	34	11	13	10	35	41	−6	43
6	FC Dallas	34	9	13	12	42	47	−5	39
7	Colorado Rapids	34	11	19	4	44	50	−6	37
8	Portland Timbers	34	8	16	10	34	56	−22	34
9	Chivas USA	34	7	18	9	24	58	−34	30

Source: MLS

Schedule

Major League Soccer released the schedule for its playoffs on August 8, 2012.

• First Round: October 31 or November 1, 2012 (higher seeded team hosts)
• Conference Semifinals
  • First leg: November 3 or 4, 2012 (lower seeded team hosts)
  • Second leg: November 7 or 8, 2012 (higher seeded team hosts)
• Conference Finals
  • First leg: November 10 or 11, 2012 (lower seeded team hosts)
  • Second leg: November 17 or 18, 2012 (higher seeded team hosts)
• MLS Cup 2012: December 1, 2012 (higher seeded team hosts)

See also

• 2012 in American soccer
• 2012 Major League Soccer season
• 2012 U.S. Open Cup

External links

• Major League Soccer: MLS Cup Playoffs