With a pair of final whistles, MLS’s playoff field is down from 18 teams to 16, and the complete knockout bracket for the road to the 2025 MLS Cup is set.
The Chicago Fire and Portland Timbers secured their places in the playoff field proper with wild-card wins at home Wednesday night, setting up matchups against their conferences’ respective top seeds, the Philadelphia Union and San Diego FC. Chicago won in its return to the postseason for the first time since 2017 – and advanced for the first time since reaching the Eastern Conference final in 2009 – by virtue of a decisive 3-1 win over Orlando City. Portland, meanwhile, overcame slipping into the wild-card round with a heavy defeat in the regular-season finale and bounced back with a 3-1 win of its own that ended Real Salt Lake’s season.
In the MLS playoffs under the current format, after the wild card games comes a first round that is a best-of-three series, with the better team from the regular season having home-field advantage. The first team to win two games (either in regulation or penalties; there are no draws) will go through to the conference semifinals, and if there’s a need for a third game, it will be hosted by the team with the better seed. Aggregate score is not a factor.
From there, it’s a single-elimination battle to the end, and the finalist with the best regular-season record earns the right to host MLS Cup.
The playoffs will go through to the final on Dec. 6 – a day after the 2026 World Cup draw – and the first round begins Friday night with a standalone match between Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami and Sam Surridge’s Nashville SC. The two sides just played on MLS Decision Day, with Messi ensuring the league’s Golden Boot would be his with a hat trick. He scored five of his 29 MLS goals against Nashville this season. Two other first-round matchups, San Diego-Portland and Vancouver-Dallas, are also Decision Day rematches.
Here’s what the road to MLS Cup will look like for those six clubs and all the remaining contenders:
And with the field complete, here’s the full MLS Cup playoff schedule:
First round (best of three): Oct. 24-Nov. 9
Game One
Oct. 24, 8 p.m. ET: Inter Miami vs. Nashville SC
Oct. 26, 5:30 p.m. ET: Philadelphia Union vs. Chicago Fire
Oct. 26, 7:30 p.m. ET: Vancouver Whitecaps vs. FC Dallas
Oct. 26, 9:30 p.m. ET: San Diego FC vs. Portland Timbers
Oct. 27, 6:45 p.m. ET: FC Cincinnati vs Columbus Crew
Oct. 27, 9 p.m. ET: Minnesota United vs. Seattle Sounders
Oct. 28, 6:45 p.m. ET: Charlotte FC vs. New York City FC
Oct. 29, 10:30 p.m. ET: LAFC vs. Austin FC
Game Two
Nov. 1, 3:30 p.m. ET: New York City FC vs. Charlotte FC
Nov. 1, 5:30 p.m. ET: Chicago Fire vs. Philadelphia Union
Nov. 1, 7:30 p.m. ET: Nashville SC vs. Inter Miami
Nov. 1, 9:30 p.m. ET: FC Dallas vs. Vancouver Whitecaps
Nov. 1, 9:30 p.m. ET: Portland Timbers vs. San Diego FC
Nov. 2, 6:30 p.m. ET: Columbus Crew vs. FC Cincinnati
Nov. 2, 8:30 p.m. ET: Austin FC vs. LAFC
Nov. 3, 10:30 p.m. ET: Seattle Sounders vs. Minnesota United
Game Three (if necessary)
Nov. 7, TBD: Charlotte FC vs. New York City FC
Nov. 7, TBD: Vancouver Whitecaps vs. FC Dallas
Nov. 8, TBD: Philadelphia Union vs. Chicago Fire
Nov. 8, TBD: FC Cincinnati vs. Columbus Crew
Nov. 8, TBD: Inter Miami vs. Nashville SC
Nov. 8, TBD: LAFC vs. Austin FC
Nov. 8, TBD: Minnesota United vs. Seattle Sounders
Nov. 9, TBD: San Diego vs. Portland Timbers
Conference semifinals (one match): Nov. 22-23
Conference finals (one match): Nov. 29-30
MLS Cup: Dec. 6, 2:30 p.m. ET
