Major League Soccer has announced key times and dates for the upcoming MLS Cup playoffs and confirmed the previously settled matchups’ television options.
After a brief hiatus following the conclusion of the regular season, Eastern Conference and Western Conference wild-card matches will kick off on Thursday, Nov. 19.
The Eastern Conference takes center stage first when No. 8 seed Orlando City SC host No. 9 FC Cincinnati at Inter.co Stadium in Orlando at 7:30 p.m. ET (Apple TV).
Then, in the West, No. 8 seed Seattle Sounders FC will do battle with Real Salt Lake at 10 p.m. ET (Apple TV) at Lumen Field in Seattle.
The winners in those two games will advance to face the respective top seeds in each conference in a best-of-three series: Supporters’ Shield winners and No. 1 seed Nashville SC in the Eastern Conference and Vancouver Whitecaps FC in the Western Conference.
The other best-of-three first-round series in the Eastern Conference are: No. 2 Inter Miami CF vs. No. 7 Columbus Crew, No. 3 New England Revolution vs. No. 6 Philadelphia Union and No. 4 Chicago Fire FC vs. No. 5 Charlotte FC.
In the Western Conference, the other best-of-threes are: No. 2 FC Dallas vs. No. 7 Portland Timbers, No. 3 St. Louis City SC vs. No. 6 LAFC and No. 4 San Jose Earthquakes vs. No. 5 Houston Dynamo FC.
The MLS Cup final will air on Fox and Fox Deportes in the U.S. and on TSN and RDS in Canada. Additionally, the league announced that select playoff matches will air on FS1, Fox Deportes, TSN and RDS. All playoff matches will be available on Apple TV.
The full schedule for the best-of-three series will be announced later Sunday.
–Field Level Media
