Wild card battles and individual pursuits in the MLS postseason
Chicago Fire FC and Orlando City battle for a spot in the Round One Best-of-3 Series while Cucho Hernández continues his scoring dominance and Emil Forsberg provides playmaking for the New York Red Bulls.
Eastern Conference wild-card matchups
Chicago Fire FC faces Orlando City in a single-elimination match to decide which team advances to the Round One Best-of-3 Series. The Chicago Fire finished the regular season with 48 points, while Orlando City ended with 41 points. The winner of this match will face the Philadelphia Union. If the score remains tied after 90 minutes of regulation, the match goes straight to a penalty kick shootout without extra time. This single-elimination format offers no room for error as the loser ends their playoff journey immediately. The current Eastern Conference standings show the Chicago Fire in 4th place and Orlando City in 7th place, but the wild-card seeding places them in this high-stakes clash. Does the Chicago Fire offense possess enough depth to overcome an Orlando side that finished with 58 goals? In the Western Conference, the 8th seed Portland Timbers face the 9th seed Real Salt Lake. The winner of the Portland match moves on to face the San Diego FC, which holds the No. 1 seed in the West. The 2026 MLS Cup takes place on December 6, and the team with the better regular-season record earns hosting rights. The Round One Best-of-3 matches run from October 24 to November 9.
Hernandez and Forsberg impact
Cucho Hernandez remains a dominant force in professional football after his $16 million transfer from the Columbus Crew to Real Betis. During the 2025-26 season, Hernandez scored 11 goals in La Liga and 15 goals in all competitions. He previously tallied 44 goals and 26 assists during his three seasons with the Crew. Before joining MLS, the Colombian international played for Watford F.C., where he scored five goals in the 2021-2022 season. He also played for Spanish sides Getafe CF and RCD Mallorca. He once scored a hat-trick against Chicago Fire FC in just 22 minutes and 51 seconds. He also recorded a hat-trick away at CF Montreal. He was the leading scorer of Colombia’s Second Division in 2016. He scored 16 goals and provided 11 assists during the 2023 regular season. In the 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs, he scored five goals in six matches. He earned MLS Cup MVP honors after scoring the opening goal in the 33rd minute of the 2-1 final victory against Los Angeles Football Club. The New York Red Bulls also look to veteran leadership as Emil Forsberg captains the squad. The Red Bulls sit in 9th place in the Eastern Conference with 36 points. Forsberg provides the playmaking stability the team needs to improve its standing.
Playoff structure and tiebreaker rules
The 2026 MLS Cup Playoffs include an 18-team field where the top seven seeds from each conference bypass the wild-card round. Round One uses a best-of-3 series where the higher seed hosts games one and three, while the lower seed hosts game two. No aggregate score exists in these series, meaning the first team to win two matches advances. Each individual match must produce a winner through regulation or a penalty shootout. The competition follows these rules because the format requires a clear winner for every fixture. The 2026 season playoffs run from November 18 to December 18. Regarding the Leagues Cup, the tournament involves 36 clubs, including 18 MLS teams and 18 LIGA MX sides. Phase One matches consist of games between MLS and LIGA MX sides. The tournament uses a league-specific table where a regulation win earns three points and a penalty shootout win earns two points. In the 2026 FIFA World Cup, officials implemented a tiebreaker system that prioritizes head-to-head results over goal difference, a change which Miguel Delaney says removes the possibility of late-game excitement. The tournament contains 62 matches and runs from July 29 to August 31.
