Major League Soccer is expanding the playoffs to 14 teams in 2019, which means the Philadelphia Union can finish worse in the standings than they did in 2018 and still make the playoffs.
The addition of two playoff teams isn’t the only change to the playoff structure announced by the league on Monday afternoon.
Only one team per conference will be given a first-round bye and all rounds of the playoffs will be single game elimination. The bracket will also be set regardless of results in each round (higher seed teams will still host each game).