It’s a fact of MLS life that the playoffs often don’t reflect much of what happened in the regular season. Across the past 10 years, for example, just two first-place conference finishers have advanced to the MLS Cup final—that’s two out of 20 possible berths. More five seeds have contested the championship during that span than one seeds.
The playoffs are their own, unique animal, disconnected from the bulk of the MLS regular season narrative. Often that’s bewildering. This year, however, it would be a blessing. Because the challenges and relative chaos that burdened the 2020 regular season, from the pandemic pause to the postponements, cancellation and skin-of-their-teeth scheduling this fall, would wreak havoc on the road to MLS Cup.