With the Portland Timbers and San Jose Earthquakes dropping points on Wednesday evening, the Seattle Sounders have qualified for the MLS Cup Playoffs for an 11th consecutive season.
The 11 playoff berths in a row sets a new league record for successive appearances in the playoffs, surpassing the L.A. Galaxy’s ten-year run from 1996-2005.
Under the new playoff format, the Western and Eastern Conferences will each compete in a fixed-bracket, single-elimination format with the higher seed hosting every match.
There will be no reseeding, so if the No. 7 seed upsets the No. 2 seed, they'll still play the winner of No. 3 vs. No. 6 irrespective of the other results.
The playoffs will wrap up earlier than in previous years, with the entirety of the bracket being played between the October and November FIFA international breaks. In 2019, following Decision Day on Oct. 6, the first playoff matches will be played on Oct. 19 with MLS Cup taking place on Nov. 10.
While Seattle’s participation in the postseason is sealed, the team’s overall seeding is not. The team will travel to San Jose this weekend for a Western Conference clash against the Earthquakes on Sunday (4:30 p.m. PT; JOEtv, YouTube TV, Univision-Seattle, 1090 KJR AM, El Rey 1360 AM).
The Rave Green then wrap up the 2019 campaign with a home match against Minnesota United on October 6 (1:00 p.m. PT; JOEtv, YouTube TV, Univision-Seattle, 950 KJR AM, El Rey 1360 AM | TICKETS).
