Report: MLS Expanding Playoffs to 18 Teams for 2023 Season; Best-of-3 in 1st Round

Major League Soccer has "finalized" an expanded playoff format for the upcoming season featuring 18 of the league's 29 teams, according to Pablo Maurer and Jeff Rueter of The Athletic.

The MLS Cup Playoffs will feature nine teams in each conference, with the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds battling in a single "wild-card" match. The eight remaining squads will then match up in a series of best-of-three competitions—No. 1 vs. No. 8/9, No. 2 vs. No. 7, No. 3 vs. No. 6 and No. 4 vs. No. 5—with the first to two wins advancing to the conference semifinals.

The remaining three rounds will all be settled by single matches. None of the games can end in a draw.

The reported changes come less than a week before the 2023 season begins on Saturday.

Inter Miami coach Phil Neville, who spent his playing career in the English Premier League, recently complained about the lack of information.

"We're six days, seven days out from the first game of the season, we don't know the playoff format," Neville said, via The Athletic. "I think that's poor. When you're talking about professionalism, and 'elite,' I think when you're seven days out from the start of the season—we've had talks here, and one of our players asked one of the MLS guys the other day 'what's the playoff system' and they were like, 'We don't know.' And I'm like, 'That's not elite.'"

Last season, seven teams earned playoff spots from each conference, with the No. 1 seeds earning a first-round bye. Each round was single-elimination, with LAFC eventually beating the Philadelphia Union in the final.

This year's version greatly increases the number of playoff matches, coinciding with the league's new broadcast partnership with AppleTV.

There could be as many as 21 playoff games in the new system, up from 13 last year, with 16 different teams guaranteed a chance to host at least one match.

From a competitive standpoint, the best-of-three series could reduce the chances of an upset. While the two best teams from 2022 met in the MLS Cup Final, the 2021 playoffs featured numerous surprises as New York City FC took home the championship.