Explaining the new MLS Cup playoff format

FC Cincinnati won its first playoff game of 2023 in convincing fashion and normally, that would mean the team advanced one step closer to the MLS Cup championship. In 2023, that's not the case and FCC is only halfway done with its job in the first round.

This year, the first round is a quirky best-of-three series that's proven difficult for some fans to follow along with. It's also been the subject of widespread criticism from fans and media outlets covering the league.

Here's a breakdown of the new playoff format, why it exists and how it's being viewed with the postseason underway.

FC Cincinnati needs four more wins this postseason

FC Cincinnati's win against the New York Red Bulls at TQL Stadium put FCC in the driver's seat for the new first round series in which both teams host a match, no ties can happen, and the aggregate score doesn't decide the winner.

The Red Bulls on Saturday host the second game at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey. Cincinnati can end the series and advance if it wins. If the match is tied after 90 minutes, it will go straight to penalty kicks to decide the winner and, if New York manages to even the series, FCC will host the decisive third game on Nov. 11 back at TQL Stadium.

If FCC can survive the first round, then it will advance to the single-elimination phase of the MLS Cup playoffs. the conference semifinals, finals and MLS Cup finale are all single-elimination.

FC Cincinnati needs four more win to claim MLS Cup via an additional victory in the first round and one in each of the rounds to follow.

Unfortunately, FC Cincinnati's comprehensive win Sunday doesn't count as a real achievement yet, and there's still work to do in the first round.

“Well, we don't deserve to go on (yet) because we've only won one and you need to win two," FC Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan said after Sunday's win. "That's been the approach for this first series. Yeah, there's been a lot of conversations around the format but everybody has to deal with the same format."

Why the change from single-elimination?

Perhaps MLS and its clubs were leaving too much money on the table with its concise, effective, single-elimination playoff tournament. It's widely believed part of the reason for changing the first round format and expanding the playoff field from seven to nine teams was commercially driven.

More first-round matches have created more content for broadcast rights holder Apple, which is nearing the end of its first full season in a 10-year deal to produce and carry MLS matches.

The league in the past has used home-and-away aggregate scoring to determine which team advances, and that's a more common construct in global soccer.

The baseball-style three-game set isn't new either. MLS used it during the 2002 playoffs and quickly jettisoned the format. But it's back and it's being criticized pretty widely.

"Last year’s playoffs, which ended with LAFC beating the Union on penalty kicks, was one of the most exciting postseason tournaments in league history. So why did MLS tinker with something that obviously wasn’t broken?," wrote Kevin Baxter of The Los Angeles Times in an opinion piece on the playoff format.

"There is no valid competitive reason for Major League Soccer’s latest postseason setup – one of far too many in the league’s 28-year history – to have a best-of-three first round and single games the rest of the way," The Philadelphia Inquirer's Jonathan Tannenwald wrote in his own opinion piece on the subject. "The real reasons for the invention are commercial, and the league has barely hidden from them."

How do FC Cincinnati players feel about the best-of-three series?

Win or lose, the playoff format was going to a topic of conversation in FC Cincinnati's open locker room after Sunday's match. That the club prevailed in the contest made it easier for all involved to tackle the subject. Regardless of how they felt about it, FCC's players knew they had the upper hand in the playoff series.

Mostly, they were in lock-step with the sentiments expressed by Noonan but they also conceded to the unfamiliar nature of the new playoff format.

"It's the first game of the playoffs so we wanted to start strong but it was definitely a different feeling than some of the (single-elimination) games, for sure," FC Cincinnati center back Matt Miazga said.

FC Cincinnati captain Luciano Acosta, who essentially no-commented when asked about the playoff format during a Friday news conference, said he and teammate Junior Moreno were discussing the format ahead of Sunday's contest.

"It doesn't give the biggest advantage to the team that won the Supporters' Shield but these are the rules," Acosta said. "We respect the rules and I think we've shown all season we're prepared for anything, so we were prepared for this game."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: MLS Cup Playoffs format explained