After a 4-1 victory over the Colorado Rapids in their final match of the 2015 MLS regular season, the Portland Timbers advanced to the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs with 53 points and a third place finish in the Western Conference.
The Timbers will play host to Sporting Kansas City at Providence Park on Thursday (7:00pm PT, ROOT SPORTS) in a one game play-in match, the winner of which will face either FC Dallas or Vancouver Whitecaps FC in the second round.
Before the match against Sporting, Timbers.com presents a look at how the playoff format has changed and a guide to this year's postseason matchups.
Ahead of the 2015 regular season and as part of its expansion to 20 teams, Major League Soccer changed its playoff format for the second time in as many years.
The biggest change is an expansion of the pool of playoff teams. This year, MLS has expanded the number of participating teams to 12 – six from each conference – and tweaked the play-in format that it had used in both the 2013 and 2014 MLS Cup playoffs.
The knockout round will open with four single-elimination matches. The third and sixth seeds will face one another, while the fourth- and fifth-seeded teams will also meet. Each of those matches will be hosted by the higher seed.
In the Western Conference, the Timbers will host Sporting Kansas City while Seattle Sounders FC will host the LA Galaxy. Meanwhile, in the Eastern Conference the Montreal Impact will host Toronto FC and D.C. United will host the New England Revolution.
The top two seeds in each conference will earn a first-round bye.
The winners of each knockout game will advance to play one of the top two seeds in their conference in a two-leg, home-and-away series.
Out west, the first round winners will face either FC Dallas or Whitecaps FC. The Eastern Conference play-in winners will face either the New York Red Bulls or Columbus Crew SC.
As in last year's playoffs, away goals remain the primary tie-breaker in 2015.
For example, in the 2014 Western Conference Final, the LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders scored two goals apiece, but the Galaxy notched a crucial goal on the road in the second leg of the series to knock out the Sounders and advance to the MLS Cup under the new tie-breaker.
Full match and ticketing information to follow.
