However your club may have fared on the pitch, Decision Day remains undefeated.
The 2026 MLS regular season ended with a bang on Saturday, with twists and turns right down to the final minutes in both the Eastern and Western Conference.
Out West, three teams stepped up to grab their places in the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs, while three others tasted bitter disappointment as their chances slipped away.
The Eastern Conference’s drama centered on seeding, with some late surprises benefiting arguably the hottest team in the league, and others raising troubling questions, even for world-renowned icons.
Now everyone can catch their breath as the November FIFA international window unfolds. Pulses then get racing again in less than two weeks, when the Wild Card round kicks off MLS’s most exciting month, culminating in the 2026 MLS Cup presented by Audi final on Dec. 18.
Let’s dive into how Decision Day unfolded and where it leads us next.
⚽ 🏆 Think You’ve Got the Winning Bracket?!
The Audi 2026 MLS Cup Playoffs Bracket Challenge is now open. Make your picks, build your bracket, and compete for your chance to win.
RSL in, Galaxy out
The day’s six-pointer of all six-pointers unfolded in Sandy, Utah, where Real Salt Lake and the LA Galaxy faced off, both essentially needing a win to book their playoff spot.
Alas, the Galaxy didn’t show up early, falling behind 2-0 before 15 minutes had elapsed and never really grasping the magnitude of the moment. Zach Booth sure did, though:
A Luc de Fougerolles own goal kept things tense right up until the final whistle. But RSL held on for a 2-1 win that sends them into the postseason for the fifth straight year, the longest such streak in the Western Conference. They’ll visit the Seattle Sounders in the Wild Card round on Thursday, Nov. 19 (10 pm ET | Apple TV).
The result seals a second straight season of underachievement for LA following their 2024 MLS Cup triumph, despite some extensive shopping in the summer transfer window headlined by Chucky Lozano and Sergi Roberto.
Conversely, it’s vindication for Salt Lake, who looked done and dusted after a 13-game winless skid in midseason, yet found their famed ‘xDAWG’ intensity down the stretch despite the loss of star creator Diego Luna to injury.
Seattle, too, had to dig deep, and they also enjoyed a strong start, edging LAFC, 2-1, before a bumper crowd of 40,171 at Lumen Field after Albert Rusnák exploited the visitors’ playing-out-of-the-back error in the game’s opening minute:
The Sounders have now made the playoffs in all but one season of an MLS existence that began in 2009. And while this year’s group seems to possess a lower ceiling than their MLS Cup-winning predecessors, there’s a tenacity about Cristian Roldan & Co. that could trip up even a heavily favored adversary.
Speaking of which… if Seattle beat RSL in the West's Wild Card match, they’ll advance to meet Cascadia rivals Vancouver Whitecaps FC – whom they upset in the Concacaf Champions Cup back in the spring.
Down in Texas, the Sounders’ old rivals from Portland punched their ticket via a 2-0 defeat of Austin FC, and whatever you do, don’t miss the blistering Kristoffer Velde rocket that sealed it:
We reckon these Timbers are playing with house money, considering it’s still early days in the Martí Cifuentes era, and when you have a talented maverick who loves the brightest spotlights like Velde, anything is possible in a knockout situation.
Their Round One opponent, FC Dallas – who rallied from 1-0 down to crush the playoff dreams of the Colorado Rapids – should expect the unexpected and be ready to play.
Hell is (almost) Real
It ain’t over ‘til it’s over! The old saying is as true on Decision Day as any other matchday, as the Columbus Crew reminded us in the breathless dying seconds of the afternoon’s first time slot.
With Orlando City ahead of New England, FC Cincinnati losing to Supporters' Shield champions Nashville SC and the Crew level at Chicago Fire FC as second-half injury time arrived, we were just about set for Cincy-Columbus in the Eastern Conference’s Wild Card round, a tasty, do-or-die postseason reprise of Hell is Real, an elite MLS rivalry. (Their classic 2023 Eastern Conference Final slugfest was one of the greatest playoff games in league history.)
But Columbus had other ideas. Ninety-three minutes into the clash at SeatGeek Stadium, a match in which they’d trailed on three occasions, their Spanish Designated Player Brais Méndez turned up at the far post to fire home the winner and send the Crew back to Ohio as 4-3 winners.
In a flash, Columbus vaulted from ninth place to seventh, dodging the extra game of the Wild Card – and earning themselves a Round One faceoff with Lionel Messi and defending champions Inter Miami. Let’s hope it lives up to their Leagues Cup Round of 16 barnburner two years ago.
Grizi Show goes on
With the East shuffling, FC Cincinnati will visit Orlando City in the Wild Card on Nov. 19 (7:30 pm ET | Apple TV). While the two sides finished tied on 46 points, the Lions finished ahead on the wins tiebreaker after they beat the Revolution, 1-0, posting a rare clean sheet thanks mainly to goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau.
For just the second time since mid-August, Antoine Griezmann did not get on the scoresheet, but make no mistake: the Frenchman carries the Lions’ playoff hopes on his shoulders, just as he’s single-handedly resuscitated their season since his midsummer arrival.
“We could control what we could today, and it was getting the win,” Crépeau told Apple TV’s Michele Giannone postgame. “Being home in a knockout is a huge advantage, and we know here with our people, we're very strong.
“Antoine came in and changed the picture of this club.”
Inter Miami, for their part, raised almost as many questions as they answered with their latest Jekyll-and-Hyde display as Charlotte FC visited Nu Stadium.
It felt like showtime as the Herons surged to a 3-0 lead before the halftime whistle, with easy corner-kick goals from Ian Fray and Luis Suárez punctuated by a long-distance banger from Rodrigo De Paul.
Then the vibes shifted completely after the intermission. A rapid-fire Liel Abada brace soon hauled Charlotte back into contention, and Rodolfo Aloko exploited some poor defending with a 90th-minute equalizer that shocked the house.
Despite the 3-3 draw, Miami kept hold of second place in the East thanks to New England’s loss up the turnpike in Orlando. Yet they'll be haunted by two more dropped points at their new home ground, where their record (6W-2L-9D) is actually worse than on their travels.
“Sadness, rage, pain – there are so many emotions right at the surface,” Herons head coach Kily González said in Spanish postgame. “It’s also about realizing that we messed up: We took a step backward at a crucial moment. Now, we have to see how this situation unfolds.
“I’m convinced – and I know what we’re capable of – that we can get through this.”
In essence, Miami’s title defense begins now; everything that’s happened so far is a prelude to the must-win setting of the playoffs. Can Messi & Co. do it again?
→ We’ve known for some time that the road to MLS Cup would run through Nashville; the high-flying Coyotes long ago clinched the Supporters’ Shield and the home-field advantage it bestows. But on Decision Day, Nashville still had one more emphatic exclamation point to place on their superb regular season, as they set a new MLS points record (77) with a 2-0 win at Cincinnati paced by Sam Surridge’s second-half brace.
Not only that, they’ve posted the most wins, fewest losses, fewest goals conceded and most home wins in league history. B.J. Callaghan’s side are a behemoth, both on paper and via the eye test, and it will take something special to upset them in the playoffs.
→ Beware the Philadelphia Union, who might just be riding MLS’s best vibes into the postseason. Their 4-1 trouncing of Toronto FC at Subaru Park had a real party atmosphere as brothers Quinn and Cavan Sullivan relentlessly ran riot on the Reds, completely undeterred by their two goals chalked off by Video Review decisions.
Even with the FIFA international window ahead, we expect Philly will carry that momentum into their Round One series vs. New England. That said, we’re watching closely for news of the knock that ended Cavan’s day a bit early, even if early reactions don’t seem to regard it as a serious injury.
→ Though they lost 3-1 at Minnesota United FC, congratulations are due to the San Jose Earthquakes, who finished in the West’s top four and will host postseason action at PayPal Park – a Round One clash with Houston Dynamo FC – for the first time in that venue’s decade-plus of existence.
Though Timo Werner is the big name, these Quakes will live and die by the performances of homegrown No. 10 Niko Tsakiris, who produced perhaps the most remarkable solo play of Decision Day to create his team’s goal on Saturday:
