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2018 MLS Cup Playoffs
Tournament details
Country	United States
Dates	October 31 – December 8
Teams	12
Defending champions	Toronto FC; (did not qualify)
Final positions
Champions	Atlanta United FC; (1st title)
Runner-up	Portland Timbers
Semifinalists	New York Red Bulls; Sporting Kansas City;
Tournament statistics
Matches played	17
Goals scored	52 (3.06 per match)
Attendance	494,421 (29,084 per match)
Top goal scorer(s)	Josef Martínez; Diego Valeri; (4 goals each)
	← 2017 2019 →

The 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs (branded as the 2018 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs for sponsorship reasons) began on October 31 and ended on December 8 with MLS Cup 2018, the 23rd league championship match for MLS. This was the 23rd version of the MLS Cup Playoffs, the tournament culminating the Major League Soccer regular season. Twelve teams, the top six of each conference, competed in the MLS Cup Playoffs.^[1]

The first round of each conference had the third-seeded team hosting the sixth seed while the fourth-seed hosted the fifth seed in a single match to determine who advanced to the Conference Semifinals. In the Conference Semifinals, the top seed played the lowest remaining seed while the second played the next-lowest. The winners advanced to the Conference Finals. Both the Conference Semifinals and Conference Finals were played as a two-legged aggregate series. The winners advanced to the MLS Cup, a single match hosted by the participant with the better regular season record which was played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.^[2]

Toronto FC were the defending MLS Cup champions, but failed to qualify for the playoffs. Atlanta United FC won their first MLS Cup title.

Qualified teams

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Conference standings

The top six teams from each conference advanced to the MLS Cup playoffs.

Eastern Conference

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	New York Red Bulls	34	71
2	Atlanta United FC	34	69
3	New York City FC	34	56
4	D.C. United	34	51
5	Columbus Crew	34	51
6	Philadelphia Union	34	50
7	Montreal Impact	34	46
8	New England Revolution	34	41
9	Toronto FC	34	36
10	Chicago Fire	34	32
11	Orlando City SC	34	28

Source: MLS

Western Conference

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Sporting Kansas City	34	62
2	Seattle Sounders FC	34	59
3	Los Angeles FC	34	57
4	FC Dallas	34	57
5	Portland Timbers	34	54
6	Real Salt Lake	34	49
7	LA Galaxy	34	48
8	Vancouver Whitecaps FC	34	47
9	Houston Dynamo	34	38
10	Minnesota United FC	34	36
11	Colorado Rapids	34	31
12	San Jose Earthquakes	34	21

Source: MLS

Bracket

Knockout round			Conference semifinals					Conference finals					MLS Cup December 8 – Atlanta, Georgia

			E3	New York City FC	0	1	1
10/31 – New York, New York
			E2	Atlanta United FC	1	3	4
E3	New York City FC	3

E6	Philadelphia Union	1
								E2	Atlanta United FC	3	0	3
Eastern Conference
								E1	New York Red Bulls	0	1	1



			E5	Columbus Crew	1	0	1
11/1 – Washington, D.C.
			E1	New York Red Bulls	0	3	3
E4	D.C. United	2 (2)

E5	Columbus Crew (p)	2 (3)
													E2	Atlanta United FC	2

													W5	Portland Timbers	0



			W5	Portland Timbers (p)	2	2	4 (4)
10/31 – Frisco, Texas
			W2	Seattle Sounders FC	1	3	4 (2)
W4	FC Dallas	1

W5	Portland Timbers	2
								W5	Portland Timbers	0	3	3
Western Conference
								W1	Sporting Kansas City	0	2	2



			W6	Real Salt Lake	1	2	3
11/1 – Los Angeles, California
			W1	Sporting Kansas City	1	4	5
W3	Los Angeles FC	2

W6	Real Salt Lake	3

Knockout round

Summary

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Eastern Conference
New York City FC (E3)	3–1	Philadelphia Union (E6)
D.C. United (E4)	2–2 (2–3 p)	Columbus Crew SC (E5)
Western Conference
Los Angeles FC (W3)	2–3	Real Salt Lake (W6)
FC Dallas (W4)	1–2	Portland Timbers (W5)

Matches

October 31, 2018

21:30 EDT
(20:30 CDT)

FC Dallas	1–2	Portland Timbers
Hedges 90+4'	Report	Valeri 23', 71'

Toyota Stadium, Frisco, Texas

Attendance: 10,297

Referee: Alan Kelly

October 31, 2018

19:00 EDT

New York City FC	3–1	Philadelphia Union
Tajouri-Shradi 10' Villa 26' Moralez 78'	Report	Burke 83'

Yankee Stadium, New York, New York

Attendance: 15,153

Referee: Robert Sibiga

November 1, 2018

20:00 EDT

D.C. United	2–2 (a.e.t.)	Columbus Crew SC
Brillant 21' DeLeon 116'	Report	Higuaín 30', 96'
Penalties
Rooney Asad Stieber Acosta DeLeon	2–3	Higuaín Trapp Zardes Hansen Mullins

Audi Field, Washington, D.C.

Attendance: 20,600

Referee: Allen Chapman

November 1, 2018

22:30 EDT
(19:30 PDT)

Los Angeles FC	2–3	Real Salt Lake
Silva 31' Ramirez 54'	Report	Kreilach 21', 58' Zimmerman 69' (o.g.)

Banc of California Stadium, Los Angeles, California

Attendance: 22,000

Referee: Mark Geiger

Conference semifinals

Summary

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Eastern Conference
Columbus Crew SC (E5)	1–3	New York Red Bulls (E1)	1–0	0–3
New York City FC (E3)	1–4	Atlanta United FC (E2)	0–1	1–3
Western Conference
Real Salt Lake (W6)	3–5	Sporting Kansas City (W1)	1–1	2–4
Portland Timbers (W5)	4–4 (4–2 p)	Seattle Sounders FC (W2)	2–1	2–3 (a.e.t.)

Matches

November 4, 2018

15:00 EST

Columbus Crew SC	1–0	New York Red Bulls
Zardes 61'	Report

MAPFRE Stadium, Columbus, Ohio

Attendance: 12,892

Referee: Nima Saghafi

November 11, 2018

19:30 EST

New York Red Bulls	3–0	Columbus Crew SC
Muyl 17' Royer 73', 76'	Report

Red Bull Arena, Harrison, New Jersey

Attendance: 22,789

Referee: Alan Kelly

New York Red Bulls win 3–1 on aggregate.

November 4, 2018

19:30 EST

New York City FC	0–1	Atlanta United FC
	Report	Remedi 37'

Yankee Stadium, New York, New York

Attendance: 19,198

Referee: Kevin Stott

November 11, 2018

17:30 EST

Atlanta United FC	3–1	New York City FC
Martínez 25' (pen.), 83' Almirón 42'	Report	Chanot 45'

Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

Attendance: 70,526

Referee: Mark Geiger

Atlanta United win 4–1 on aggregate.

November 4, 2018

17:30 EST (14:30 PST)

Portland Timbers	2–1	Seattle Sounders FC
Ebobisse 17' Blanco 29'	Report	Ruidíaz 10'

Providence Park, Portland, Oregon

Attendance: 21,144

Referee: Ted Unkel

November 8, 2018

22:30 EST (19:30 PST)

Seattle Sounders FC	3–2 (a.e.t.)	Portland Timbers
Ruidíaz 68', 90+3' Lodeiro 97' (pen.)	Report	Blanco 78' Asprilla 93'
Penalties
Ruidíaz Bruin Alonso Bwana	2–4	Melano Valeri Blanco Ridgewell Asprilla

CenturyLink Field, Seattle, Washington

Attendance: 39,452

Referee: Jair Marrufo

Tied 4–4 on aggregate. Portland Timbers win 4–2 on penalties.

November 4, 2018

22:00 EST (20:00 MST)

Real Salt Lake	1–1	Sporting Kansas City
Rusnák 51'	Report	Rubio 60'

Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, Utah

Attendance: 14,045

Referee: Baldomero Toledo

November 11, 2018

15:00 EST (14:00 CST)

Sporting Kansas City	4–2	Real Salt Lake
Rubio 14' Sallói 19', 90+7' Ilie 67' (pen.)	Report	Saucedo 60' Kreilach 72'

Children's Mercy Park, Kansas City, Kansas

Attendance: 19,918

Referee: José Carlos Rivero

Sporting Kansas City win 5–3 on aggregate.

Conference finals

Summary

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Eastern Conference
Atlanta United FC (E2)	3–1	New York Red Bulls (E1)	3–0	0–1
Western Conference
Portland Timbers (W5)	3–2	Sporting Kansas City (W1)	0–0	3–2

Matches

November 25, 2018

17:00 EST

Atlanta United FC	3–0	New York Red Bulls
Martínez 32' Escobar 71' Villalba 90+5'	Report

Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

Attendance: 70,016

Referee: Kevin Stott

November 29, 2018

19:30 EST

New York Red Bulls	1–0	Atlanta United FC
Parker 90+4'	Report

Red Bull Arena, Harrison, New Jersey

Attendance: 22,137

Referee: Jair Marrufo

Atlanta United win 3–1 on aggregate.

November 25, 2018

19:30 EST

Portland Timbers	0–0	Sporting Kansas City
	Report

Providence Park, Portland, Oregon

Attendance: 21,144

Referee: Robert Sibiga

November 29, 2018

21:30 EST

Sporting Kansas City	2–3	Portland Timbers
Sallói 20' Gerso 81'	Report	Blanco 52' Valeri 61', 90+9'

Children's Mercy Park, Kansas City, Kansas

Attendance: 20,091

Referee: Mark Geiger

Portland Timbers win 3–2 on aggregate.

MLS Cup

December 8, 2018

8:00 p.m. EST

Atlanta United FC	2–0	Portland Timbers
Martínez 39' Escobar 54'	Report

Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

Attendance: 73,019

Referee: Alan Kelly

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[3]
1	Josef Martínez	Atlanta United FC	4
1	Diego Valeri	Portland Timbers	4
3	Sebastián Blanco	Portland Timbers	3
	Damir Kreilach	Real Salt Lake
	Raúl Ruidíaz	Seattle Sounders FC
	Dániel Sallói	Sporting Kansas City
7	Federico Higuaín	Columbus Crew SC	2
	Daniel Royer	New York Red Bulls
	Diego Rubio	Sporting Kansas City
	Franco Escobar	Atlanta United FC

MLS Cup Playoffs Best XI

Year	Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
2018 ^[4]	Jeff Attinella (POR)	Aaron Long (NYR) Matt Besler (SKC) Leandro González Pírez (ATL) Franco Escobar (ATL)	Sebastián Blanco (POR) Miguel Almirón (ATL) Diego Chará (POR) Diego Valeri (POR)	Josef Martínez (ATL) Johnny Russell (SKC)