MLS shortens season, has new playoff format

Major League Soccer is shortening its season by a month, going to single-elimination playoffs and scheduling its 2019 MLS Cup final for Nov. 10 in its earliest finish since 2002. MLS had started using a two-leg, total-goals format in 2003. MLS says the new format will reward teams with top regular seasons with greater home-field advantage. Only the top team in each conference will get a first-round bye, with second place in each conference facing a seventh-place team, three versus six and four versus five. The October break will now fall in between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs.