The 2024 Major League Soccer regular season will conclude on Saturday with its annual MLS Decision Day producing simultaneous kickoffs conference-wide.
Saturday's festivities begin with seven Eastern Conference matchups at 5 pm CT and seven Western Conference clashes at 8 pm CT. Here is a breakdown of everything to watch on Saturday and going into the playoffs.
Miami Chasing Points Record
Inter Miami is racing towards the most points in the history of MLS regular season, but an intriguing matchup awaits them Saturday. Currently on 71 points, Miami is two points shy of the 2021 New England Revolution team that reached 73 points. Entering the 2024 season finale winning 11 of their last 15 MLS matches, Miami will have to earn three points with a win against New England to reach the 74-point threshold to set a new MLS record.
On paper, it should be easy. Only Chicago sits below New England in the East and only San Jose has conceded more goals. New England has lost three straight, but 22-year-old Argentine Luca Langoni will be eager to impress Messi. Miami should have enough quality to overcome anything New England offers, but they still need to prove it on the pitch.
Positioning & Hosting Rights
All 18 total playoff spots are sealed, but postseason seeding leaves much to play for on Decision Day. The beauty of simultaneous kickoffs could cause great drama on Saturday as the final matchday determines which teams get a Wild Card bye, hosting rights and playoff matchups become finalized.
Teams would treasure to be able to avoid, or at least host, the opening Wild Card round between the bottom two seeds of both conferences. DC United and Montreal are battling for hosting rights of the East's Wild Card matchup while Portland, Vancouver, Minnesota and Colorado are battling to bypass the Wild Card. It will be a quick turnaround from Decision Day to Tuesday and Wednesday's Wild Card meetings.
The Round One Best-of-3 Series will pit the top seeds of both conferences against the bottom seeds. While it sounds simple, top-seeded St. Louis was swept by Sporting KC in the best-of-3 series last year. The best-of-3 series is followed by single-elimination conference semifinal and conference finals before culminating with the MLS Cup Final on December 7.
One Western Conference matchup to watch is Seatle versus Portland. One of the greatest rivalries in MLS, Portland is fighting to skip or host the Wild Card match while Seattle is hoping to retain their third-place spot to face the No. 6 seed in the best-of-3 series.
Playoff Preview
All eyes will be glued to Lionel Messi and Inter Miami as long as they remain in the playoffs. As the runaway Supporters' Shield winners, Miami is the favorite to win MLS Cup. Since Messi's arrival last summer, Miami have made deep runs in tournament competitions, earning the club's first-ever trophy by winning last summer's Leagues Cup before losing last year's U.S. Open Cup Final on home turf.
Miami will have a challenging run through the playoffs. The Columbus Crew have troubled Miami this season, although a healthy Messi proved pivotal in Miami's 3-2 win at Columbus earlier this month. They can also get themselves into trouble as they are among the most carded teams in MLS and have conceded seven penalties, most of any team qualified for the playoffs. Those mistakes can be unforgiving and could potentially cause an early end to Miami's season.
The city of Los Angeles has owned the West all season long. The LA Galaxy, who lead MLS in all passing statistics, are on pace to take the Western Conference crown for the first time since 2011 with LAFC trailing three points behind. Colorado could be a dangerous dark horse, producing an MLS-leading 66.54 expected goals.
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