Sporting Kansas City will face St. Louis City in the MLS playoffs

He Sporting Kansas City led by Mexican Alan Pulido, passed the wild card phase this Wednesday and will face off in the first round of the playoffs of MLS in City of St. Louis. The Kansas City team, eighth in the West, won on penalties (4-2) against Earthquakes in San Joseninth in both conferences, after this head-to-head match ended goalless in 90 minutes of regulation (overtime was not played and it went straight to a shootout).

Goalkeeper Tim Melia was the hero of the locals by saving two penalties and thereby making up for Pulido’s missed shot. In addition, the goalkeeper added his seventh consecutive round as a winner since he became a professional (he has never known a defeat from an eleven-meter throw).

Already in the first round of the MLS Cup qualifiers, Sporting Kansas City will face St. Louis City, a spectacular debutant this year in MLS and in its first campaign finished as the leader of the Western Conference.

NY Red Bulls-Cincinnati, the other rivalry

In another wild card match played this Wednesday, the New York Red Bulls defeated Charlotte 5-2 and will face off in the playoffs with Cincinnati, led by Argentine Luciano Acosta, who is the best team from the East and declared the champion of the MLS Supporters’ Shield (the trophy for the team with the most points in the regular season).

This year’s MLS final league includes important new features, such as the introduction of a wild card round where the teams that finished in eighth and ninth position in the two conferences compete in a single match. Another new thing in MLS for this year is that the first round of the playoffs will be played in the best of three games.

The first and third games – only this one if necessary – will be played in the stadium of the team that scored the most points in the regular season and there will be no overtime: if a rivalry ends in a draw, penalties will dictate the sentence.