2014 MLS Cup Playoffs

2014 MLS Cup Playoffs
Country United States
Canada
Teams 10
Defending champions Sporting Kansas City
Champions LA Galaxy (5th title)
Runners-up New England Revolution
Matches played 15
Goals scored 42 (2.8 per match)
Top goal scorer(s) United States Charlie Davies
England Bradley Wright-Phillips
(4 goals each)
← 2013 2015 →

The 2014 MLS Cup Playoffs was the nineteenth post-season tournament culminating the Major League Soccer regular season. The tournament began in late October and culminated on December 7, 2014 with MLS Cup 2014, the nineteenth league championship for MLS.

The 2014 playoffs was the first time that the away goals rule was applied to the home-and-away, aggregate-goal series.[1] The first series impacted by the rule was a Western Conference semifinal that saw the Seattle Sounders advance past FC Dallas when the first match (held in Dallas) ended 1–1 and the second (held in Seattle) ended 0–0.[2]

LA Galaxy defeated New England Revolution 2–1 after extra time in the MLS Cup 2014, thus earning a spot in the 2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League.

Sporting Kansas City were the defending champions, but they were eliminated in the Eastern Conference Knockout Round by New York Red Bulls.

Format

The top five teams from both the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference qualified and are seeded in the MLS Playoffs in order to determine conference champions. The two conference champions will face off in the MLS Cup.

Knockout Round

The fourth and fifth seeds in each conference play a single match hosted by the fourth seed. The winners advance to the conference semifinals.[3]

Conference Semifinals and Conference Finals

In the conference semifinals, the first seed in each conference plays the winner of their conference knockout round match. Also in the conference semifinals, the second and third seeded teams in each conference play one another. The teams winning the conference semifinal matches advance to their respective conference final.

In these two rounds, all matches are played in home-and-away aggregate-goal format. The lower seeded team hosts the first leg of the series and the higher seeded team hosts the second leg. The first leg lasts the usual 90-minutes and can end in a tie. In the second leg, if the two teams are tied after 90-minutes (180-minute total) then the team that scored more goals away from home advances to the next round.

If there is still a tie after the away goals rule is applied, a 30-minute overtime period (divided into two 15-minute periods) is played followed by a penalty kick shootout, if necessary. The away goals rule does not apply to goals scored in the overtime period.[3]

MLS Cup

The two conference champions face one another in the MLS Cup. The MLS Cup is a single match hosted by the team with the stronger regular season record.[3]

Qualification

Qualification for the 2014 MLS Cup Playoffs was based on the results of the 2014 Regular Season. The five teams from each conference with the highest point totals were seeded into their conference playoff bracket.

The 2014 regular season ran from March 8, 2014 to October 26, 2014. Teams played 34 games total, 17 at home and 17 away and were awarded three points for a win, one point for a tie (draw), and zero points for a loss. When two or more teams have the same point totals, the following tiebreak rules were applied:[3][4]

  1. Total number of wins
  2. Goal Differential
  3. Goals For
  4. Fewest Disciplinary Points in the official points table
  5. Road Goals Differential
  6. Road Goal For
  7. Home Goals Differential
  8. Home Goal For
  9. Coin Toss (2 clubs) or Drawing of Lots (3 or more)

Eastern Conference Table

Pos
Team
 Pts
 GP
 W
 L
 T
 GF
 GA
 GD
Qualification or relegation
1 D.C. United (E1) 59 34 17 9 8 52 37+15 2014 MLS Cup Conference Semifinals
2 New England Revolution 55 34 17 13 4 51 46+5
3 Columbus Crew 52 34 14 10 10 52 42+10
4 New York Red Bulls 50 34 13 10 11 55 50+5 2014 MLS Cup Knockout Round
5 Sporting Kansas City 49 34 14 13 7 48 41+7
6 Philadelphia Union 42 34 10 12 12 51 510  
7 Toronto FC 41 34 11 15 8 44 54−10
8 Houston Dynamo 39 34 11 17 6 39 58−19
9 Chicago Fire 36 34 6 10 18 41 51−10
10 Montreal Impact 28 34 6 18 10 38 58−20

Updated to matches played on October 25, 2014 09:57 PM, EDT. Source: MLSSoccer.com
Notation Key:

(E1) = Eastern Conference champion

Western Conference Table

Pos
Team
 Pts
 GP
 W
 L
 T
 GF
 GA
 GD
Qualification or relegation
1 Seattle Sounders FC (SS) (W1) 64 34 20 10 4 65 50+15 2014 MLS Cup Conference Semifinals
2 LA Galaxy 61 34 17 7 10 69 37+32
3 Real Salt Lake 56 34 15 8 11 54 39+15
4 FC Dallas 54 34 16 12 6 55 45+10 2014 MLS Cup Knockout Round
5 Vancouver Whitecaps FC 50 34 12 8 14 42 40+2
6 Portland Timbers 49 34 12 9 13 61 52+9  
7 Chivas USA 33 34 9 19 6 29 61−32
8 Colorado Rapids 32 34 8 18 8 43 62−19
9 San Jose Earthquakes 30 34 6 16 12 35 50−15

Updated to matches played on October 26, 2014 7:42 PM, EDT. Source: MLSSoccer.com
Notation Key:

(SS) = Supporters Shield winner
(W1) = Western Conference champion

Bracket

East Knockout
   
E4 New York Red Bulls 2
E5 Sporting Kansas City 1
West Knockout
   
W4 FC Dallas 2
W5 Vancouver Whitecaps FC 1
  Conference Semifinals Conference Finals MLS Cup 2014
                                     
E1  D.C. United 0 2 2  
E4  New York Red Bulls 2 1 3  
  E4  New York Red Bulls 1 2 3  
Eastern Conference
  E2  New England Revolution 2 2 4  
E2  New England Revolution 4 3 7
E3  Columbus Crew 2 1 3  
  E2  New England Revolution 1
  W2  LA Galaxy (a.e.t.) 2
W1  Seattle Sounders FC (a) 1 0 1  
W4  FC Dallas 1 0 1  
  W1  Seattle Sounders FC 0 2 2
Western Conference
  W2  LA Galaxy (a) 1 1 2  
W2  LA Galaxy 0 5 5
W3  Real Salt Lake 0 0 0  

Schedule

Knockout round

Eastern Conference

October 30
8:00 p.m. EDT[5]
New York Red Bulls 2–1 Sporting Kansas City
Wright-Phillips  77', 90' Report Dwyer  53'
Red Bull Arena, Harrison, New Jersey
Attendance: 15,518
Referee: Armando Villarreal

Western Conference

October 29
8:00 p.m. CDT
FC Dallas 2–1 Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Akindele  40'
Michel  84' (pen.)		 Report Hurtado  64'
Toyota Stadium, Frisco, Texas
Attendance: 10,279
Referee: Mark Geiger

Conference Semifinals

Eastern Conference

November 1
4:00 p.m. EDT
Columbus Crew 2–4 New England Revolution
Meram  64'
Higuaín  90+4' (pen.)		 Report Davies  34', 78'
Tierney  51'
Nguyen  70'
Columbus Crew Stadium, Columbus, Ohio
Attendance: 9,040
Referee: Drew Fischer

November 9
5:00 p.m. EST[5]
New England Revolution 3–1 Columbus Crew
Nguyen  43'
Gonçalves  55'
Bunbury  77'		 Report Tchani  69'
Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts
Attendance: 20,184
Referee: Armando Villarreal

New England Revolution won 7–3 on aggregate

November 8
2:30 p.m. EST
D.C. United 2–1 New York Red Bulls
DeLeon  37'
Franklin  90+1'		 Report Luyindula  57'
RFK Stadium, Washington, D.C.
Attendance: 20,187
Referee: Ismail Elfath

New York Red Bulls advanced 3–2 on aggregate

Western Conference

November 1
6:00 p.m. MDT
Real Salt Lake 0–0 LA Galaxy
Report
Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, Utah
Attendance: 20,713
Referee: Silviu Petrescu

November 9
4:30 p.m. PST
LA Galaxy 5–0 Real Salt Lake
Donovan  10', 54', 72'
Keane  20'
Sarvas  63'		 Report

Los Angeles Galaxy advanced 5–0 on aggregate

November 2
8:00 p.m. CST
FC Dallas 1–1 Seattle Sounders FC
Michel  34' (pen.) Report Alonso  54'
Toyota Stadium, Frisco, Texas
Attendance: 16,112
Referee: Allen Chapman

November 10
7:30 p.m. PST[5]
Seattle Sounders FC 0–0 FC Dallas
Report
CenturyLink Field, Seattle, Washington
Attendance: 38,912
Referee: Baldomero Toledo

Seattle Sounders advanced on an away goal

Conference Finals

November 29
3:00 p.m. EST
New England Revolution 2–2 New York Red Bulls
Davies  41', 70' Report Cahill  26'
Luyindula  52'
Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts
Attendance: 32,698
Referee: Baldomero Toledo

New England Revolution advanced 4–3 on aggregate

Los Angeles Galaxy advanced on an away goal

MLS Cup

Main article: MLS Cup 2014

Goalscorers

Rank Player Club Goals[6]
1 United States Charlie Davies New England Revolution 4
England Bradley Wright-Phillips New York Red Bulls
3 United States Landon Donovan LA Galaxy 3
France Péguy Luyindula New York Red Bulls
5 United States Teal Bunbury New England Revolution 2
Republic of Ireland Robbie Keane LA Galaxy
United States Lee Nguyen New England Revolution
Brazil Michel FC Dallas
Brazil Marcelo Sarvas LA Galaxy
United States Chris Tierney New England Revolution
11 Canada Tesho Akindele FC Dallas 1
Cuba Osvaldo Alonso Seattle Sounders FC
Australia Tim Cahill New York Red Bulls
United States Nick DeLeon D.C. United
United States Clint Dempsey Seattle Sounders FC
England Dom Dwyer Sporting Kansas City
United States Brad Evans Seattle Sounders FC
United States Sean Franklin D.C. United
Portugal José Gonçalves New England Revolution
Argentina Federico Higuaín Columbus Crew
United States Erik Hurtado Vancouver Whitecaps FC
United States Jermaine Jones New England Revolution
Brazil Juninho LA Galaxy
Iraq Justin Meram Columbus Crew
Cameroon Tony Tchani Columbus Crew
United States Gyasi Zardes LA Galaxy

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Major League Soccer to introduce away-goals rule for first time in 2014 MLS Cup Playoffs". Major League Soccer. March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 9, 2014.
  2. ↑ Itel, Dan (November 10, 2014). "Seattle Sounders 0, FC Dallas 0 - MLS Cup Playoffs Match Recap". Major League Soccer. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Competition Rules and Regulations". Major League Soccer. Retrieved October 13, 2014.
  4. ↑ Bonn, Kyle (March 7, 2014). "MLS releases new playoff tiebreakers and salary regulations". NBC Sports ProSoccerTalk. Retrieved October 13, 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "MLS 2014 Playoff Schedule". Major League Soccer. Retrieved October 14, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Major League Soccer Stats: Top Goal Scorers – 2014". ESPN FC. ESPN. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
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