The logjam created by MLS’s newly bloated playoff format and European qualifying has made things complicated for players like Philadelphia Union and Hungary midfielder Dániel Gazdag
The 28th season of Major League Soccer has taken a league famed for its frequent changes and Americanized innovations and shifted the format once more.
With the inaugural Leagues Cup stuck into the middle of a long, arduous season, MLS’s 29 teams entered the postseason already considerably fatigued. Upon arrival, they’d find an expanded playoff format allowing nearly two-thirds of the league’s teams into a postseason race that started with drawn-out best-of-three series. Victors in that round were then treated to an international break – further beleaguering their star talent – before the conference semi-finals arrived this past weekend.
