Let’s get ready to rumble

The GIST: After giving us a nice big break to fully enjoy FA WSL action and USWNT roster announcements, the MLS is back for playoffs.

Sweet. What’s the format?: Ten teams from the Eastern Conference and eight from the Western Conference have made it to the postseason. Tomorrow’s play-in tournament, featuring the seventh to 10th seeded teams in the East, will even it up at eight teams a side.

• Based on the regular season standings, the No. 8 New England Revolution will play the No. 9 Montreal Impact tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. ET, and the No. 7 Nashville SC and No. 10 Inter Miami CF will face off at 9 p.m. ET. The winner of each match will fill the empty slots on this bracket and move on to the official first round, which starts Saturday.

And how’s that shaping up?: The league-leading Philadelphia Union will face the lower seeded play-in winner, while the super-close runners-up Toronto FC will play the higher. Each playoff round is single-game elimination, so the play-in teams will have their work cut out for them.

• In the Western Conference, Sporting Kansas City have the top spot and easiest first round match-up against the San Jose Earthquakes, while the No. 2 Seattle Sounders could face an upset from LAFC.
  

• Although the December 12th final is far away, we’ll be shocked if the Union don’t make it all the way in the East. In the West, we’re taking whichever team wins the LAFC/Sounders tilt to win the whole conference. Follow all the footy fun here.