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The 2014 MLS Cup Playoffs (branded as the 2014 MLS Cup Playoffs presented by AT&T for sponsorship reasons) 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.
 | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Country | United States Canada |
| Teams | 10 |
| Defending champions | Sporting Kansas City |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | LA Galaxy (5th title) |
| Runner-up | New England Revolution |
| Semifinalists | |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 15 |
| Goals scored | 42 (2.8 per match) |
| Attendance | 354,455 (23,630 per match) |
| Top goal scorer(s) |  Charlie Davies Bradley Wright-Phillips(4 goals each) |
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 Seattle Sounders FC 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 for their record-breaking fifth MLS Cup title, 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.
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The top five teams from both the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference qualified and are seeded in the MLS Playoffs 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, with the winner advancing to the conference semifinals.[3]
Conference Semifinals and Conference Finals
In the conference semifinals, the team with the best record in each conference plays the winner of their conference knockout round match while the second and third-seeded teams in each conference play one another. The teams winning the conference semifinal matches advance to their respective conference finals.
In these two rounds, all matches are played in a home-and-away aggregate-goal format, with the higher-seeded team hosting 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 minutes 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 each other in the MLS Cup, a single match hosted by the team with the better regular season record.[3]
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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]
- Total number of wins
- Goal Differential
- Goals For
- Fewest Disciplinary Points in the official points table
- Road Goals Differential
- Road Goal For
- Home Goals Differential
- Home Goal For
- Coin Toss (2 clubs) or Drawing of Lots (3 or more)
Eastern Conference Table
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | T | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | D.C. United | 34 | 17 | 9 | 8 | 52 | 37 | +15 | 59 | MLS Cup Conference Semifinals |
| 2 | New England Revolution | 34 | 17 | 13 | 4 | 51 | 37 | +14 | 55 | |
| 3 | Columbus Crew SC | 34 | 14 | 10 | 10 | 52 | 42 | +10 | 52 | |
| 4 | New York Red Bulls | 34 | 13 | 10 | 11 | 55 | 50 | +5 | 50 | MLS Cup Knockout round |
| 5 | Sporting Kansas City | 34 | 14 | 13 | 7 | 48 | 41 | +7 | 49 | |
| 6 | Philadelphia Union | 34 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 51 | 51 | 0 | 42 | |
| 7 | Toronto FC | 34 | 11 | 15 | 8 | 44 | 54 | −10 | 41 | |
| 8 | Houston Dynamo | 34 | 11 | 17 | 6 | 39 | 58 | −19 | 39 | |
| 9 | Chicago Fire | 34 | 6 | 10 | 18 | 41 | 51 | −10 | 36 | |
| 10 | Montreal Impact | 34 | 6 | 18 | 10 | 38 | 58 | −20 | 28 |
Source: MLS
Western Conference Table
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | T | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seattle Sounders FC | 34 | 20 | 10 | 4 | 65 | 50 | +15 | 64 | MLS Cup Conference Semifinals |
| 2 | LA Galaxy | 34 | 17 | 7 | 10 | 69 | 37 | +32 | 61 | |
| 3 | Real Salt Lake | 34 | 15 | 8 | 11 | 54 | 39 | +15 | 56 | |
| 4 | FC Dallas | 34 | 16 | 12 | 6 | 55 | 45 | +10 | 54 | MLS Cup Knockout round |
| 5 | Vancouver Whitecaps FC | 34 | 12 | 8 | 14 | 42 | 40 | +2 | 50 | |
| 6 | Portland Timbers | 34 | 12 | 9 | 13 | 61 | 52 | +9 | 49 | |
| 7 | Chivas USA | 34 | 9 | 19 | 6 | 29 | 61 | −32 | 33 | |
| 8 | Colorado Rapids | 34 | 8 | 18 | 8 | 43 | 62 | −19 | 32 | |
| 9 | San Jose Earthquakes | 34 | 6 | 16 | 12 | 35 | 50 | −15 | 30 |
Source: MLS
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| Knockout | Conference semifinals | Conference finals | MLS Cup | ||||||||||||||||||||
| E1 | D.C. United | 0 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||
| E4 | New York Red Bulls | 2 | E4 | New York Red Bulls | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| E5 | Sporting Kansas City | 1 | Eastern Conference | E4 | New York Red Bulls | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||||||||||||||
| 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 | 2 | W4 | FC Dallas | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| W5 | Vancouver Whitecaps FC | 1 | Western Conference | W1 | Seattle Sounders FC | 0 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||||||
| W2 | LA Galaxy (a) | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||
| W2 | LA Galaxy | 0 | 5 | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||
| W3 | Real Salt Lake | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||
Knockout round
Eastern Conference
| New York Red Bulls | 2–1 | Sporting Kansas City |
|---|---|---|
Wright-Phillips  77', 90' |
Report | Dwyer 53' |
Western Conference
Conference semifinals
Eastern Conference
| Columbus Crew | 2–4 | New England Revolution |
|---|---|---|
| Meram 64' Higuaín 90+4' (pen.) |
Report | Davies 34', 78' Tierney 51' Nguyen 70' |
| New England Revolution | 3–1 | Columbus Crew |
|---|---|---|
| Nguyen 43' Gonçalves 55' Bunbury 77' |
Report | Tchani 69' |
New England Revolution won 7–3 on aggregate
| D.C. United | 2–1 | New York Red Bulls |
|---|---|---|
| DeLeon 37' Franklin 90+1' |
Report | Luyindula 57' |
New York Red Bulls advanced 3–2 on aggregate
Western Conference
Los Angeles Galaxy advanced 5–0 on aggregate
Seattle Sounders FC advanced on an away goal
Conference finals
| New York Red Bulls | 1–2 | New England Revolution |
|---|---|---|
| Wright-Phillips 27' |
Report | Bunbury 17' Jones 85' |
| New England Revolution | 2–2 | New York Red Bulls |
|---|---|---|
| Davies 41', 70' |
Report | Cahill 26' Luyindula 52' |
New England Revolution advanced 4–3 on aggregate
Los Angeles Galaxy advanced on an away goal
MLS Cup
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| Rank | Player | Club | Goals[6] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charlie Davies |
New England Revolution | 4 |
| Bradley Wright-Phillips |
New York Red Bulls | ||
| 3 | Landon Donovan |
LA Galaxy | 3 |
 Péguy Luyindula |
New York Red Bulls | ||
| 5 | Teal Bunbury |
New England Revolution | 2 |
 Robbie Keane |
LA Galaxy | ||
| Lee Nguyen |
New England Revolution | ||
 Michel |
FC Dallas | ||
| Marcelo Sarvas |
LA Galaxy | ||
| Chris Tierney |
New England Revolution | ||
| 11 |  Tesho Akindele |
FC Dallas | 1 |
 Osvaldo Alonso |
Seattle Sounders FC | ||
 Tim Cahill |
New York Red Bulls | ||
| Nick DeLeon |
D.C. United | ||
| Clint Dempsey |
Seattle Sounders FC | ||
| Dom Dwyer |
Sporting Kansas City | ||
| Brad Evans |
Seattle Sounders FC | ||
| Sean Franklin |
D.C. United | ||
 José Gonçalves |
New England Revolution | ||
 Federico Higuaín |
Columbus Crew | ||
| Erik Hurtado |
Vancouver Whitecaps FC | ||
| Jermaine Jones |
New England Revolution | ||
| Juninho |
LA Galaxy | ||
 Justin Meram |
Columbus Crew | ||
 Tony Tchani |
Columbus Crew | ||
| Gyasi Zardes |
LA Galaxy |
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