CAN IT CONTINUE?: Home-field advantage in the MLS Cup Playoffs

The regular season has been spent making every game matter in a goal to have homefield advantage throughout the MLS Cup Playoffs. And now the time is here to make that advantage stand up for possible trip to MLS Cup.

The teams with the two best home winning percentages this season – the Supporters’ Shield-winning New England Revolution, and the Western Conference winners Colorado Rapids – have each grabbed homefield advantage throughout their side of the bracket in the playoffs this year.

Nashville SC became the seventh team to go through an entire home season without losing a game, while the Rapids are the 38th team to go through with just a single loss.

In the two years with a straight single-elimination bracket format, the home team has advanced in 21 of 30 total matchups. That almost perfectly aligns with the historical average of home teams in single-leg ties in the MLS Cup Playoffs over the league’s first 24 seasons, which was at 69.4 percent of host clubs advancing.

• Bold: Home teams in Round One / Top seed Conference Quarterfinal

Two teams enter the postseason with active home playoff undefeated streaks of five games of more, including Seattle Sounders FC, who currently hold the all-time MLS record with 16 consecutive home playoff matches without loss. The New England Revolution also have a 12-game home undefeated streak alive, dating back to 2003.

The MLS record is 17 games at home without a defeat, set by the Los Angeles Galaxy from 1999-2010.

Throughout the 2021 season, taking the lead in a match has proven to be a solid recipe for a victory. Of the 14 clubs in the Audi 2020 MLS Cup Playoffs, five have gone through the season losing no more than one match after scoring the first goal – including three teams which did not suffer a single defeat after netting the opener (New England Revolution, Seattle Sounders FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC).

That trend has proved to be a solid recipe for success during the single-elimination bracket playoff configuration, as 22 of the 30 games in the MLS Cup Playoffs over the last two years were won by the team scoring the opening goal.