MINNESOTA UNITED | ANALYSIS

Minnesota United is the West's No. 6 seed in the MLS Cup Playoffs, playing No. 3 Real Salt Lake in a first-round playoff series.

Loons first-round schedule

All matches kick off at 8 p.m.

Game 1: Oct. 29, Minnesota at Real Salt Lake (FS1, streaming for free on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+)

Game 2: Nov. 2, Real Salt Lake at Minnesota (Streamed on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+)

Game 3 (if necessary): Nov. 8, Minnesota at Real Salt Lake (Streamed on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+)

MLS Cup Playoffs overview

The No. 8 and No. 9 seeds in each conference play a wild-card game, which functions as a play-in game. Tuesday's game matches Montréal and Atlanta (6:30 p.m., streamed free on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+), with the right to face Lionel Messi and Inter Miami in Round 1. Wednesday's game is Vancouver visiting Portland (9:30 p.m., also streamed free on Apple TV+) — an embarrassment for the Whitecaps, who are the No. 8 seed but have to play on the road because of scheduling conflicts at BC Place.

Once the wild-card games are settled, the eight remaining teams in each conference play best-of-three series. The higher seeds host Game 1 and (if necessary) Game 3; the lower seeds host Game 2. No extra time is played in the first round if a game ends in a tie; the matches go directly to a penalty shootout to decide the winner.

The conference semifinals, conference finals and MLS Cup are all one-off matches, hosted by the team with the better regular-season record. Extra time will be played in those matches.

The favorites

In the Eastern Conference, Inter Miami — led by a raft of former European stars, like Luis Suárez, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and, of course, Messi — won the Supporters' Shield and set a new league record for points in a season.

That said, the Columbus Crew are not only the defending champions but have proved themselves in tournament situations. The Crew won the Leagues Cup this summer and stormed all the way to the final of the CONCACAF Champions Cup before losing to Pachuca (and a seemingly team-wide bout of food poisoning) in the final.

Out West, LAFC clinched the top seed on the final day of the season, narrowly edging the LA Galaxy. Both teams are packed with stars and primed to score goals. Fourth-seeded Seattle has been the West's best team since June 1; the Sounders' only problem might be an inability to beat LAFC, who they've lost to four times this season, in three different competitions.

Minnesota's path

Since the Leagues Cup, which ended in late August, the Loons have been one of the best teams in the league, earning 2.11 points per game — third in MLS, behind only Seattle and Miami. Their record hasn't been smoke and mirrors, either; according to stats site American Soccer Analysis, Minnesota has the best "expected" record (based on expected goals) in all of MLS over that span.

The playoff bracket worked out well for Minnesota. Real Salt Lake has struggled offensively since the midseason sale of winger Andrés Gómez, and the Loons match up much better with RSL than the other top seeds. Minnesota earned a 0-0 draw in Utah two weeks ago, a sign that the Loons won't be overwhelmed by RSL.

Should the Loons get past the first round, they'll have avoided dominant LAFC and their nemesis, Seattle, until at least the conference finals, and they'll take on either the LA Galaxy or Colorado in the semifinals. The Loons were defensively solid against the Galaxy's star-studded attack in both games this year, and Minnesota just hammered Colorado 3-0 only three weeks ago at Allianz Field.

What's next?

After the wild-card games, Miami plays the East wild-card winner on Friday night, and there will be one or two first-round matches each night from Friday through Tuesday night. All of those matches are streamed free on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+, and the matches on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday are on FS1.