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It's playoff time! It's the American way of life. After the regular season the playoffs begin.
Personally, I feel that the MLS Cup Playoffs are a terrible way to decide a league champion and that the Supporters' Shield that is awarded to the best regular season team should be held in higher regard. That doesn't mean that I don't love watching the playoffs each year, because I absolutely do. Any time the best teams in the league get to play each other it's a great moment.
Since we don't have a dog in the fight yet, we decided it'd be fun to poll our staff and see who they think will walk away from 2015 MLS Cup as the champions.
If you're unfamiliar with the current playoff format it goes like this:
First Round: #3 vs. #6 seed and #4 vs. #5 seed in each conference in a one-game playoff.
Conference Semifinals: #1 seed plays the lowest remaining seed and the #2 seed plays the highest.
Conference Finals: Each winner plays each other
MLS Cup Final: Ditto
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Here is how the DSS staff sees the MLS Cup playoffs playing out. Give us your predictions in the comments:
Brendan Joseph | Eric Quintana | Aaron Bauer | Chris Fuhrmeister | Rob Usry | Matthew Edmiston | Jason Smith | Jason Longshore | Sam Franco | |
Montreal vs. Toronto | Toronto | Montreal | Montreal | Montreal | Montreal | Toronto | Toronto | Montreal | Toronto |
New England vs. D.C. | New England | New England | D.C. | New England | New England | New England | New England | New England | New England |
Seattle vs. LA | Seattle | Seattle | LA | Seattle | Seattle | LA | LA | LA | LA |
Portland vs. Kansas City | Portland | Portland | Kansas City | Portland | Portland | Portland | Portland | Portland | Portland |
East Semifinal #1 | Red Bulls | Red Bulls | Red Bulls | Red Bulls | Red Bulls | Red Bulls | Red Bulls | Red Bulls | Toronto |
East Semifinal #2 | Columbus | Montreal | Montreal | Montreal | Montreal | Toronto | Columbus | Columbus | Columbus |
West Semifinal #1 | Dallas | Dallas | Dallas | Seattle | Seattle | Vancouver | Portland | Dallas | LA |
West Semifinal #2 | Portland | Portland | LA | Portland | Portland | LA | LA | Portland | Portland |
East Final | Columbus | Red Bulls | Red Bulls | Red Bulls | Red Bulls | Toronto | Red Bulls | Columbus | Toronto |
West Final | Dallas | Portland | Dallas | Portland | Portland | Vancouver | LA | Dallas | Portland |
MLS Cup Final | Columbus | Portland | Red Bulls | Red Bulls | Red Bulls | Toronto | Red Bulls | Dallas | Portland |