Last-gasp winners and all-time records: Key stories from MLS Decision Day

Philadelphia showed why it's called the City of Brotherly Love

Philadelphia started this season poorly, but a coaching change and the breakthroughs of teenagers like Cavan Sullivan, Neil Pierre and Frankie Westfield flipped the club from disaster to delight in the fall. It's MLS's unofficial "good vibes" club at this point and it enters the playoffs with better energy than any other team in the league.

Case in point: its Decision Day performance against Toronto. Philadelphia won 3-1 in grand style and its talented pair of brothers — Cavan Sullivan, still just 17, and Quinn, 22 — both wound up on the score sheet for the first time in club history. It's called the City of Brotherly Love for a reason; the Sullivans made sure everyone knew it.

Miami blew a three-goal lead ... again.

One of the best games of the 2026 MLS season was Inter Miami's breathless clash with Orlando in early May. Miami came out hot, scoring three goals in the opening 33 minutes, but Orlando fought back and won the match 4-3 after a bravura performance in the second half.

Charlotte FC very nearly pulled the same trick on Miami on Decision Day. It fought back from 3-0 down to tie the match 3-3 through Liel Abada and Rodolfo Aloko.

Throwing away one three-goal advantage is a fluke; throwing away two is a trend. And it's a trend Miami is now firmly a part of after drawing 3-3 with Charlotte FC on Decision Day. Coach Kily Gonzalez's decision to turn midfielder Casemiro into a central defender is looking wilder and wilder by the minute. It's not that he can't play; it's that the on-the-ball risks he used to take in the middle third simply don't translate to the defensive one. Casemiro got punished over and over again in this match for his carelessness.

The LA Galaxy couldn't meet the moment

There were six Western Conference teams fighting for three playoff positions at the start of Decision Day. The LA Galaxy, the league's winningest team with six championships to its name, entered the proceedings with the best chance of survival ... but left it eliminated and humiliated at the hands of Real Salt Lake.

The Galaxy played this match like it didn't matter. There was no pressing off the ball, no fighting for possession, no counter-attacking sprints against the run of play: just shapeless, guileless play from a team that looked like a shadow of its former self. Salt Lake ripped the Galaxy's defense to shreds in the opening twenty minutes; the game was over well before the final whistle blew.

Twelve teams signed off for the 2026 season

It's goodnight and good luck for Red Bull New York, NYCFC, Toronto, Atlanta, D.C. United, Montréal, Minnesota, the LA Galaxy, Colorado, San Diego, Austin and Sporting Kansas City: all 12 teams have officially wrapped their 2026 MLS seasons. We'll see them again in the league's schedule-resetting sprint season in February 2027.