MLS Decision Day 2025: What to watch for on final day of regular season

What's at stake during Decision Day 2025? Here's a rundown of what's left to be decided in each conference: 

Eastern Conference

It's been a historically competitive year for the Eastern Conference: with one game left in the regular season, just five points separate Charlotte in fourth and Columbus in ninth. Columbus's overall points haul — 51 thus far — is a whopping 11 points higher than last year's ninth-placed team managed when all was said and done. Those 51 points would've placed Columbus in fifth in 2024.

The New York Red Bulls, New England, Montreal, Atlanta and D.C. United are all eliminated and are merely playing for pride. But the critical question remains: which seed will each of the conference's nine remaining teams fall into?

We know every Eastern Conference team that will qualify for the playoffs. Philadelphia is guaranteed a first seed after winning the Supporters' Shield during the last matchday. Cincinnati and Miami are fighting for the second seed; Cincinnati, drawn as it is against already-eliminated Montreal on Decision Day, is in the best position to claim it. 

Charlotte and NYCFC, meanwhile, are fighting for the all-important fourth seed that guarantees home-field advantage. The two teams have near-identical records and are facing similarly tough opponents on Decision Day; the battle between them is too close to call.

Nashville and Orlando have an outside shot at grabbing that fourth seed, too, but they'd need to win and hope for both Charlotte and NYCFC to lose — something that hasn't happened in the league since late June. In all likelihood, Nashville and Orlando will take the sixth and seventh seeds and round out the East's automatic playoff qualification spots.

Chicago and Columbus, our final remaining Eastern Conference playoff teams, enter Decision Day in the wild-card slots. Both are capable of climbing out of them, though. Chicago will ascend with a win and an Orlando loss, while Columbus will ascend with a win plus losses from both Chicago and Orlando. In both cases, it will be Orlando that drops into the wild-card spots to take their places.

Key matches: Charlotte vs. Philadelphia, NYCFC vs. Seattle, Columbus vs. New York Red Bulls, New England vs. Chicago 

Western Conference

The West, as always, is a little less clear-cut than the East: there's still room for several teams to crash into the playoff conversation on the final day of the season. Just four of the 15 teams — Houston, St. Louis, Kansas City and the Los Angeles Galaxy — are already out of playoff contention.

Vancouver is functionally guaranteed the first seed in the West; it'd have to lose to Dallas by at least ten goals to be toppled from its perch. San Diego, LAFC and Minnesota will take the second, third and fourth seeds, but they can each slot into any position based on how their final games run. LAFC, bolstered as it is by the arrival of South Korean legend Son Heung-min, is most likely to rise to that second seed.

Seattle is guaranteed the fifth seed. Austin and Portland are likely to keep the sixth and seventh seeds; neither can drop lower than eighth. But there are a whopping four teams — Dallas, Salt Lake, Colorado and San Jose — fighting for the two remaining spots in the Western Conference.

Dallas and Salt Lake have the easiest path: if they win, they're in, regardless of what happens across the league. Colorado needs to win and hope that both Dallas and Salt Lake lose or draw. San Jose, meanwhile — one of the messiest, most chaotic and most fun teams in the league this season — needs to win while each of Dallas, Salt Lake and Colorado doesn't. It's the longest shot in the league, but San Jose has beaten impossible odds before.

Key matches: Vancouver vs. Dallas, St. Louis vs. Salt Lake, San Jose vs. Austin, Colorado vs. LAFC