The regular season is over which means it is time for the LWOS writers MLS playoff predictions. The regular season ended with a bang as we saw a Western conference rivalry battle for the Supporters Shield, a season goal scoring record performance from Bradley Wright-Phillips, Portland’s narrow miss of MLS post season play, the retirement of an MLS stalwart in Logan Paulsen as his team sent him off with a win, and glimpses of why Columbus and New England will provide the most entertaining of the 4 conference semifinal matchups. Now it is time to focus on the run to the cup. Thirteen Last Word On Sports writers have been drooling over the playoff matchups over the past week looking to provide their most educated predictions as to whom they think will win the Cup on December 7th.
Among this year’s list of playoff teams we find the defending MLS Cup champion Sporting Kansas City (2 MLS cups), the two most successful teams in MLS history in DC United and Los Angeles Galaxy (4 MLS cups and Supporters’ Shields each), former MLS Cup champions Columbus Crew and Real Salt Lake (1 cup each), 4 time runner up, but never champion, New England Revolution, Supporters’ Shield winner Seattle Sounders, the New York Red Bulls, boasting the league’s top goal scorer, and two under the radar teams looking to surprise everyone in FC Dallas and Vancouver Whitecaps.
Good news for LA and Seattle is that nine times in the past 18 MLS seasons at least one of the top two teams (Supporters’ Shield winner and runner-up) have made it to the cup final, that’s 50% of the time, while 33% of the past winners have been Supporters’ Shield winners. Of course, this means that there is a 50% chance that the final could include any of two of the remaining eight teams as well.
Below is a rundown of picks from 13 writers for the upcoming MLS playoffs. In order to make editorial deadlines, we shortened the predictions to cover the main course of the playoffs, Conference Championships, MLS Cup and MLS Cup MVP.
| LWOS Writer | Eastern Runner Up | Eastern Champion | Western Runner Up | Western Champion | MLS Cup Champion | MLS Cup MVP |
| Aldo Ventresca | SKC | NY Red Bulls | LA Galaxy | Seattle | Seattle | Obafemi Martins |
| Alec Rivera | New England | DC | FC Dallas | Seattle | Seattle | Obafemi Martins |
| Eric Walcott | DC | New England | Seattle | LA Galaxy | LA Galaxy | Landon Donovan |
| JC Zambrano | Columbus Crew | NY Red Bulls | LA Galaxy | Seattle | Seattle | Stefan Frei |
| Joe Goldstein | DC | NY Red Bulls | FC Dallas | LA Galaxy | LA Galaxy | Landon Donovan |
| John Bava | Columbus Crew | New England | Seattle | LA Galaxy | LA Galaxy | Robbie Keane |
| John Richan | NY Red Bulls | DC | LA Galaxy | Seattle | Seattle | Djimi Traore |
| Laura McFayden | Columbus Crew | DC | LA Galaxy | Seattle | Seattle | Obafemi Martins |
| Matt Pollard | DC | New England | Seattle | LA Galaxy | LA Galaxy | Landon Donovan |
| Michael Norton | DC | New England | LA Galaxy | Seattle | Seattle | Lamar Neagle |
| Roger Cleaves | NY Red Bulls | New England | LA Galaxy | Seattle | Seattle | Ozzie Alonso |
| Seb Segarra | DC | SKC | LA Galaxy | Seattle | Seattle | Djimi Traore |
| Verne Magnus | NY Red Bulls | New England | Vancouver | LA Galaxy | New England | Lee Nguyen |
The popular choice by the writers to win the cup are this year’s Supporters’ Shield winners, Seattle Sounders, with 8 writers. The other choices are LA Galaxy (4) and New England Revolution (1). The New England Revolution are being picked as the team most likely to fall in the Final with 5 votes (6 votes to make the Final in total). Other lovable losers getting votes are DC United (3), New York Red Bulls (3), LA Galaxy (1) and Sporting Kansas City (1).
When it comes to MLS Cup MVP predictions, even though Seattle overwhelmingly has the writers’ picks to win the cup, it appears we all have differing opinions on who will lead the team to glory. Obafemi Martins and Landon Donovan lead the MVP predictions with three votes each. Three out of four writers, who chose LA to win the cup, believe Donovan will be the MVP, with one writer claiming “but he won’t deserve it.” Other MVP choices include Seattle’s Djimi Traore (2), Ozzie Alonso (1), Stefen Frei (1), and Lamar Neagle (1), while LA’s Robbie Keane (1) and New England’s Lee Nguyen (1) round out the MVP predictions.
10 out of 13 writers have LA and Seattle in the Western Conference final with FC Dallas (2) and Vancouver Whitecaps (1) being pegged as potential party crashers. In the East, the picture is a bit muddier in terms of whom the writers chose to make the conference final. DC leads the writers’ picks in terms of Eastern Conference championship appearance with 8, followed by New England (7), New York (6), Columbus (3) and Sporting Kansas City (2).
If our predictions are right and we follow the majority of the predictions, MLS fans should see a Seattle v. New England final at CenturyLink Field for the MLS Cup, with Obafemi Martins showing off why he is this season’s MVP candidate.
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Main Photo via EmpireOfSoccer.com
