MLS Cup: 2025 dates, schedule, format, history, past winners, how to watch

The MLS Cup is Major League Soccer's annual championship game and pits the winners of the Eastern and Western conferences against each other, with the victors ultimately being crowned league champions.

Continue reading for all you need to know about the MLS Cup, including 2025 dates, past winners, format and more. 

MLS Cup date

The 2025 MLS Cup Final date is yet to be announced. The 2024 edition took place on Saturday, December 7, and with the 2025 season set to end in mid-October, a similar date for the 2025 Final is likely.

MLS Cup time

The 2025 MLS Cup's start time is yet to be determined.

MLS Cup location

The MLS Cup is held at the home ground of the higher seeded team contesting the match. For example, the 2024 Final was held at Dignity Health Sports Park, home of the LA Galaxy, who defeated the visiting New York Red Bulls 2-1 to end the season.

Read more: Major League Soccer 2025 dates, schedule, teams, stadiums, and more

How to watch MLS Cup

All postseason matches will be streamed on Apple TV as part of the MLS Season Pass.

MLS Cup Playoffs format

The MLS Cup crowns Major League Soccer's champion and brings the curtain down on the season, but there is plenty of work for the teams to do before they can even contemplate playing in the championship game.

In 2024, the regular MLS season ran from February-October with the top nine teams from both the Eastern and Western conferences qualifying for the playoffs.

The exact playoff format often changes from year to year in MLS.

The playoffs were extended in 2023 - and continued in 2024 - to include a Wild Card round contested between the teams that finished eighth and ninth in each conference.

Those one-off Wild Card matches were played at the home of the higher seeded team, with the two winners advancing through to round one of the playoffs. This year, the first round was played over a best-of-three series, which saw the higher-seeded team play two matches at home and one away.

The eight round one winners then advanced through to the Conference Semi-Finals, which were contested as a one-off match at the home of the higher-seeded team, as are the Conference Finals.

The two conference winners then went on to contest the one-off MLS Cup Final.

How many times has the MLS Cup taken place?

The MLS Cup has taken place 28 times and has been held in every year since D.C. United won the inaugural title, beating Los Angeles Galaxy 3-2 in the final in 1996.

Most MLS Cup wins

LA Galaxy are the most successful team in MLS Cup history, lifting the trophy a record six times - the last of which came in 2024 - while they have also reached the showpiece match on more occasions than anyone else, making 10 appearances.

D.C. United are the only other side to have won the title more than twice, as they have been crowned champions on four occasions, although the last of those came in 2004.

Houston Dynamo, Seattle Sounders, Sporting Kansas City, Columbus Crew and San Jose Earthquakes are the other teams that have won the title more than once.

MLS Cup previous winners and MVPs

Year	Winner	Score	Runner Up	MVP
1996	D.C. United	3-2*	LA Galaxy	Marco Etcheverry
1997	D.C. United	2-1	Colorado Rapids	Jaime Moreno
1998	Chicago Fire	2-0	D.C. United	Peter Nowak
1999	D.C. United	2-0	LA Galaxy	Ben Olsen
2000	Kansas City Wizards	1-0	Chicago Fire	Tony Meola
2001	San Jose Earthquakes	2-1*	LA Galaxy	Dwayne De Rosario
2002	LA Galaxy	1-0*	New England Revolution	Carlos Ruiz
2003	San Jose Earthquakes	4-2	Chicago Fire	Landon Donovan
2004	D.C. United	3-2	Kansas City Wizards	Alecko Eskandarian
2005	LA Galaxy	1-0*	New England Revolution	Guillermo Ramirez
2006	Houston Dynamo	1-1 (4-3)**	New England Revolution	Brian Ching
2007	Houston Dynamo	2-1	New England Revolution	Dwayne De Rosario
2008	Columbus Crew	3-1	New York Red Bulls	Guillermo Barros Schelotto
2009	Real Salt Lake	1-1 (5-4)**	LA Galaxy	Nick Rimando
2010	Colorado Rapids	2-1*	FC Dallas	Conor Casey
2011	LA Galaxy	1-0	Houston Dynamo	Landon Donovan
2012	LA Galaxy	3-1	Houston Dynamo	Omar Gonzalez
2013	Sporting Kansas City	1-1 (7-6)**	Real Salt Lake	Aurelien Collin
2014	LA Galaxy	2-1*	New England Revolution	Robbie Keane
2015	Portland Timbers	2-1	Columbus Crew	Diego Valeri
2016	Seattle Sounders	0-0 (5-4)**	Toronto FC	Stefan Frei
2017	Toronto FC	2-0	Seattle Sounders	Jozy Altidore
2018	Atlanta United	2-0	Portland Timbers	Josef Martinez
2019	Seattle Sounders	3-1	Toronto FC	Victor Rodriguez
2020	Columbus Crew	3-0	Seattle Sounders	Lucas Zelarayan
2021	New York City	1-1 (4-2)**	Portland Timbers	Sean Johnson
2022	Los Angeles FC	3-3 (3-0)	Philadelphia Union	John McCarthy
2023	Columbus Crew	2-1	Los Angeles FC	Juan 'Cucho' Hernandez
2024	LA Galaxy	2-1	New York Red Bulls	Gaston Brugman

* Game won after extra time  ** Game won on penalties

2025 MLS Cup odds

Odds to win the 2025 MLS Cup Final have yet to be released.

View the latest MLS Cup odds here. 

Odds displayed within this article were correct at the time of writing and are subject to change.