It's that time of year. As the fall marches towards the winter, you can smell the chaos in the air. Ladies and gentlemen: Welcome to the MLS Playoffs.
Unfortunately, the script writers couldn't quite fit Lionel Messi into the festivities. Inter Miami dug themselves too deep of a hole before his arrival, one not even the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner could quite shovel them out of. It would have been a wild sight, though: seeing Messi try and help claw Miami through the MLS postseason.
No Messi, no problem, though. As always, the postseason field is wide open, with any number of teams feeling like they can go on a big run. It starts on Wednesday with a pair of Wild Card matches featuring each conference's bottom two seeds. From there, the first round will be played in a best-of-three format, with each team hosting one of the first two games and the third being hosted by the higher seed, if necessary. After that, it'll be single-elimination right up until the MLS Cup final on December 9.
So how did we get here and who is likeliest to come out on top? GOAL takes a look at every team as we prepare for the start of the postseason: