With the Vancouver Whitecaps out of the picture in MLS Championship play it gets down to four teams that are playing for the 2017 Major League Soccer all vying for the MLS Audi Cup Championship Trophy.

The final four after an exceptional battle in the first “leg” has Western division Seattle Sounders taking on the Houston Dynamo, while the East final has Toronto FC going against the Columbus Crew with the winners squaring off December 9th at the home field of the highest ranking team.

It will be a single game title shot for the right to raise the Championship Cup and let’s not forget that the Seattle Sounders are the defending MLS champions.

This season they finished second in the Western Conference managing to eliminate the Vancouver Whitecaps in what was a hard fought two game total goal series.

The I-5 freeway battle as it’s known to those on the West Coast managing to pull off a 2-0 goal aggregate advancing to the Western Conference finals.

Houston (Dynamo) on the other hand got past the knockout round defeating Sporting KC 1-0 advancing to play the regular season West Champion Portland Timbers.

They managed to eliminate them winning the series 2-1 on goal aggregate moving on to face the defending MLS champions – Seattle Sounders.

The opening match in the west final saw Seattle shutout the Dynamo 2 nil taking game one in Houston, that see’s game two scheduled for Thursday November 30th with the winner advancing to the championship game – er: match!!

The east final saw Toronto FC get a first round bye for finishing first overall in what many will call a record breaking year for the franchise, finishing with the most points ever by a regular season championship.

They managed to grab 69 points from 34 games doubling their opponents on the scoreboard by scoring 74 goals, allowing only 37 against.

The Columbus Crew advanced with a 4-3 aggregate over New York City FC taking the opener 4-1, managing to hold off New York winning the second game 2 nil.

The win sees the Columbus Crew advance to the eastern finals taking on Toronto in a two final set, which will be an exceptional match-up.

In the opening game saw both teams battle to a scoreless (0-0) draw, that will see game two played November 29th at BMO field.

Toronto will attempt to reach the finals for the second straight season in the MLS and should this happen it will be a rematch with Seattle.

The complete MLS playoff bracket listed below for the link to all the results of this years playoffs.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/mls-cup-playoffs/2017/bracket

Last year’s final was saw Toronto FC and the Seattle Sounders head to extra time following the regulation 90 minutes playing time plus the added 30 minutes playing time that virtually decided nothing.

The final saw the Sounders crowned Champions by means of a penalty kicks thereby having everyone knowing that this was clearly one of the best ever final.

So what is going to happen this year is virtually anyone’s guess, but it should be a highly anticipated final – regardless of who makes it to the dance!!

Thanks to Sportswave reporter Bruce Nolte for the article.