2011 MLS Cup Playoffs
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| Country | United States Canada |
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| Teams | 10 | ||
| Defending champions | Colorado Rapids | ||
| Champions | Los Angeles Galaxy (3rd title) | ||
| Runners-up | Houston Dynamo | ||
| Semi-finalists | |||
| Matches played | 13 | ||
| Goals scored | 27 (2.08 per match) | ||
| Top goal scorer(s) |
 Landon Donovan Mike Magee Álvaro Saborío(3 goals each) |
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The 2011 MLS Cup Playoffs was the sixteenth post-season tournament culminating the Major League Soccer regular season. The tournament began on October 26 with the play-in round and concluded on November 20 with the championship match. It was the first playoff series to include ten clubs, two more than the traditional eight. Six of the ten teams earned a direct bye into the conference semifinals, while the four wildcard teams played a single-elimination match to earn a berth into the conference semis. These eight clubs played in a single-elimination tournament en route to playoffs championship MLS Cup 2011, which doubles as the league championship for the 2011 MLS season altogether.
The defending MLS Cup champions were the Colorado Rapids, who beat FC Dallas 2–1 in the 2010 championship.
As the preliminary round was eliminated from the CONCACAF Champions League, both finalists directly entered 2012–13 CONCACAF Champions League Group Stage, along with the Supporters' Shield winner for the regular season and the 2011 U.S. Open Cup champion. However, none of these berths were available to the league's two Canadian teams, which instead participated in the Canadian Championship for that country's single berth in the CONCACAF Champions League.
The format for the tournament was announced on February 23, 2011. The top three clubs in each of the league's two conferences will earn the six automatic spots in the quarterfinals. The wild-card entrants, seeded seventh through tenth, will enter based upon their overall position in a single table of the league standings. The new format is assembled so that the weakest seed to qualify out of the wild-card rounds will have to play the Supporters' Shield winner. The other entrant will play the conference champion that did not win the Shield.
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