The 2012 MLS Cup Playoffs was the seventeenth post-season tournament culminating the Major League Soccer regular season.

For the first time in MLS Cup Playoffs history, each Conference Championship was also a two-leg aggregate series, as opposed to the traditional single elimination match.

[3] The MLS Cup championship still remain a single match, but the team with the stronger regular season record, the Los Angeles Galaxy, hosting the final at their home venue.

They were joined by San Jose Earthquakes, the Supporters' Shield winner, and Sporting Kansas City, the 2012 U.S. Open Cup champion.

[5] For 2012, the league's previous system of "wild card" qualification—which had the potential for "crossover" series in which one team could play in the other conference's bracket—was scrapped.