There are just two weeks left in the MLS regular season and the jockeying for the final four playoff spots will be extra intense this weekend as a handful of vital match-ups look to clear up the playoff picture.
The Chicago Fire, Seattle Sounders and Colorado Rapids can lock up playoff spots with wins this weekend while the New England Revolution attempt to halt a late-season slide that has several contenders dreaming of grabbing the final playoff berth.
Two teams already in the playoffs square off in the match of the weekend in Houston, where the Dynamo will take on the Galaxy.
Here is a breakdown of this weekend's MLS matches, along with the Best XI match-ups to watch:
4pm- Real Salt Lake at Toronto FC. RSL is a point out of a playoff spot, but must win in Toronto despite having the second-most road losses in the league. TFC has had time off to prepare for a two-game push for a playoff spot and those hopes, and Chris Cummins job as head coach, rest on beating RSL.
6pm- Chicago Fire at New England Revolution. The Revs are free-falling and must try and stop the bleeding against a Fire team getting healthier and good at winning on the road.
8pm- Columbus Crew at D.C. United. Last year, the Crew ended United's playoff hopes on the season's last day. Columbus could do it again on Saturday. D.C. had been strong at home, but the RFK edge has crumbled with three straight home losses. One more and D.C. will miss the playoffs again.
8:30pm- Colorado Rapids at FC Dallas. Two of the league's best strikers square off as Colorado tries to hold on to its playoff spots by beating red-hot FC Dallas.
8:30pm- Seattle Sounders at Kansas City Wizards. The Wizards fought gamely, but with their playoff hopes all but dashed, they will try to play spoilers against a Sounders team that can clinch a post-season berth with a win (for those wondering, KC would need to win out, have RSL tie Toronto, and have New England, TFC and RSL lose out the rest of the way, while also having D.C. United and FC Dallas both go no better than 0-1-1 in their final two matches). So yes, KC's playoff hopes are essentially toast.
10:30pm- San Jose Earthquakes at Chivas USA. The Earthquakes have lost Chris Wondolowski and Jason Hernandez for the season, leaving them even more short-handed against a Chivas USA team looking to grab first place in the West.
SUNDAY
3pm- Los Angeles Galaxy at Houston Dynamo. Two teams jockeying for the top spot in the West, and two teams trying to build momentum before the playoffs meet in a match loaded with the league's best players.
MLS Best XI Match-ups to Watch
Fredy Montero vs. Jimmy Conrad
Josh Wolff vs. Jhon Kennedy Hurtado
Julian DeGuzman vs. Javier Morales
Kyle Beckerman vs. Amado Guevara
Shalrie Joseph vs. Cuauhtemoc Blanco
Chad Marshall vs. Luciano Emilio
Jeff Cunningham vs. Corey Gibbs
David Ferreira vs. Pablo Mastroeni
Brad Davis vs. Sean Franklin
Brian Ching vs. Omar Gonzalez
David Beckham vs. Ricardo Clark
————
Which match are you most looking forward to watching? Think FC Dallas can keep up its hot streak? Can New England stop the bleeding? Who do you like in the Galaxy-Dynamo tilt?
Share your thoughts below.
Seattle came from behind against Houston on July 11th.
I was really proud of the Sounders today. They missed a ton of chances, and Marshall’s botched clearance was laughable. That being said I’m pretty sure it was the first time they’ve come from behind to win, and the quality that Ljungberg was showing on that endline was something else. I definitely don’t think they’re “backing their way in” to the playoffs.
KZ, winning a game on the road no matter the opponent is not backing into the playoffs. Seattle is 3-1-1 (including 4 of them on the road) in their last five games, not exactly letting other teams do the work for them (which would be backing into the playoffs).
Modibo, I had the same thought. How do you dive and spin 180 degrees? It was an awful call. Ries should have been red carded and Chicago should have been awarded a penalty kick.
MLS officiating a joke. One of, if not the, largest issue facing MLS enjoyment and credibility.
Seattle has less to play for there and has been off form as of late.
The first part of the statement could be true, but winning 2 in a row on the road hardly means you are out of form. If by out of form you mean they could have been up 4-0 at halftime then I agree.
They do need to start scoring some goals at home.
Good attendance all around the league! Toronto (20.4K;capacity), DC (16.3K given that it was raining), RSL (16.3K; weekday),KC (10.1K;capacity) Even NE (18K) and Dallas (15.5K)
Steve, I’m not sure how you got your information, but my calculations show that Toronto would hold the tiebreaker if they, Dallas, D.C. and New England are all tied at the end of the season.
Of course any team losing can mess up that formula, so none of those teams really control their own destiny. Just win and hope it all works out.
Brett
Seattle having issues at home lately has nothing to do with the atmosphere.
RedPepper- It seems at times this year that playing in front of a fully packed Qwest makes the Sounders play worse. Glad they got in though. DC fans will take offense, but Seattle clearly has the most impressive fanbase.
Steve,
Thanks man, that’s great news, I really hope FC Dallas can make it in, will really show the positive attributes of this league, and the playoff format.
And, if we do make it in, I have serious belief that we could go all the way, our team is looking incredibly dangerous.
In head to head series between Dallas, Toronto, New England, and DC, Dallas has the tiebreaker and therefore pretty much controls their own destiny.
Yessssssssss, SSFC are Innn!!!!!!…lets fill up Qwest Euro style!!
The first tie-breaker is:
1) The highest position shall be awarded to the team with the better win/loss record in current regular season games against all other teams equal in points. (head-to-head competition)
Head to Head between tied teams, I’m not one to do the math but I would like to know how FC Dallas would do against other teams that may tie w/ 42 pts.
Igor, FCD wins on goal differential. The other teams you mentioned play in the east and are not Chicago or Columbus so naturally they have a negative goal differential.
anyone watching the seattle – KC game knew after KC went up by one that Seattle was gonna come back. Seattle’s not usually a come-from-behind team, but the way they were creating chances was impressive
Dallas amazingly still controls its own destiny going into the last game after beating CO. Beat Seattle and they’re in. Tie them and maybe. I think Dallas gets in. Seattle has less to play for there and has been off form as of late. Winning 3-2 to a weak KC team is backing into the playoffs. Seattle will be at home, but Dallas is just plain ridiculous right now.
I think it’s also likely that 6 of the 8 teams will be from the western conference. Thank God MLS loosened up the format! The West is at +29 goal differential compared to The East.
Not only was Chicago robbed of a penalty, but Rolfe was punished for… what? Getting fouled by Reis? Now he walks away with a totally unjustified yellow card.
How do you manage to do a 180 degree spin if you’re diving with no contact from the keeper? The true divers of the world like C Ronaldo would like to add that one to their repertoire.
What a farce.
Sounders win 3-2 with two goals from Levesque, and Jaqua. Montero and Vagenas were subbed out. Sounders now in playoffs can give Dallas a shot next week, perhaps, don’t know the math, but that could be two great MLS stories, Seattle and Dallas.
Who wins the tiebreak between Dallas, NE, DC and TFC?
FC Dallas wins 2-1, I think we had 24 shots, should have had many more goals.
It looks like Sigi gave Vagenas the freedom not to defend?
big win for DC tonight 1-0 over Columbus
Sounders are disintegrating KC. Sea 1 KC 2.
Sounders continue to be terrible in front of goal, 4 or 5 easy chances missed. Sigi has Evans at RB and Vagenas at AM? Peter as an attacker?
a soccer specific stadium stadium….
FCDallas on track to playoffs! 1-0 @ halftime.
please NE, get a SSS stadium…
“Gotta give it to NE for apparently bribing the ref and getting away with a clear penalty.”
Fox color commentator during zero-zero NE v Chi game,
“Gotta give it to NE for taking it to Chicago”, he says.
No you don’t, were you expecting NE to play itself out of the playoffs, for a 0-0 tie or a zero minus one win.
@Bill
Good story, but old news. That was reported 2 weeks ago.
AP is reporting that the Revs’ assistant coach Paul Mariner is resigning his position after this evening’s match to take a coaching position abroad. Surprised he’d leave with one match remaining in the season. Good luck to him!
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/soccer/10/17/rev.resigns.ap/index.html
horrid foul call in the Chicago-NE game. Is that ref going to be removed from doing any further MLS games? truly horrid.
another clear penalty missed by mls referees. woohoo.
Wow, that non-pk call was a terrible terrible call.
chicago just got SCREWED by the ref
KC now out of it thanks to TFC win
Kevin,
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.
He had 1 decent goal, the other was a mishit off his shoulder and the freekick was awarded from the dumb oof tripping himself!
That was his best game ever for the Nats and it was still bad. He is lucky that the Rapids are dumb enough to let him take all their undeserving pk’s or he would only be a mediocre 10 goal forward.
one game doesn’t change anything. He is still an ass of a person and a terrible striker.
Conor Casey’s knee:
STILL? STILL HATING? Like last Saturday never happened.
go to channelsurfing.net and pretty much all the MLS games are there when you scroll down…not sure of what language they’ll be though.
after some unsuccessful searching I need help: can anyone find me an audio (i.e. radio) link to accompany my video feed? Thanks.
Here’s a better quality (video) link, but no sound (not for me at least) at the moment:
http://atdhe.net/watch-major-league-soccer.php?i=781035&t=Toronto%20FC%20vs%20Real%20Salt%20Lake
http://www.ustream.tv/channel-popup/lutv
Link for RSL/TFC game if anyone is wondering or cares 🙂
Here we go RSL!
Lets go RSL!
Come on RSL!
Seattle will win. Montero and Ljungberg will tear up that baseball field the Wiz play on.
Hopefully Casey has another great game and scores as many goals as he did against CR.
Go Raps! Go Casey!
Ives, dont forget that RSL had a midweek match, so they should be tiring near the end of this match….
Chad Marshall is out. Of course, there’s always the FIFA video game.
seattle must win
Technically, KC is still alive. They can max out at 38 and have the TB over NE.
I think they win a three way tie with NE and RSL on 38 points.
To remain alive, they need:
1) Win vs. Seattle
2) TFC/RSL draw (a winner would be on 39/40)
3) NE loss to Chicago (1 pt gives NE 39+)
4) FCD draw/loss to Colorado (win give 39)
5) Crew win/draw @DC
——————————
Then:
1) Win vs. DC (DC at 36/37)
2) RSL loss @COL (RSL at 38)
3) NY beats (or possibly draws) TFC
4) SEA over FCD (FCD on 36/37)
5) Crew beats NE
I don’t know who wins a 4 way tie on 38: NE, KC, RSL, TFC.
Anyway, KC is barely breathing, and might not be by the time they take the field, but they are breathing.
(SBI-Jason, KC has a faint pulse and is on a respirator that’s about to be pulled. As for tie-breakers, they have them on NE, TFC and RSL, but not on DC or FC Dallas.)