FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Watching the Revolution’s training session outside Gillette Stadium this morning, it couldn’t have felt any more like fall. It was cold. It was wet. Some of the players – names will be withheld to protect the innocent – even wore long pants.
For some, this shift in weather simply signals the end of summer and the inevitable march toward the harsh Northeast winter. But for MLS fans, it means the playoffs are right around the corner.
Hard as it is to believe, today is the final day of September, meaning just one month remains in the 2014 regular season. Every team in the league has only four or five games left on the schedule, and the playoff picture is starting to take shape … kind of.
Seattle Sounders FC and the LA Galaxy – tied atop the Supporters Shield standings – have already clinched their spots in the postseason. Meanwhile, Chivas USA and the Montreal Impact have both been eliminated from playoff contention and will finish out the season with only pride on the line.
Other than that, it’s kind of a cluster.
New England has used a fantastic run of form (7-2-1 in the last 10) to climb to second place in the Eastern Conference, but the fifth-place New York Red Bulls trail the Revs by only four points. With that in mind, it’s the time of year when almost every match featuring an Eastern Conference team has playoff implications.
Chief among those matches this weekend will be Saturday night’s clash between the Revs (14-13-3, 45 pts.) and Columbus Crew (11-9-10, 43 pts.), separated by a mere two points. A win would guarantee the Revs remain in second place for at least another week, but a loss could see New England drop dangerously close to the thin red line depending on other results.
That, of course, is precisely why it makes sense for Revolution fans to keep their eyes on these other Eastern Conference matchups throughout the course of the week and into the weekend.
Thursday, Oct. 2
Philadelphia Union (9-10-11, 38 pts.) vs. Chicago Fire (5-8-16, 31 pts.)
PPL Park, 8 p.m. ET
ESPN2
While Chicago remains mathematically alive in the postseason race – the Fire sits 10 points outside the playoffs with 15 points still on offer through the club’s final five games – it’s unlikely Frank Yallop’s side will be able to close that gap, particularly with three other clubs sitting between them and fifth place.
One of those clubs is Philadelphia, which sits just three points back of the fifth and final playoff spot and is very much still in the thick of the postseason race. The Union has slipped a bit in recent weeks – following up a three-game winning streak with a 0-1-2 stretch – but with three games still remaining against teams currently ahead of them in the East, Philly could be in the mix right until the very end.
Friday, Oct. 3
D.C. United (15-9-6, 51 pts.) vs. Sporting Kansas City (13-11-6, 45 pts.)
RFK Stadium, 8 p.m. ET
NBC Sports Network
This nationally-televised Friday night showdown is a fascinating one from a Revolution perspective, as it pits the two teams sandwiched around the Revs in the East against each other.
Entering this weekend’s action the Revs trail first-place D.C. United by six points, meaning they’d need Ben Olsen’s side to slip a bit in order to finish on top of the conference. It seems somewhat unlikely considering D.C.’s recent home form (five straight wins at RFK Stadium), but stranger things have happened in MLS.
On the flip side, Sporting KC enters the weekend tied with the Revs on points (45), trailing New England only on the first tiebreaker, which is overall wins. While it seems counterintuitive to pull for the only team ahead of the Revs in the East, D.C. getting a result in this matchup is the only scenario in which the Revs can separate themselves from Sporting KC in second place.
Saturday, Oct. 4
New York Red Bulls (10-9-11, 41 pts.) vs. Houston Dynamo (10-13-6, 36 pts.)
Red Bull Arena, 6 p.m. ET
NBC Sports Network
Another fascinating matchup in the East pits the fifth-place New York Red Bulls against the eighth-place Houston Dynamo. That gap isn’t as large as it sounds, however, as the Dynamo trails the Red Bulls by just five points, and holds the luxury of a game in hand.
The Red Bulls had their four-game unbeaten run (3-0-1) snapped this past Sunday night with an emphatic 4-0 loss to the LA Galaxy, but they’ve been strong in recent weeks behind the goal-scoring heroics of Bradley Wright-Phillips and could very much still pose a threat to the Revs with four games left on the schedule.
It would take something special for the Dynamo to make up the nine-point gap which separates them from the Revs, but Houston is in the midst of its annual late-season surge, going 3-0-2 in the past five games to keep itself firmly in the hunt for yet another postseason berth.
Saturday, Oct. 4
LA Galaxy (16-5-9, 57 pts.) vs. Toronto FC (11-11-7, 40 pts.)
StubHub Center, 10:30 p.m. ET
MLS LIVE
The only inter-conference battle of the weekend pits the sizzling LA Galaxy against Toronto FC, still alive in the postseason race as it continues to search for a first-ever playoff berth.
Toronto rekindled its postseason hopes last weekend, erasing a 2-0 halftime deficit to pick up a critical three points in a 3-2 win over the Portland Timbers. That leaves TFC just one point below the red line – and five points back of the Revs – with a game in hand on all five teams ahead of them in the East.
With that said, don’t count out TFC. And go ahead and cheer for the Galaxy. Just take a shower afterwards.
