The Sounders have one nice simple path to the playoffs: Win on Saturday at Kansas City. (Here’s my story from today’s paper.)
However, there other paths to the postseason are available to the Sounders, even with a loss or a draw this weekend. And MLS was kind enough to provide them, thereby preventing my head from exploding. Here they are:
Seattle Sounders FC will clinch playoff spot IF
· Seattle defeats Kansas City
Seattle Sounders FC will clinch playoff spot IF
· Seattle ties Kansas City AND
o D.C. United fails to win vs. Columbus AND
o FC Dallas fails to win vs. Colorado AND EITHER:
§ RSL fails to win vs. New York Wednesday AND Toronto fails to win vs. RSL OR
§ Toronto and RSL tie on Saturday
Seattle Sounders FC will clinch playoff spot IF
Seattle loses to Kansas City AND
o D.C. United fails to win vs. Columbus AND
o FC Dallas fails to win vs. Colorado AND EITHER
o RSL loses to New York AND TOR fails to win vs. RSL OR
§ RSL and New York tie AND Toronto and RSL tie
All kinds of possible paths- many very improbable, a few likely, one well-marked- beat Kansas City.
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Was looking back at the past four weeks, and only three teams have put together back-to-back wins in the last month- Chivas (the past two weeks, with two draws preceding the wins), Dallas (on a three game win streak), and- of all teams- San Jose (who’ve played six games in the past month, and went draw draw win win loss draw).
Columbus and Los Angeles are the only other teams to get two wins out of four weeks (Columbus went draw win loss win, and L.A. went win loss win bye). Houston and Colorado went without losses (Houston played only two games for a win and a draw, and Colorado with four draws).
At the other end, New England has a win and two draws to go with two losses, and the only other teams with two losses in the past month are D.C. United (two losses in two games played) and Salt Lake (two losses and a draw out of three games played- maybe better luck tomorrow night against New York who- like Toronto- has two draws and a loss in the past month).
Looks like other than the top four teams, only Dallas is showing a strong end game. And of the other teams in the hunt, only Colorado, Seattle and Kansas City are playing .500 (and Colorado is doing it with four straight draws).
With the top three teams in the West facing each other (and San Jose), and the .”hot” contending teams facing primarily each other, I’d say every game out there remains a crapshoot for handicapping. Sure things? Probably only Columbus at D.C. and then hosting New England.
So who knows what it will look like after Los Angeles at Houston on Sunday?
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