A whole Saturday of Soccer went by and nothing that I thought would happen did. Toronto beat Salt Lake, D.C. beat Columbus, New England drew Chicago and on and on. The biggest surprise, for me, was Salt Lake (who was on a roll) losing to Toronto. They totally messed up my preconceived notions of how the playoffs would shake out.
Now, Toronto has put themselves into a playoff spot and left New England, Dallas, and DC (all with 39 points) losing the tiebreaker. Seattle clinched a playoff spot with their win over Kansas City and now there are only 3 playoff spots left up for grabs and 7 teams vying for those 3.
With only a couple matches to go some of these teams need big wins and NOW (because there won’t be a tomorrow.) One the last weekend of the season we have:
Chivas v. Chicago
Toronto v. New York
D.C. v. K.C.
Colorado v. Salt Lake
and
Dallas v. Seattle
Each of these matches hold significance but the Colorado and Salt Lake match has two teams vying for (essentially) the same playoff spot on the last day of the season.
Perhaps it may happen that the loser of that match could also make the playoffs, but in all likelihood whoever loses that last weekend is sunk. Though I’ll be paying close attention to Colorado and Salt Lake I will also be watching to see if there is an uneven combination of wins and losses that puts some teams in peril and others in a “sunny” spot where they can draw their way to the playoffs and not necessarily have to win.
I’ll spare everyone the math and say this: Lose and you’re out…win and you’re in. Chicago, Colorado and Toronto control their own destiny going into the final weekend of the season…let’s see what they do with such control.
