My preferences that are decently likely to happen: I think Seattle is the toughest West playoff team to beat, SKC in 1st and Seattle in 3rd means two other teams get a chance of eliminating Seattle before SKC potentially meets them. (1) SKC vs. LAFC - SKC wins or draws to get 60 or 62 points and finish First in West with first round bye and homefield throughout Western Conference playoffs. SKC would also host MLS Cup if a team other than NYRB or ATL wins the East (more on that below) (2) Dallas @ Colorado - Dallas wins to get to 60 points. SKC has +15 GD over Dallas if they both tie at 60 points and 17 wins. (3) Seattle vs San Jose - Seattle wins to get to 59 points and third place. Alternately, Seattle draws and SKC beats LAFC, putting Seattle in third at 57 points, winning tiebreaker over LAFC at 57 points (4) LAFC - will be at 57 or 58 points in fourth after loss or tie to SKC (5) Portland @ Vancouver - irrelevant as long as Seattle ties or wins, and Dallas wins. (6) LA Galaxy vs Houston - LAG wins to finish 6th. Western Playoffs Knockout round if above comes true: (6) LA @ (3) Seattle. Seattle has won 13 of their last 15 (soon to be 14 of 16!!). The last team to beat Seattle? LA and Zlatan. I want SKC to play LAG in the 2nd round. Eastern Conference: Root for DCU (4) DCU @ Chicago - DCU win to move into 4th place and knockout round home game. (3) NYC vs (5) PHI - NYC win or tie to push PHI into 5th place DCU then wins the Eastern Conference playoffs. Could happen - over the last two months DCU is 2 wins, 2 draws vs NYC, ATL and NYRB (3 of these 4 were at home). I am rooting for SKC playing DCU at CMP for MLS Cup, and getting pay back for 2004 MLS Cup. Beating Wayne Rooney is a bonus. What are your preferences?
I still can't get over how big the last two games were to get us to this point. This year's team is so different from the past four years. To go on the road and win both games in the space of 5 days, at this point in the season, is amazing. And everyone is basically healthy except for the long-term injuries like Medranda and Lobato. Can't wait for next Sunday!
just by looking at who we struggled with throughout the season, i'd actually prefer to have dallas in third and have someone eliminate dallas and hope that galaxy gets the point they need to take rsl out of the playoffs. the 3-0 imo masks how close this game was. If Dallas scores on any of their 3 top chances in the first half, or scores on the penalty at the start of the second, the game would've been completely different. Seattle has the biggest expected goal difference differential of any mls team. Of course, some of that might be superior goal scoring prowess compared to other teams and having one of the if not the best goalkeeper in mls, but just from the games I watched i'd say they had more than their fair share of lady luck going their way. Just judging by quality of team, I'd rate SKC, Dallas, Portland and LAFC above them, but then again confidence is an important factor in soccer, and they have lots of that given their recent run..