Sadly, BYU football will qualify for the National Championship playoffs before the Twins take the Yankees down in the post-season.
I need my update telling me how DC United is going to blow being up 8 points on 8th place with 3 games to go.
They could lose out and would still only have about a 6% chance of missing the playoffs at this point. So it's not really theirs to blow up at this point... Especially since there are no "six-pointers" in their last three games. It needs a conspiracy from the rest of the East. X-D
... The "Toast Burned By Fire?" Update ... Notes Let's start with the WC. LAG jumped from 8th to 5th, which seems like a big deal but is really indicative of a lot of mid-table teams clustered closely together. For now, FCD is the WC team on the outside looking in, but that could all still change. Beneath that middle pack, the rest of the table is either eliminated or burnt toast, so it's not like there's much threat from below. In the EC, ATL has clinched a playoff spot, but that's not all that interesting. TFC and DCU are very close behind, with both teams needing only 2 points out of their final 3 games to clinch a spot. DCU hosts SEA, travels to NYR, and hosts CIN. TFC is away to LAX, away to CHI, and hosts CLB. (That's toughest schedule in the league, right now.) And, of course, if MTL and CHI drop 2 points, TFC and DCU effectively clinch. (I'm not going to bother with the ORL 45 PT tiebreaker angle because I prefer to deal with the realm of reality.) That leaves NYR and NER, who are more catchable by either the toasted MTL or the toasted CHI than you might think. MTL is away to LAG, home to ATL, and home to NYR. CHI is away to CIN, home to TFC, and away to ORL. Theoretically, either of these teams could catch a stumbling NYR or NER, though it's more likely for CHI given the schedules. In other words, this thread is on Lazarakia watch.
C'mon, FCD - return SJE to their customary place immediately below the red line. We all know you can do it!
At least one of them. It only had three Dallas games -- it was missing the Seattle game from last night. Haven't looked more closely than that.
It seems something went awry in compiling the schedule, and I did the corrections by hand a while back. It's possible I missed one. You know who to blame ...
The weird thing is that I would've thought that adding more teams while keeping the playoff line close to 50% of the teams would make the playoff races crazier as more and more teams clumped into the middle of the bell curve near the line. The last couple of years have had relatively limited will they/won't they make the playoffs tension, but instead most of the races are the actual jockeying for positions. Probably just random noise and not really a trend. On the other hand the other part of adding more and more teams is bearing out. We're seeing teams farther out on the curve. Toronto in 2017, Atlanta last year, and this season's LAFC's team have been three of the most dominant teams in league history.
LAFC can clinch the Supporters Shield if they win on Saturday and NYCFC doesn't win on Sunday. An LAFC win with an NYCFC draw would still leave the possibility of a tie at 67 points, but LAFC would win the tiebreaker with more wins.
Help of The Toast Almighty is the only hope of Bruce Almighty. NER need at least 4 points, and maybe 6. And those points are hard to find.
The Red Bulls broke the points record last year. They didn't win MLS Cup, but you should still name them with Toronto and Atlanta.
That's insane that with 2-3 games left to play only 1 team in the west has clinched a postseason berth! A shame the playoff structure doesn't provide any drama.