Major League Standings- Watching points slip away

We blew it.

We had a chance at three points and should have taken all of them. We did just enough in the first, but dropped intensity and fell off the wagon in the second half leading to taking home only a single point. Luckily for Seattle Sounders FC, Vancouver blew it versus NYCFC. MLS had crazy results across the table this weekend, some helpful and some less helpful. But none as detrimental as the Sounders not taking their own three points to their chance at that first round bye.

Wednesday 9/23

Skipping the CCL from this week because...there's a lot of MLS and all you really cared about was the Sounders 3-0 win over Vancouver.

Montreal Impact 2 - Chicago Fire 1: First game without Frank Yallop and guess what, more of the same. Chicago continued their wonderful display of sucking...In other expected news, Didier Drogba scored again. Drogba keeps this up and Montreal will make the playoffs.

Houston Dynamo 1 - Sporting Kansas City 0: Houston took a 1-0 lead late, then went down to 10-men but still KC could not find a way to score (even with their starters.) Matt Besler and Benny Feilhaber picked up yellows, giving them yellow card accumulation suspensions. Houston is surging up the table, but more importantly KC's inability to get points out of their games in hand is the best solution for the Sounders to get a great playoff spot.

Friday 9/25-

New York Red Bulls 2 - Orlando City 5: Orlando's playoff hopes lie entirely in Montreal's hands, and they have to help themselves with more wins like this. They went into Jersey to play the best team in the East and handed their schnitzengruben to them on a silver platter. Cyle Larin had a hat trick of goals and Kaka a hat trick of assists. The Purple Lions want that playoff spot, but their fates rests on the shoulders of Khakis, not an easy way to get results in MLS. They have some hope, I guess, but Montreal is gaining hot and has games in hand, oh and is ahead of them already.

Saturday 9/26-

Toronto FC 3 - Chicago Fire 2: We can knock out Frank Yallop's tactics as the reason CHI was loosing as they pick up two one-goal loses this week without him. Toronto meanwhile is on a pendulum trying to decide whether they want to be a top team or if they prefer sliding backwards into the playoffs screaming "HELP!!!" This week they picked "MLS Cup threat" but round one of the playoffs (EVER!) is when they'll really have to decide.

Montreal Impact 2 - DC United 0: Forgive me for not thinking that the win over Chicago guaranteed a good result against DC, even in Canada. Montreal has been very, very questionable at times in 2015 but in this one...more of the same. There weren't dominant and but managed to demoralize DC after Drogba went up 2-0 in the 11th.

New England 1 - Philadelphia Union 1: This match was a positive for anyone wanting to see East leaders drop points in hope of an MLS Cup Final hosting gig. It was a boring affair though, worth watching only if you other choice is paint drying. Okay maybe it isn't actually that bad but there are definitely better games worth watching.

Columbus Crew 1 - Portland Timbers 2: One of the games that wasn't bad but definitely not good when it comes to the standings. Portland stays above the red line and stays a single point ahead of San Jose. Will Johnson was not in the 18 and new signing Lucas Melano was on the bench. Fanendo Adi came up with both goals and came into the good graces of Portland fans. If PDX wins their game in hand on us, they would be ahead. It'd be nice to see a slip from them; they'd do it for Randall Scott.

Houston Dynamo 3 - Colorado Rapids 2: They have played one more than Portland but they are sitting just three points back of them with three to play. One of those matches is hosting us and we should still be confident (even with today's result,) the game this club presents is much different than the walk in the park that most Houston games have been this season. The scoring was early and often with it going to half 2-2 and Brad Davis getting the winner on a rebound in the 47th. No reds this time for Houston either.

Vancouver Whitecaps 1 - NYCFC 2: The slide for the 'Caps continues falling with this one to Man City Lite on a late penalty. Frank Lampard opened the scoring in the 27th and the game stayed fairly quiet with NYC controlling play throughout most of the match. A late penalty tied it up with Pedro Morales calmly converting in the 88th. Vancouver looked like they had survived, reluctantly taking just a point at home against a bottom dwellers. But it was not to be; Matias Laba took out Frank Lampard in the box leading to a David Vila special; beating keepers. Vancouver loses the #1 spot.

Sunday 9/27-

Sporting Kansas City 1 - Sounders FC 1: Welp that didn't end how I predicted. The Sounders did well enough in the first but too lethargic in the second half and that cost them. Any points though are good and if you told me a month ago that we'd get four points from a late season two game road trip against playoff sides, I'd be happy. So there's that.

San Jose Earthquakes 1 - Real Salt Lake 0: Would've been better to have RSL win (or even better, a draw) since San Jose is closer to the red line, though even a win didn't get them back into the playoffs with Portland also winning this weekend. SJ suffered a late red with Matias Perez Garcia picking up his second yellow. San Jose picked up three yellows outside of Garcia's two and RSL picked up two as well in what was a yellow card battle where both teams seemed to think more cards won, not more goals. Unfortunately, Kyle Beckerman and Tony Beltran were not on accumulation warnings, so their yellows are fairly meaningless.

LA Galaxy 3 - FC Dallas 2: Not the worst result for Dallas because while they wanted the points to go up to #1, they do still hold one game in hand on Vancouver (one point ahead) and two games on LA (three points ahead). LA got two quick ones scoring in the 11th and 14th minutes from their DPs Keane and Dos Santos. Dallas started a comeback getting it 2-1 before the half but they let in a Gerrard goal in the 57th after making a major save on an Omar Gonzalez header. Atiba Harris gave me and Dallas fans life with an 86th minute goal but it wasn't enough. They kept pressing and almost found the tying goal late but fell just short. This was the only result of the weekend that objectively didn't go Seattle's way (other than, you know.)

Sounders are still within striking distance of the top two and that should be what they strive for, getting that first round bye. A win gets them past Vancouver and Dallas but still they have games in hand on us. The likelihood of a top two finish is dwindling but making the playoffs is probably higher than the 96% that was floating around after the Vancouver game. We could fall out but we are in a pretty good spot and unlike OCSC or MCL, we control our own destiny.

MLS Standings

USL-

Sounders 2 had to travel to Colorado Springs to play a single game playoff after sliding in as the sixth and final seed. The side hoped to really threaten the Switchbacks but a lot of players fell flat and Colorado was the better team on the night, taking a 2-0 win through into the 2nd round of the playoffs. S2 still gets to champion being a playoff team in their first year but it all depends on what you expected out of the developmental side.