Photo by Unkown

Indeed we are, and the MLS playoff race is spectacular this year. The league has changed the format so that each conference gets two guaranteed spots, and the final four spots are all wild card, meaning theoretically one conference could get six teams in and the other only two. This ensures that the best eight teams in the league get in, regardless of where they play. This lends itself to an exciting final two months of the season. The current standings and my predictions below.

 

Standing	Points	Games Played	Goal Differential
Columbus Crew Eastern #1	42	24	10
Houston Dynamo Western #1	40	26	8
Chicago Fire Eastern#2	39	25	5
Los Angeles Galaxy Western #2	38	25	2
Seattle Sounders FC Wildcard	37	25	7
Colorado Rapids Wildcard	36	24	8
D.C. United Wildcard	36	26	1
Chivas USA Wildcard	36	23	1
Real Salt Lake	34	25	8
Toronto FC	34	25	-3
New England Revolution	33	23	-4
FC Dallas	27	24	-1
Kansas City Wizards	27	24	-7
San Jose Earthquakes	20	22	-13
New York Red Bull	16	25	-22

As you can see, things are a little bit congested toward that magnificent gap between playoffs and watching everything from home. I'm going to take a look at each of the remaining fixtures and how I see them going down.

This weekend (Away : Home)

New England 2:0 Red Bull New York

Colorado Rapids 1:1 San Jose Earthquakes

Chivas USA 0:1 Seattle Sounders

FC Dallas 2:0 Kansas City Wizards

Real Salt Lake 0:2 Houston Dynamo

Toronto FC 2:3 LA Galaxy

Columbus Crew 1:1 Chicago Fire

Week of 9/23

San Jose Earthquakes 0:1 Colorado Rapids

LA Galaxy 0:2 Columbus Crew

Seattle Sounders 2:1 New England

Colorado Rapids 1:0 Kansas City Wizards

Real Salt Lake 0:1 FC Dallas

Toronto FC 2:1 Chicago Fire

New York Red Bull 0:2 Chivas USA

San Jose Earthquakes 0:2 DC United

Week of 9/30

New England 1:2 FC Dallas

Chicago Fire 1:2 LA Galaxy

Chivas USA 2:2 DC United

Seattle Sounders 1:2 Columbus Crew

New England 2:2 Colorado Rapids

New York Red Bull 1:3 San Jose Earthquakes

Kansas City Wizards 0:2 Houston Dynamo

Week of 10/7

FC Dallas 2:0 San Jose Earthquakes

San Jose Earthquakes 0:3 Toronto FC

Columbus Crew 2:1 New England

Kansas City Wizards 1:3 Chivas USA

Week of 10/14

New York Red Bull 0:2 Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake 1:2 Toronto FC

Chicago Fire 2:1 New England

Columbus Crew 2:1 DC United

Colorado Rapids 2:3 FC Dallas

Seattle Sounders 2:0 Kansas City Wizards

San Jose Earthquakes 2:3 Chivas USA

LA Galaxy 1:3 Houston Dynamo

Week of 10/22

Chivas USA 1:1 Chicago Fire

Toronto FC 2:0 New York Red Bull

DC United 1:0 Kansas City Wizards

Colorado Rapids 0:2 Real Salt Lake

FC Dallas 0:1 Seattle Sounders

San Jose Earthquakes 0:3 LA Galaxy

Houston Dynamo 1:1 Chivas USA

New England 0:1 Columbus Crew

A lot of movement from multiple teams that are currently not in playoff position leaves the playoff picture looking as following.

Columbus Crew: 58 points

Houston Dynamo: 50 points

Seattle Sounders: 49 points

Chivas USA: 48 points

LA Galaxy: 47 points

Toronto FC: 46 points

Chicago Fire: 44 points

Colorado Rapids: 44 points

D.C. United: 43 points

FC Dallas: 42 points

Real Salt Lake: 40 points

New England: 37 points

Kansas City Wizards: 27 points

San Jose Earthquakes: 24 points

New York Red Bull: 16 points

The lasts weekend determines the final playoff spot, as Chicago draws to hold off D.C. United, as they beat Kansas City to give themselves a shot at getting in. FC Dallas makes a late push but cannot get enough points to get into the playoffs. New England struggles even with games in hand, and Chivas USA rides a hot streak to move up in the playoff ranks quickly. Real Salt Lake plays the toughest schedule remaining as they cannot force their way into the playoff picture. The Western Conference behind its depth has five teams qualify for the playoffs. Toronto FC comes from out of the dark behind the play of DeGuzman and DeRosario, and have to be considered one of the most dangerous teams coming into the playoffs. The teams that have qualified make for quite possibly the most exciting MLS post season ever.