Playoffs are set!

Well not really, but at least we know who is in and who is out.

The in teams:

WEST: LA Galaxy, Seattle Sounders, Real Salt Lake

EAST: Sporting KC, Philadelphia Union, Columbus Crew

WILD CARDS: FC Dallas, Colorado Rapids, New York Red Bulls, Houston Dynamo

There is still a whole lot to be decided in the last couple days of the season.  FC Dallas and the Houston Dynamo could move into a top 3 spot and out of the wildcard group.  Real Salt Lake, Columbus Crew, and Philadelphia Union could all drop down into a wildcard position.  That might not be all bad for Real Salt Lake actually.

The first round of the playoffs will be two game involving all the wild card teams.  the top seed will play the bottom seed and the middle two will play each other.  Of those winners, the team with the lower seed will play the LA Galaxy.  The winner with the higher seed will play the winner in the East.

Right now FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake are tied for 3rd place in the West/1st wild card seed.  Assuming they are able to win their wild-card round game, that means one of those teams will enter the East side of the playoffs against some combination of Sporting KC, Philadelphia Union, Columbus Crew, and Houston Dynamo.  That sounds much easier than having the Galaxy and Sounders to get through.

The downside to FC Dallas or RSL for finishing 4th would be that one extra game they’d need to play just to get to the round of 8.  That extra game will be against one of Colorado Rapids, New York Red Bulls, or Houston Dynamo.  So you’ve got the defending champions, and the Red Bulls who a lot of people thought were going to be the top team in the league this year.  Maybe it wouldn’t be beneficial to finish 4th over there?

On Saturday Real Salt Lake is at home to play Portland Timbers.  FC Dallas goes to the San Jose Earthquakes.  I’m sure both teams will be going for a win, but are you sure you’d want to win if you were in their situation?