The expected happened down in Houston.
The semi-expected happened in Washington, D.C., and in New York.
And the unexpected shook things up a little in New England.
It all served to settle the fight for five playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, although the order is far from arranged.
The Houston Dynamo and D.C. United got the wins they needed to secure playoff spots in the East. Chicago had a chance to apply some pressure on first-place Sporting Kansas City. But New England’s win over Chicago made things a little harder on the Fire.
Meanwhile, United is now well positioned to avoid the 4th-vs.-5th knockout match. Houston and New York are currently in that one, and they both play on the road in Round 34 (although both against teams out of the playoff hunt by weeks). The Dynamo travel to play Colorado while New York travels just down the coast to meet Philadelphia at PPL Park.
Interesting that Chicago finishes against D.C. United in a match that between teams that currently would meet in the first round – er, the “old” first round, I suppose, which is now the “second-round,” depending on what we are calling that new, one-off between the fourth- and fifth-place finisher. Anyway …
Here are the standings after a night of flux in the East.
By the way, at one point in the “live” standings, D.C. United was in fourth, the Columbus Crew was “in” and Houston was “out.”
So, yes, a night of flux, as you can see …:
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- jrocknstuff - Oct 21, 2012 at 9:41 AM
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That DC United/Fire tie is in Chicago.
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- ndnut - Oct 21, 2012 at 12:08 PM
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So DC United, a team that was fighting for it’s playoff life and then avoiding the wild card game not that long ago has a chance at 1st in the East? How did this happen?
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- genebrooklyn - Oct 21, 2012 at 11:16 PM
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Unless I have messed up my addition, because DC and Chicago meet next week, only in a weird circumstance would a NY win over Philadelphia not put them into 3rd place thereby avoiding the 4th/5th play-in game. A NY loss or draw would put them in the play-in game (and possibly on the road).
Assuming a 1-0 NY win giving them 57 points, a win by Chicago would put Chicago in 2nd with 59 points and DC into a tie with NY with 57 points, but first tie breaker is Goals For and if DC scored 2 or fewer goals, NY would move into 3rd with 55 goals to DC’s 53 or 54. A loss by DC in which DC scored 3 goals or more would throw it into Goal Difference as tiebreaker where DC has an advantage.
Assuming a NY win giving them 57 points, a win by DC would put NY into 3rd, beating Chicago’s 56 points.
Assuming a NY win and a Chicago draw, both NY and Chicago would end up with 57 points, but NY has outscored the Fire 54-45. Assuming a 1-0 NY win that would require a 10-10 Fire-DC draw, but NY still wins the Goal Difference tiebreaker.
So order of finish primarily comes down to whether or not NY wins at Philadelphia.
