Well, Austin FC picked up its first road loss in nearly three months on Saturday night in Minnesota. If you had told us at the beginning of the season that a road run to Montreal, Charlotte, Colorado, Atlanta, Frisco, and Kansas City would have led to 16 points in 18, we would have all thought it was ridiculous. That absurd mid-summer run of form on the road makes the occasional road loss to another top team in the league far more tolerable (even if the performance was disappointing). Then again, yesterday’s arrival of Rigoni was the exact thing needed to lift our spirits as adding a dynamic winger will make a potential playoff run far more likely.
| Team | Magic Number |
| Sporting Kansas City | ELIMINATED from finishing above Austin FC |
| Houston Dynamo | 3 |
| San Jose Earthquakes | 4 |
| Portland Timbers | 7 |
| Vancouver Whitecaps | 8 |
| Colorado Rapids | 9 |
| Nashville SC | 10 Clinch Playoff Birth |
| Seattle Sounders | 10 |
| FC Dallas (Frisco) | 13 |
| LA Galaxy | 14 Clinch Home Playoff Match |
| Real Salt Lake | 15 Clinch US Open Cup Bye |
| Minnesota United | 18 Clinch 2 Seed (Potential Second Home Playoff Match) |
| LAFC | Needs 16 points to eliminate us |
In the other matches 6 Western Conference matchups, we started on Friday night with a tight playoff battle between the LA Galaxy and the Seattle Sounders. Honestly, the thrilling 3-3 draw was a perfect result for our guys as these two potential playoff opponents (and honestly the two teams we want to see least at McKalla in mid-October as a 7 seed) both dropped two points. On Saturday, San Jose, surprisingly staved off elimination with a 2-1 home win over LAFC. If we can replicate that home win over LAFC on Friday, then both San Jose and Houston would be eliminated from finishing above us. Honestly, Houston’s dramatic last minute equalizer in Colorado helped us get closer to a playoff bid with each team dropping 2 points in the 1-1 draw. The other Saturday night match was also a helpful 1-1 draw between Real Salt Lake and the Vancouver Whitecaps in Utah.
On Sunday, we got two blowouts. We got a gift from Sporting KC in their 4-1 rout of Portland. While Sporting KC is eliminated from finishing above us, they are still in the playoff race. It’s the MLS so anything is possible. In the nightcap, Nashville suddenly regained their home form and crushed FC Dallas 4-0.
We won’t be able to clinch a playoff spot next week with any set of results, but a win over LAFC would go a long way towards having a small chance to clinch at home against Portland on August 31st (we’ll have a chance to eliminate Portland as long as we don’t lose to LAFC and Portland beats Seattle on Friday night). As our road correspondent (I was drafting this piece on my sad flight back to the heat from the cool breezes of Minnesota), I still think that we will likely clinch in either Nashville or Seattle next month, but I will not complain if it happens earlier or due to the results of another team. The goal remains simply to make it to the playoffs as the #2 seed.
We have no midweek matches, so the next update will come next Monday.