Wow! Honestly, I had expected to clinch a playoff spot earlier, but I’ll more than gladly take a Djitte substitute hat trick to get us over the top! It felt like all of Central Texas exhaled all at once as Djitte took over this match.
With last night’s win, Austin eliminated Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake, and the LA Galaxy. As a result, we have secured at least the 5 seed in the Western Conference playoffs. A draw on Saturday against Nashville would be enough to clinch the 3 seed and a home playoff match between October 15-17. A win on Saturday along with a Frisco loss or draw against San Jose would clinch the 2 seed.
Below, I have created a single table starting with the remaining teams in both the West and the East that can finish above Austin FC. It’s honestly amazing that this list is down to 9 teams with 3 matches left in the season. It’s crazy that there is a world where by Sunday night, the only thing we are playing for is the overall 3rd seed vs CF Montreal (to be fair, that requires an Austin FC win, a Frisco draw/loss, a LAFC win, a Philly win/draw, and a Red Bulls loss).
| Western Teams | Magic Number |
| Minnesota United | 1 |
| Nashville SC | 1 |
| FC Dallas (Frisco) | 5 |
| LAFC | 3 to eliminate us from 1st place in the West |
| Eastern Teams | Magic Number |
| Orlando City | 1 |
| NYCFC | 2 |
| NY Red Bulls | 6 |
| CF Montreal | 12 (They need 8 to eliminate us) |
| Philadelphia Union | 1 to eliminate us from the Shield |
I’ll be back with another update on Monday based off this weekend’s results, and will start to look ahead at potential playoff matches as well.
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