Sporting Kansas City 1 - 0 D.C. United
Final
  for this game

Sporting can wrap up first in East at United

Oct 21, 2011 - 9:43 PM Washington, D.C. (Sports Network) - Sporting Kansas City wrapped up its first playoff berth since 2008 last weekend, and can seal first place in the Eastern Conference on Saturday in the last game of regular season.

Kansas City visits D.C. United, which was eliminated from playoff contention on Wednesday, with a tiny cushion atop the East. Sporting and Philadelphia are on 48 points, but the Union ended their regular season Thursday.

With the tiebreaker in its favor, Sporting already has the edge on the Union - but the Columbus Crew and the Houston Dynamo could still finish first.

Columbus visits the Chicago Fire, which was eliminated from playoff contention this week, on Saturday. Houston hosts the Los Angeles Galaxy on Sunday, in the final match of the regular season. Both teams are within two points.

K.C. (12-9-12) can erase all the scenarios with a win over United, and secure home field advantage throughout the Eastern playoffs.

Since opening the year on a record 10-game road trip, when it went just 1-6-3, Kansas City has lost just three games and has been one of the top teams in MLS this season.

"From the staff's perspective, I think we stayed very resolute to what we believed in," said Kansas City manager Peter Vermes. "We knew we had a good team.

"We knew we could play a certain way, unfortunately it took some time and we knew that it would do that as well."

United (9-12-12) hoped to complete a worst-to-playoff season, but its 1-1 draw with the Portland Timbers ended its chances (it would have been eliminated by New York's win over Philadelphia on Thursday anyway).

Now, D.C. will try to end its season with a win and secure the Golden Boot for Dwayne De Rosario. De Rosario has a career-high 16 goals to lead MLS, with 13 of those coming in 17 games since joining United in early July.

It could be a little consolation for United, which has missed the playoffs for four consecutive seasons. Coach Ben Olsen took the blame this week after the team was eliminated in his first season in charge.

"I'll take the blame for it. I can promise you I'll get better as a coach, and this team will get better," Olsen said.

Still, Olsen hoped to end the regular season on a positive note, and will take the season finale seriously as a result.

"We don't want to end this year on a loss," Olsen said. "We want to reward our fans with something to cheer about.

"We will go at it with the best team possible."






Related News