There may not have been a winner between Sporting Kansas City and the Philadelphia Union in their 1-1 draw on Friday night, but two other teams certainly did come out on top with the result.
The tie between the Eastern Conference foes ensured that in the opposite coast, Real Salt Lake and the Seattle Sounders – currently in 2nd and 3rd place in the Western Conference – could celebrate an early playoff berth before they took on their respective opponents in Saturday’s Week 28 fixture.
This marks the fourth consecutive time that 2009 MLS Cup champions RSL will advance to the postseason after missing out on the big dance in the first three campaigns of their seven-year history.
Seattle, meanwhile, will be participating in their third-straight postseason. In 2009, the Sounders became the second expansion team ever to reach the playoffs. However, in years past, they’ve yet to go beyond the first round.
With their ticket to the postseason punched, the Sounders can now focus on catching the LA Galaxy in the race for the Supporters' Shield. Seattle defeated the Vancouver Whitecaps, 3-1, on Saturday and trail the Galaxy (61 points) by 4 points with four games remaining. Meanwhile, RSL's Shield hopes were dealt a serious blow after they lost to D.C. United, 4-1. They now trail LA by 10 points with five games remaining, though they will likely focus on chasing Seattle for a higher playoff seed.
At the other end of the table, the expansion Whitecaps were eliminated from playoff contention with their loss to the Sounders.
