The Union are one game away from an early end to their season. Their performances in a few other ones are to blame. As in, one point from the last nine available in an ultimately disastrous week, after the Union again battled but couldn’t take anything from a 3-2 loss at Columbus.
Or one, as in the number of one-goal games the club has won this season in MLS play, none since April 6. They’ve lost their last 10 one-goal decisions, adding the Columbus setback to a 2-1 loss to Orlando on Wednesday. And then there’s the one win in 17 games from mid-April to mid-July, a 1-10-6 run that is on the precipice of rendering the last team to suffer a loss at the start of the season a non-playoff qualifier.
So the Union will enter Decision Day in two weeks in 11th place, with 37 points, three points behind eighth-place D.C. United and ninth-place Montreal.
They sit behind Toronto, which was eliminated from playoff contention since it has played all 34 games and is idle on Decision Day. Though the Union have the tiebreaker on both of the teams they’re chasing, they’ve lost control of their destiny: They need a win over Cincinnati in two weeks and both D.C.
and Montreal to lose. D.C.
hosts Charlotte, and Montreal hosts New York City FC, teams that are sixth and fifth, respectively, in the East. The Union own goal differential tiebreakers on both, which is a benefit of needing a multi-goal lead in order to close a team out. Any result from either of those teams, though, and the Uni.