The race for a spot in the 2019 Audi MLS Cup reaches it's antepenultimate, with the majority of both Eastern and Western Conference teams played 31 out of the 34 regular season matches. One of the glamourous franchise of the league might miss out of the playoff for the often time. The Los Angeles Galaxy had disappointedly missed the 2017 and 2018 playoffs respectively and could yet miss the 2019 playoff with tricky games left on their roster.
14 places(7 each from both conferences) are up for grabs in the postseason championship. All of the Eastern Conference's current top 7 teams but the New England Revolution had secured the postseason status, as shown in the table above, leaving either of the Chicago Fire, Montreal Impact & the Orlando City SC with a realistic chance of justling out with the New England Revolution for the remaining single spot. The Western Conference, on the other hand, has 6 spots left to compete for, with Los Angeles FC the only side safely in the postseason championship. As much as 10 other clubs including the Los Angeles Galaxy are still vying for the 6 playoff spots as shown in the table below.
Los Angeles Galaxy(Western Conference);
Five(5) times MLS Cup winner, Los Angeles Galaxy(2002, 2005, 2011, 2012 & 2014) was living dangerously close to missing the playoff, having dropped out of playoff spots following a string of poor results. However, the LAG has fought their way back into contention with back-to-back victories, which have now lifted them from 8th to 4th position on the Western Conference log table. The latest win, a 2-1 home win over Montreal Impact came at the back of a 7-2 win over Sporting Kansas City. Zlatan Ibrahimovic(31') and Uriel Antuna(50') combined to set up a goal apiece for each other in the 2-1 win while Lassi Lappalainen(48') scored for Montreal Impact.
Having also scored a hat trick in the 7-2 win over Sporting Kansas, Ibrahimovic now has 27 league goals, just 2 behind league-leading scorer, Los Angeles FC's Carlos Vela(29 goals). With 3 matches left on the regular-season roster, both Ibrahimovic and Vela alongside Atlanta United FC's Josef Martinez(26 goals) chase the 31-goal single-season record set by Martinez himself last season.
Playoff seems to be within LAG's grasp now, with 2 out of their last 3 fixtures against opponents outside the playoff places, bottom sides Houston Dynamo(10th) and Vancouver Whitecaps FC(12th), plus the seemingly tough tie against 5th place Real Salt Lake. The next 2 games for LAG are crucial to their playoff quest, back-to-back away games at Real Salt Lake and Vancouver Whitecaps FC, defeats in both games would make the last game against Houston Dynamo a must-win on home turf. However, if there is any team that can hurt LAG at their backyard, it would be the Houston Dynamo. It could be recall how the Houston based franchise stopped the LA Galaxy from making the playoff in the 2017 season, LA Galaxy was leading 2-0 at home but then got pegged back and stunned 2-3 at the Dignity Health Sports Park.
Ibrahimovic, after the 2-1 win over Montreal claimed to be the "MVP of the MVPs" but can he help LA Galaxy complete the revival and steer them to a 1st playoff spot in 3 seasons? There is only one way to find out.
Yours sincerely @peman, Thanks.
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