Decision Day in Frisco: FC Dallas Needs One Point Against Colorado on Saturday to Lock Up Second Place in the West
FC Dallas closes the regular season at home Saturday at 6 p.m. CT against the Colorado Rapids with 55 points and second place in its own hands: a win or a draw guarantees second, home field for Round 1 is already secured, and only a loss paired with a San Jose win drops Dallas to third.
The math for FC Dallas on Decision Day is the simple kind, and the club's own stakes file, read in full this run, lays it out. Dallas hosts the Colorado Rapids on Saturday, November 7, at 6 p.m. CT to close the regular season, carrying 55 points and a 15-8-10 record. A top-three finish in the Western Conference is already guaranteed, and with it home-field advantage for Round 1 of the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs, a best-of-three series.
Second place is Dallas's to keep. The club finishes second with a win or a tie against Colorado, regardless of anything else. It drops to third only in one combination: a loss to Colorado and a San Jose Earthquakes win against Minnesota United. Third place would mean a Round 1 meeting with sixth-place LAFC. Second place means the seventh-place finisher — one of the LA Galaxy, Portland Timbers, Colorado Rapids, Seattle Sounders or Real Salt Lake, per the club's file.
Colorado arrives with the opposite problem. The Rapids sit ninth with 43 points and a 12-14-7 record, with one win in their last eight — though that one win came over first-place Vancouver — and MLSSoccer.com's Decision Day rundown, read this run, notes that a win at Dallas would book Colorado's playoff spot outright. If Colorado were to finish seventh and Dallas second, the two could meet again in Round 1 — as many as four straight meetings including Saturday. The desk's game file follows Saturday's final.
