Playoff spot and more on the line vs. Minnesota

CHESTER >> Saturday has the potential to be a special day for the Philadelphia Union.

There are three ways that the Union could find their way into the MLS Cup playoffs by the end of the day, one of which could occur before they kick off against Minnesota United at 7:30.

A win gets the Union (14-12-5, 47 points) into the playoffs with two games to spare. A draw and a draw between Montreal and Columbus in their afternoon tilt does the trick, too, as does a Montreal loss regardless of the Union’s result. That game, which starts at 3, pits the teams sitting in fourth and sixth place in the East against each other, with Montreal desperate for points to stave off hard-charging D.C. United.

But the Union’s dream scenario is neither of those: If Montreal (12-15-4, 40 points) beats the Crew (139-9, 48 points) at Stade Saputo and the Union handle business against all-buteliminated Minnesota (1116-3, 36 points), the Union will find themselves in fourth place, earning the inside track on hosting playoff soccer in Chester for the first time since 2011.

A home game has been the goal all along, and it would represent a step forward from the Union’s blink-and-you-miss-it 2016 playoff berth that lasted 90 minutes in Toronto.

“We’ve set ourselves up now with the record for wins in a season,” manager Jim Curtin said Wednesday at his weekly press conference. “We have three games left now to try to add for that, and again all to play for in terms of being focused on getting ourselves into the playoffs and trying to get as high a seed as possible. Working hard to now get our fans a home-field game here at Talen Energy Stadium. That’s the No. 1, singular focus of the group right now.”

Minnesota’s first trip to Chester presents the perfect opportunity. As Curtin said, the Union have set a franchise record for wins in a season and are one point from leveling the mark for points (48 in 2011). But more important is Curtin’s continued insistence that the Union could finish anywhere from third to seventh in the East, with the realist in Curtin focused on making sure it’s not at the bottom end of that spectrum. The Loons, sporting a 1-12-2 road mark, are good candidates from which to extract three points.

The Union have showed the recent resilience to nudge up the table. They were dreadful three weeks ago in a 4-1 powdering at the hands of the Impact but recovered to not only win in Seattle but handle Sporting Kansas City, then the Western leaders, at home with a reserve team.