The penultimate match of the regular season for most teams begins on Sunday with playoff spots and seedings up for grabs and two sides who are involved in that are Charlotte FC and CF Montreal and they meet in a key game.

Both teams head into this one off the back of midweek wins but as always in the third game of a week an away side is massively disadvantaged, especially if they were away in midweek too as Montreal were.

Montreal won in Atlanta on Wednesday night and have to go on to Charlotte without much turnaround time. That is hard enough without going to a place where the home side are 8-5-3 on their own patch for the season.

Charlotte secured their playoff berth in midweek but won’t have given up on a top four finish which would give them two home games in the best-of-three first round of the playoffs and this is must win for them if they are to achieve that.

They were at home in midweek and are home here so the schedule won’t have inconvenienced them as much so this looks like a good chance for another home win.

We now know that the Columbus Crew will not be the number one seed in the Eastern Conference heading into the postseason but they will be keen to secure the second seed so that they host a potential semi-final. They need to get back to winning ways to keep those hopes in their own hands.

They meet a Philadelphia Union who are slowly seeing their playoff hopes fade away after a disappointing pair of results against Atlanta United and away to Orlando City in midweek.

They now go to one of the best teams in MLS who will be hurting from their loss to Miami in midweek and who will be out to show that they are better than what they delivered in that huge game on Wednesday night.
Columbus have the squad to rotate and not really weaken their ranks whereas that isn’t the case for the Union who appear to be feeling the pressure at the wrong time.

Philadelphia were in Orlando and the humidity there on Wednesday night and need to play this match on Saturday night and that looks a tough ask. Columbus should be taken here.

Two of the lower teams in the Eastern Conference meet on Sunday as well when the already eliminated New England Revolution play host to a DC United side who must be buzzing after their incredible late turnaround win in Nashville on Wednesday night.

That win pushed DC United right to the fringes of the playoff zone whereas had they have lost their season would have been all but over. They know they need to keep on winning to extend their season so have no other choice other than to give this a right good go.

If DC are going to win this they will probably need to score multiple goals again because their defence hasn’t kept a clean sheet in 26 outings in the MLS and have only kept two all season.

The Revolution know their season ends on Decision Day unless they win their last three games and plenty of results go their way. They are averaging two goals a game against them this term though so they might need three if they are going to win here.

A match between leaky defences which both have to win has the recipe of over 2.5 goals about it.

Two sides at opposite ends of the table meet at Children’s Mercy Park when Sporting Kansas City host Los Angeles FC in a repeat of the US Open Cup final from just over a week ago.

LAFC won that competition in extra time to end the Kansas City season from a competitive point of view and now they will be out to pick up three points which will see them fend off the charge for second spot.

LAFC have had an up and down last month but they got the job done against St Louis in midweek and now they will be looking to pick up a win against the other Missouri side.

The positive for Los Angeles when we have weeks like these is they have so many options to rotate their side and not weaken themselves.

Sporting KC will be out for revenge here but their leaky defence will do well to keep Los Angeles at bay and with nothing competitive to play for you have to think that the home side could be sitting ducks to a rampant LAFC outfit.

The last leg of the Sunday accumulator takes us to the other team in Los Angeles in the shape of the Western Conference leaders LA Galaxy who play host to Austin FC in a key game in the penultimate round of the season.

Galaxy are a maximum of four points away from securing the top seeding in the West heading into the playoffs which would mean that they are guaranteed home advantage right through to the MLS Cup Final, which they would host if they win their last two regular season matches so long as they don’t play Inter Miami in it.

That is huge incentive for Galaxy to keep going at the end of a week where they have already been to Colorado and picked up a fine win.
To be fair to Austin, they went to Portland and won in midweek but two long-haul trips in the space of three days is tough for anyone let alone one whose season is all but over competitively.

No team in MLS have picked up more home points than Galaxy who are 12-3-1 at home this term. This looks like a great chance for three more here.