New England claims last playoff berth

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Oct 25, 2009

[MLS] The 2009 MLS playoff race went down to the final game, and the New England Revolution claimed the eighth and final berth in the playoffs with a 1-0 at Columbus on Jeff Larentowicz's free kick late in the second half. The win sent the Revs to the playoffs for the eighth straight year. For more on the final weekend of play and the playoff pairings ...


Sunday's finale followed a night of drama when Real Salt Lake became the seventh team to clinch an MLS playoff berth when it beat the Colorado Rapids, 3-0, and all the teams on 39 points either tied or lost. If the Revs had lost, Colorado would have earned the eighth spot ahead of D.C. United thanks to its better goal difference.

With 40 points, RSL won a three-way tiebreaker with D.C. United and Colorado for the fourth wild-card spot.

D.C. United blew a chance to clinch a playoff berth when it conceded a game-tying penalty converted by Claudio Lopez after Fred stopped a shot with his arm on the goal line in stoppage time and it had to settle for a 2-2 tie at Kansas City. (Rodney Wallace later had a chance to win the game for D.C. but his shot hit the post.)

FC Dallas could have also clinched a berth with a win but it lost at Seattle, 2-1, after leading into the second half. The loss ended a valiant run by FCD, which had won four games in a row to get within striking distance of the playoffs.

In the day's first game, the New York Red Bulls exited Giants Stadium in style, handing Toronto FC a 5-0 defeat that makes the Canadian club the only MLS team to have never qualified for the playoffs.

Standings:
EASTERN W L T GF GA P +/-
*Columbus 13 7 10 41 31 49 +10
*Chicago 11 7 12 39 34 45 +5
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WESTERN W L T GF GA P +/-
*Los Angeles 12 6 12 36 31 48 +5
*Houston 13 8 9 39 29 48 +10
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WILD CARD W L T GF GA P +/-
*Seattle 12 7 11 38 29 47 +9
*Chivas USA 13 11 6 34 31 45 +3
New England 11 10 9 33 37 42 -4
*Real Salt Lake 11 12 7 43 35 40 +8
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Colorado 10 10 10 42 38 40 +4
+D.C. United 9 8 13 43 44 40 -1
+FC Dallas 11 13 6 50 47 39 +3
+Toronto FC 10 10 10 37 46 39 -9
+Kansas City 8 13 9 33 42 33 -9
+San Jose 7 14 9 36 50 30 -14
+New York 5 19 6 27 47 21 -20
*=Clinched playoff berth.
+=Eliminated from playoff contention.

Results:
New York 5 Toronto FC 0
NY -- Macoumba Kandji 3 (Albert Celades 4, Juan Pablo Angel 2) 2
NY -- Juan Pablo Angel 11 (Macoumba Kandji 5) 33
NY -- Juan Pablo Angel 12 (Jeremy Hall 1) 62
NY -- Macoumba Kandji 4 (unassisted) 70
NY -- Matthew Mbuta 1 (penalty kick) 94+

Real Salt Lake 3 Colorado 0
RSL -- Robbie Findley 11 (Fabian Espindola 3, Andy Williams 5) 15
RSL -- Robbie Findley 12 (Andy Williams 6) 33
RSL -- Yura Movsisyan 8 (Javier Morales 5) 85

Kansas City 2 D.C. United 2
KC -- Kei Kamara 6 (Graham Zusi 1) 30
DC -- Jaime Moreno 9 (penalty kick) 67
DC -- Julius James 1 (unassisted) 82
KC -- Claudio Lopez 7 (penalty kick) 92+

Seattle 2 FC Dallas 1
DAL -- Atiba Harris 4 (Daniel Hernandez 1) 14
SEA -- Nate Jaqua 9 (Fredy Montero 7, Freddie Ljungberg 8) 61
SEA -- Brad Evans 3 (Freddie Ljungberg 9) 84

Los Angeles 2 San Jose 0
LA -- Own Goal (Bobby Burling) 24
LA -- Landon Donovan 12 (Chris Klein 3) 77

Houston 3 Chivas USA 2
HOU -- Andrew Hainault 1 (Ryan Cochrane 1, Brad Davis 11) 26
HOU -- Dominic Oduro 1 (Brad Davis 12) 29
HOU -- Abe Thompson 1 (Geoff Cameron 6) 52
CHV -- Michael Lahoud 1 (Paulo Nagamura 2, Justin Braun 2) 59
CHV -- Eduardo Lillingston 8 (penalty kick) 88

Columbus 0 New England 1
NE -- Jeff Larentowicz  1 (free kick) 79

Leading Scorers:
Jeff Cunningham, FC Dallas 17
Conor Casey, Colorado 16
Fredy Montero, Seattle 12
Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Columbus 12
Landon Donovan, Los Angeles 12
Robbie Findley, Real Salt Lake 12
Juan Pablo Angel, New York 12