Where KC Stands With One Game Left

There's just one week left in the season for the Eastern Conference and there's still quite a bit to play for in the East. While DC United has wrapped up the top seed and New England has wrapped up the second seed, the other three playoff teams can still finish anywhere between third and fifth depending on the final results.

Here's how the third through fifth spots in the East currently stand after Columbus defeated New York 3-1 today in New York.

		Points	Wins
3	Sporting	49	14
4	Columbus	49	13
5	New York	47	12

Kansas City is ahead of Columbus because of the first tie breaker, wins.

Next week, Kansas City hosts New York at Sporting Park while Columbus hosts Philadelphia. Both games take place on Sunday, but the Crew kick off at 3pm Central time while Sporting and New York kick off at 7:30pm. So both KC and New York will know the result that they need before they kick off.

First things first, the simplest thing for Kansas City to do is to just win. A win and the result between Columbus and Philadelphia doesn't matter. Since KC owns the tiebreaker with Columbus at this point a win guarantees Kansas City a date with New England.

A draw or a loss for Kansas City and KC becomes reliant on the result in Columbus. If Kansas City draws with New York, KC would be guaranteed third or fourth as they would finish ahead of New York. A Columbus loss or draw against Philadelphia and KC would be third, a Crew win and KC would finish fourth.

A loss to New York next week, and the play in game is a guarantee for Kansas City. The Red Bulls would leap frog Kansas City with a win. A Columbus win or draw combined with that and KC would fall all the way to the fifth spot in the East, and would head out on the road for the wild card game. If New York wins and Columbus loses, KC would finish in fourth and host the Crew.

If KC falls into the wild card game, Sporting would play four games in 12 days, with the trip to Costa Rica this week in the Champions League. Then if KC gets through the wild card game, KC could end up playing five games in 15-16 days, certainly not an ideal situation for a team that is already suffering through a number of injuries and some fatigue.

Taking a page from on of the members of the Crew's Massive Report, here's a table with all the potential results.