How the Earthquakes can climb MLS standings, secure a playoff spot on final day

The Earthquakes path to the MLS playoffs is narrow but after Saturday s results elsewhere in the Western Conference they know what they must do to ensure a postseason spot San Jose sits in th place in the West with points entering the final week of the season The top nine teams make the playoffs with the Nos and seeds facing each other in a single-elimination wild-card event The Quakes can find their way into that competition with a win in their regular-season finale Saturday against Austin FC p m Apple TV and specific help elsewhere Dallas FC points Real Salt Lake points and the Colorado Rapids points occupy the three spots ahead of San Jose in the standings If the Quakes win and any of those three teams lose San Jose will leap that association in the standings after accounting for tiebreakers They must climb over two of them to earn a spot in that wild-card match A Colorado draw would also allow San Jose to leapfrog the Rapids Salt Lake and Dallas entered this weekend with a chance to separate themselves but lost to Seattle and the LA Galaxy respectively Colorado like the Quakes was off this weekend Related Articles San Jose Earthquakes - road loss to Vancouver damages their postseason chances Earthquakes use first-half goal from Josef Mart nez to beat San Diego - Earthquakes fall out of MLS playoff spot as St Louis City hands San Jose a - loss Earthquakes draw record crowd fall to LAFC in Levi s Stadium World Cup preview Quakes return to Levi s Stadium expecting record crowd vs LAFC superstar Son As for the difficulty of their matchups the Quakes face Austin the No seed while Dallas plays West-leading Vancouver Whitecaps FC Salt Lake visits th-place St Louis and Colorado hosts No seed LAFC All four games will kick off at p m Pacific on Saturday as the Quakes seek to leap into a playoff spot in Bruce Arena s first season in charge