Both the Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps clinched MLS playoff berths with victories Wednesday.

But that doesn’t mean Saturday night’s matchup in Seattle between the Cascadia Cup rivals is meaningless.

With only six points separating second-place Seattle (13-9-10, 49 points) and seventh-place Portland, playoff seeding is still in doubt. Vancouver (12-10-10, 46 points) is currently fifth in the West.

The Sounders defeated the visiting Los Angeles Galaxy 2-1 Wednesday, running their unbeaten streak to seven matches (3-0-4), as Cristian Roldan scored the winner in the final minute of second-half stoppage time.

Seattle is returning to the playoffs after missing out in 2022, the only season since it joined MLS in 2009 in which it failed to qualify for the postseason.

“That’s a team win,” Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said. “I’m happy for the group that we were able to put ourselves in the playoffs, not having us just kind of back our way in, because I think that group deserves every accolade.”

Jordan Morris also scored for Seattle, his team-leading 11th of the season.

“At certain points it wasn’t our best game, but to grind out like that at this point in the season and clinch playoffs is big,” Morris said. “The team doesn’t quit, the team doesn’t give up.”

The Whitecaps clinched their playoff spot and snapped a four-match winless streak with a 3-0 victory Wednesday against visiting St. Louis City SC, which has already captured the Western Conference title. Brian White, Sebastian Berhalter and Richie Laryea scored second-half goals.

White’s goal was his 15th of the season, tied for third in the league behind Los Angeles FC’s Denis Bouanga (17) and FC Cincinnati’s Luciano Acosta (16).

“The big difference (Wednesday) was you could see that we wanted to win from minute one,” Whitecaps coach Vanni Sartini. “We were hangry — not hungry — but hangry. Hungry and angry together from those from the last couple of performance and we did well.”

This will be the third meeting of the season between the teams. They split the first two, both played in Vancouver, with the Whitecaps winning 2-0 on May 20 and the Sounders coming away with a 3-2 victory July 8.

The Whitecaps haven’t won in Seattle since 2016, going 0-8-1 over their past nine trips.

–Field Level Media

The Los Angeles Galaxy will try to keep their slim MLS Cup playoff hopes alive Saturday when they play sputtering Minnesota United in Saint Paul, Minn.

Both teams likely need to win out to have any chance at making the Western Conference playoffs. Los Angeles (8-12-11, 35 points) trails ninth-place FC Dallas by six points for the final playoff spot with three matches left for both teams.

Minnesota United (9-12-11, 38 points), which fired head coach Adrian Heath Friday morning, is three points behind but has just two matches remaining.

The Loons bring a seven-match winless streak (0-4-3), tied for the longest in franchise history, into the contest after an ugly 5-1 loss LAFC Wednesday. That contest could have been even more lopsided if not for a 10-save performance by goaltender Dayne St. Clair.

Less than 48 hours later, Heath, the only manager the Loons have had in their seven years of existence, and technical director Mark Watson were both shown the door. Assistant coach Sean McAuley will manage the team for the final two matches.

“In terms of why now, it’s not something that comes rash after a bad defeat in L.A.,” franchise CEO Shari Ballard told reporters at practice Friday. “I felt the performance had been plateauing a bit the last couple of years. We’ve had some really positive stuff and some things that have been hard. As we got through the year it just continues to go in the wrong direction.”

Minnesota United are in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in five seasons. The Loons are tied with the last-place Colorado Rapids for fewest home wins in MLS with three.

The Galaxy come in off a 2-1 loss at Seattle Wednesday. Cristian Roldan scored in the sixth and final minute of stoppage time to win it for the Sounders and deny L.A. a crucial point. Douglas Costa had tied the match for the Galaxy with a goal in the 54th minute.

“To lose the point at the end is heartbreaking for the group.” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney told reporters. “The gut punch at the end is that it’s the last play of the game.”

L.A. rallied for a 4-3 victory over Minnesota United in a Sept. 20 match in Carson, Calif., and finishes the season with home matches against Real Salt Lake and FC Dallas.

“We know what we have to do. We have to win all our games,” defender Kelvin Leerdam said. “So I’m not looking at which team we’re playing, where we’re playing. I’m only thinking about winning.”

–Field Level Media

Real Salt Lake’s playoff fate will not be decided on the final day of the regular season for a third consecutive year. The Utah club enters its home finale against Sporting Kansas City Saturday with a postseason berth assured.

Salt Lake (13-11-7, 46 points) clinched a spot in the MLS Cup Playoffs after Los Angeles FC beat Minnesota 5-1 on Wednesday. That result followed on the heels of RSL’s 1-0 road victory over LAFC on Sunday — their first ever regular-season win over LAFC away from home.

Chicho Arango scored the match’s only goal in the 72nd minute when he headed the ball off a curled cross from Rubio Rubin to the far post. Arango’s 99th goal of his pro soccer career, combined with Zac MacMath’s eighth clean sheet in 2023, helped Salt Lake earn a club-record seventh road victory this season.

“You couldn’t have scripted it any better,” RSL coach Pablo Mastroeni said. “It’s a fantastic story for Chicho. He’s really important (for) his leadership and his drive in this group.”

Kansas City (10-14-8, 38 points) finds itself in a desperate situation with two matches left. They trail FC Dallas by three points for the final wild-card spot and needs a victory or draw in Utah, coupled with a Dallas loss to San Jose, to keep its scant playoff hopes alive.

A lack of consistency has proved problematic for Kansas City in recent matches. A 4-1 setback to first-place St. Louis last Saturday marked the third loss in five matches for the club.

St. Louis ran off four goals in a 12-minute stretch late in the second half to pull away. Their flurry prevented Willy Agada’s stoppage-time goal off a header from having any meaningful impact.

“Why did we give up those goals? Poor decisions,” Kansas City coach Peter Vermes said. “It was poor decisions. At the end of the day, it was just poor decisions.”

Salt Lake and Kansas City met once earlier this season, battling to a 2-2 draw in July.

–Field Level Media

The Houston Dynamo have already booked their place in the MLS Cup Playoffs and will try to improve on their seeding when the already-eliminated Colorado Rapids pay a visit Saturday.

The match closes Houston’s home regular-season schedule and ends a brutal run of seven games in 22 days.

Within that, the Dynamo (12-11-9, 45 points) defeated Inter Miami to win the U.S. Open Cup final on Sept. 27 and qualified for their first postseason since 2017.

The Dynamo enter Saturday just one point out of a top-four postseason spot, which would give them at least one home match in the postseason.

And when the Dynamo only managed a 1-1 draw at Montreal on Wednesday night after conceding a late equalizer, in a game without suspended captain Hector Herrera, the fact that the disappointment was palpable was also a sign of how much the club has progressed.

“When you let a team hang around and they throw on big boys and get extremely aggressive, you can only hold that off for so long,” Houston coach Ben Olsen said. “(We) had a courageous defensive performance and plenty of looks, and I love how the expectations are changing. This is a very tough place to come, in the history of this league, and I thought we had a better game and better chances.”

Herrera has a team-leading 14 assists and is expected to return after serving his suspension for yellow card accumulation. Amine Bassi leads the Dynamo with nine goals.

Colorado (5-15-11, 26 points) has struggled in attack all season and its 24 goals scored is still an MLS low. But the Rapids have looked improved under interim coach Chris Little, scoring eight times in the last five games.

Cole Bassett has scored his team-leading third, fourth and fifth goals in that stretch, in which Colorado is 2-2-1.

They earned a 1-0 home win against Austin last weekend before a scheduled midweek match against FC Dallas was postponed by weather till next Wednesday.

“There’s just a different kind of an energy, you can feel it,” goalkeeper Marko Ilic said after the Austin win. “You can see today, everybody died for the ball.”

–Field Level Media

Los Angeles FC look to end the playoff hopes of Austin FC and build momentum for the postseason when the two sides square off Saturday in Austin in a key late-season match.

LAFC (13-10-9, 48 points) have already garnered a spot in the playoffs but can clinch home-pitch advantage in the first round. Los Angeles cannot win the West but can move up to second in the conference with a win.

Meanwhile, Austin (10-14-8, 38 points) must win Saturday and in its last game in San Jose on Oct. 21 while getting some help with losses from the teams above it in the standings to earn a return trip to the postseason.

Austin plays at home for the final time after a rousing 3-0 win over D.C. United last Saturday. The victory emphatically snapped the Verde’s 10-game winless streak in combined Leagues Cup and MLS play, the longest run without a victory in club history, and was Austin’s win since July 15.

Sebastian Driussi scored a goal and an assist as he played through a lingering groin injury to lead the Verde. Will Bruin and Matt Hedges also found the net for Austin.

“Obviously, we needed to get three points, and it’s been a long time coming,” Austin coach Josh Wolff said. “It was a good testament of who our players are and what their character has been. They fight, they grind. I think they’re all disappointed with the way a lot of these games have gone.

“We’ve given ourselves a bit of a heartbeat. We’ll get ready and try to get fresh for LAFC.”

Los Angeles FC heads to Austin on the heels of a 5-1 win over Minnesota United on Wednesday. Denis Bouanga racked up a hat trick in the first half. Bouanga now has a league-best 17 goals in 29 MLS games and earned Player of the Matchday for Matchday 36 for his efforts.

LAFC also got a tally from Filip Krastev, and Minnesota surrendered an own goal to help the defending league champions improve to 2-1-2 over their past five MLS matches.

“Just continue the course, keep working, put your head down, put in the hard work in the training field, which guys have done,” LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo said about his team’s production. “it’s a little bit like riding a bike — guys know how to do it, they know how to play, they know how to score.”

LAFC dominated Austin 3-0 in the teams’ first meeting of the year on April 8 in Los Angeles.

–Field Level Media