Sporting Kansas City gets in the playoffs with a win Saturday

• Brooke Vandever
• Sporting KC can secure a playoff spot with a win on Saturday.

The Major League playoff scheme can be rather confusing. Just take a look at the current playoff standings. But, mercifully for casual soccer fans, things shake out very simply for Sporting Kansas City heading into tomorrow’s game against the New York Red Bulls at Livestrong Sporting Park. If SKC wins, they secure a spot in the playoffs.

Sporting finds itself in second place in the Eastern Conference after a torrid turnaround from a season that looked to be lost just a few months ago. Sporting started the season with an epic 10-game road stand while the finishing touches were being put on their new stadium. It did not go well. Sporting won their first game of the season on March 19 and didn’t win again until June 12. During the long W drought, fans grumbled, there was a thread calling for coach Peter Vermes to be fired on a popular online discussion board, and it seemed like the referees were going out of their way to ruin the club’s first year with a new name and building.

But once Sporting had a home, things turned around. (We credit a man in a cow suit.) They put together a 12-game unbeaten streak and some impressive wins, and by the end of September found themselves in first place in the Eastern Conference.