Sporting Kansas City snags the last playoff spot, will move to the Western Conference next year

By Thursday, Kansas City will know if the Royals are World Series champions or runners-up to the San Francisco Giants. That same day, the attention of local sports fans may turn to Sporting Kansas City’s playoff run.

Sporting KC will play the New York Red Bulls Thursday night for a one-game playoff to start the Major League Soccer postseason.

The same two teams played each other Sunday night before a surprisingly packed crowd at Sporting Park, considering the Royals were playing the Giants in game 5 of the World Series.

With plenty of time left in the game, however, fans streamed for the exits as it was clear that Sporting KC was headed for another defeat.

With the 2-0 loss to the Red Bulls, Sporting KC sank to the final spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. It wasn’t supposed to be this kind of season for the reigning MLS champions. In fact, early in the season, Sporting KC looked mostly unbeatable.

But the transfer of midfielder Oriol Rosell to a Portuguese team in the middle of the season, a handful of critical injuries, the temporary loss of stars Graham Zusi and Matt Besler to the U.S. national team for this summer’s World Cup, and a packed schedule due to CONCACAF Champions League play seemed to wear this club down.

Since August, Sporting KC has won only three games, all against teams that are missing the playoffs. Unlike last year, when a seemingly underachieving midseason Sporting KC team surged in September and October to grab a second-place finish in the regular season, this year’s team is limping into the playoffs.

But there’s always a chance for a turnaround. The New York Red Bulls (which had the best record in the league last year) haven’t been stellar this year, either. Sporting KC, however, will have to do a better job of defending Red Bulls star forward Bradley Wright-Phillips, who scored two goals Sunday night to tie an MLS record for goals in a single season (27) without much resistance from Sporting KC’s defense.

If Sporting KC wins, the team will play at Sporting Park on Sunday for the first of a two-game playoff against the Eastern Conference’s top squad, D.C. United.

Speaking of the Eastern Conference, this season will be Sporting KC’s last in the conference. MLS announced on Monday that Sporting KC will move to the Western Conference, along with Houston Dynamo, in a league-wide realignment to make room for two expansion teams (New York FC and Orlando City) that start play in 2015.

The move to the Western Conference is probably a good one for Sporting KC. It will mean more games against more compelling opponents like the Seattle Sounders, Real Salt Lake and the Los Angeles Galaxy. Sporting KC never had a true rival in the Eastern Conference, even despite the club’s efforts to market one against the Chicago Fire.

Next year, MLS will have 20 teams, on account of two new teams joining the league and Chivas USA going out of business.