Teammates at Manchester United two seasons ago, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Wayne Rooney are tempting postseason glory on different American coasts.
DC United has control of its Eastern Conference playoff destiny after beating the Montreal Impact on Saturday, while LA Galaxy topped the Vancouver Whitecaps to put a charge into a congested Western Conference race.
[ MORE: Saturday night MLS recap ]
Both players scored braces in their teams’ wins, and both have multiple iconic moments for their new clubs. Zlatan has one of the all-time goals, period. Rooney’s hustle play against Orlando City reverberated across continents.
Skill is more important than swagger, but not by much, and Ibrahimovic has both.
Playing his 24th MLS game, the LA Galaxy man bagged his 19th and 20th goals of the season to boost his side’s postseason hopes.
Giving some credit to interim coach Dominic Kinnear, Ibrahimovic had a warning for the opposition after LA waxed Vancouver 3-0 on Saturday night. From LAGalaxy.com:“We’re not doing it by luck or complicating. I said it last time we’re a threat for every team if we play like this. I bet you whatever you want, nobody wants to get us in the playoffs because we are dangerous if we do what we do like we do it now.”
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“Just hope for them we don’t make it to the playoffs,” Ibrahimovic said.
LA’s final three matches are away to Sporting KC, away to Minnesota United, and home to Houston.
| Western | ||||||||||
| Team | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Home | Away | PTS |
| FC Dallas | 30 | 15 | 9 | 6 | 49 | 38 | 11 | 9-5-1 | 6-4-5 | 54 |
| Sporting KC | 29 | 15 | 6 | 8 | 54 | 36 | 18 | 9-3-2 | 6-3-6 | 51 |
| Los Angeles FC | 30 | 14 | 8 | 8 | 58 | 46 | 12 | 8-6-1 | 6-2-7 | 50 |
| Portland | 31 | 13 | 9 | 9 | 46 | 45 | 1 | 10-4-2 | 3-5-7 | 48 |
| Seattle | 30 | 14 | 5 | 11 | 41 | 32 | 9 | 8-2-5 | 6-3-6 | 47 |
| Real Salt Lake | 30 | 13 | 6 | 11 | 49 | 49 | 0 | 10-4-1 | 3-2-10 | 45 |
| Los Angeles | 31 | 12 | 8 | 11 | 60 | 59 | 1 | 8-4-4 | 4-4-7 | 44 |
| Vancouver | 30 | 11 | 7 | 12 | 47 | 59 | -12 | 6-5-4 | 5-2-8 | 40 |
| Minnesota | 30 | 11 | 3 | 16 | 45 | 58 | -13 | 10-1-4 | 1-2-12 | 36 |
| Houston | 30 | 9 | 8 | 13 | 50 | 45 | 5 | 8-3-5 | 1-5-8 | 35 |
| Colorado | 30 | 6 | 6 | 18 | 32 | 59 | -27 | 5-3-7 | 1-3-11 | 24 |
| San Jose | 31 | 4 | 8 | 19 | 47 | 66 | -19 | 2-5-8 | 2-3-11 | 20 |
Meanwhile, Rooney now has seven goals and six assists in 15 games with DC United following a 5-0 demolition of Montreal.
The Black-and-Red are rising after spending the first half of the season playing a sparse and road-heavy schedule. Now Rooney and Co. are two points back of sixth with two matches-in-hand on the sixth-seeded Impact.
“The last few weeks we’ve been unlucky not to win the New York game, the win against Atlanta, the draw against New York City away, we’ve been building momentum at the right time,” Rooney said. “We put ourselves in a great position.”
