Road to MLS Cup '09 begins here

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It's old guard vs. new blood as Brian Mullen (left) and Houston meet Freddie Ljungberg and expansion Seattle in the first round. Rod Mar/MLS via Getty Images Luis Bueno's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Luis. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

For just the second time in MLS history, a team won the Supporters' Shield while compiling less than 50 points during the regular season. Columbus' 13-7-10 record was good enough to lock down the league's best regular-season record, but such a mark doesn't exactly compare well to previous Supporters' Shield winners.

What impact will a relatively low bar set by the Crew have in the 2009 MLS postseason? Luckily, not much.

The playoffs feature a diverse, mostly deserving group of eight who were able to reach the postseason in what was a somewhat average season across the board for most every club. Only two teams really struggled during the entire season while the Crew didn't entirely run away with the league as the other 12 teams went through the day-to-day grind with similar ups and downs.

Two teams though will rise above the crowd, do everything right in the first two rounds of the playoffs and meet for MLS Cup supremacy at Seattle's Qwest Field on Nov. 22. Here's a look at the '09 MLS Playoffs, which kick off Thursday night with Houston visiting Seattle (10 p.m. ET, ESPN2):

Who let these guys in?

New England and Real Salt Lake struggled through large portions of the '09 season and reached the finish line on fumes, yet somehow managed to get into the playoffs and are on even footing with more complete teams in Chicago and Columbus.

Was it a testament of their character? A reaffirmation that their respective squads had the makings of a championship team and only adversity was necessary to bring that out from within?

Not quite. This is MLS after all, and each MLS postseason features a team or two that don't really belong but are there because they were just a notch enough above terrible to reach the playoffs.

New England had a negative goal-differential and reached November with a not-so-torrid 2-4-3- record in September and October. Real Salt Lake, meanwhile, had more losses (12) than wins (11) and had double-digit road losses this season.

Those are the kind of credentials that are good enough for teams to reach the MLS postseason, but with any luck, Chicago and Columbus will take care of business.

Waiting for a breakthrough

When Chivas USA joined the league four years ago, club owner Antonio Cue said a lot of things that never came to fruition, namely his "I'd play with 11 Mexicans if I could" decree that evaporated by Year Two. But one of the things he held close was his desire to have a team that would compete for a title in its fifth year.

This is Year Five of the Chivas USA experiment and, while the club has made progress in its first four seasons, it has yet to win a playoff series. Elimination games overall are tough for Chivas USA -- the club is 1-5 in U.S. Open Cup play, failed to advance out of its SuperLiga groups in '08 and '09 and failed to get past the qualifying round in the '08 CONCACAF Champions League.

The Goats have more heartbreak than success, but all that could change in a span of eight days with a playoff victory over their hated rivals, the L.A. Galaxy. Chivas USA's ardent supporters would forget the failures of years past with a trip to the Western Conference final.

In the east, Chicago also has hit a bit of a wall. The Fire seemingly are a perennial contender and feature two standout veterans in Brian McBride and Cuauhtémoc Blanco, but the club has been unable to break through in the Eastern Conference. MLS Cup '03 was Chicago's last taste of a final, but the club is still living off its success from the '98 season when it won MLS Cup as an expansion team.

With McBride and Blanco each slowed by injury this season, it's debatable how much time each has left beyond '09. Thus, Chicago's window of opportunity is closing and the club needs to figure out just how to handle that if it wants to have a shot at glory once more.