Following United's loss to the New York Cosmos on Saturday, the team's players and coaches said all the right things about the NASL season - how it's not over, how the Cosmos could still drop points, how the seven-point gap that now separates New York from the rest of the league wasn't insurmountable.
Said head coach Manny Lagos, "We really have to regroup. We're definitely not out of it, there's no doubt about it."
Captain Aaron Pitchkolan echoed those words. "You never know what's going to happen, they could drop points," he said. "We just have to keep fighting and take care of our business and get as many points as we can and hope they stumble."
From the looks on their faces, though, both players and coaches knew the truth: it will be virtually impossible to catch the Cosmos. New York has won four in a row and extended their unbeaten streak to seven games with Saturday's win; they do not show signs of suddenly collapsing, and all they need is six points from their final four matches to clinch the fall championship and a spot in the Soccer Bowl.
Even if the Cosmos do stumble, Minnesota is tied on 14 points with three other teams - Carolina, Fort Lauderdale, and Tampa Bay - and is one point ahead of Atlanta. United has games with all four remaining, and if they were to win all four, they'd at least guarantee themselves a spot in second place in the league, regardless of what the Cosmos do.
That said, given the team's inconsistency this year, a four-game winning streak seems unlikely.
Both players and coaches will talk a lot about focusing on what they can control, and ignoring what they can't control, and reminding themselves that they are not out of the running. But it's worth remembering that when they were in a similar situation in the spring season, they lost their final three games - and by increasingly embarrassing scorelines.
The numbers tell a good-but-not-great story this fall. A few examples:
