Victory at raucous Allianz Field and Minnesota United makes history

Denied by a scoreless tie at Portland on Sunday, Minnesota United can make franchise history Wednesday at Allianz Field, where it has sold out all season and lost just once.

All it has to do is win to clinch its first MLS playoff appearance.

Anything less than a victory, and it gets a little complicated. United, after struggling in its first two seasons in MLS, also can secure one of the Western Conference's seven playoff spots Wednesday if:

• It ties Sporting K.C. and San Jose ties Philadelphia while Portland ties New England.

• San Jose ties and Portland loses.

• San Jose loses and Portland ties.

"Would we have settled for this situation and this position when the season started?" United coach Adrian Heath asked Tuesday. "You bet we would have.''

"I was saying to the players, there wasn't a publication I read preseason where anybody had us finishing above the red line in a recently decent conference,'' Heath said. "We put ourselves in a really good spot with the hard work of a lot of people, and now it's up to us to go finish it off tomorrow."

A victory Wednesday will push United past Seattle and back into second place. The team that finishes second potentially gets two home playoff games instead of one.

"Making the playoffs was what the aim was a few weeks ago," Heath said. "Now trying to get home-field advantage for the playoff games is going to be the aim. … I'm confident the lads can produce a performance that would warrant going second in the Western Conference."

Had United defeated Portland on Sunday on midfielder Kevin Molino's point-blank shot in stoppage time, it would have done so in front of about 300 of its traveling supporters.

A victory Wednesday would come in front of nearly 20,000 screaming, singing fans.