The bracket has placed FC Dallas at No. 2 and Portland at No. 7, yet the first glance at this best-of-three matchup leaves one awkward detail hanging in the air: the lower seed is arriving on a four-game winning streak.
Dallas secured the pairing with a 3-1 comeback against Colorado at Toyota Stadium, while Portland finished its regular season with a 2-0 victory at Austin and a fourth consecutive win.
That makes Dallas the higher seed and gives it the concrete advantage of opening at home. It does not make this a routine assignment. The club's 58-point regular season earned its position, but Portland's recent run has made the bracket feel more like a starting point than a prediction.
Saturday's Dallas victory contained both sides of that argument. For 75 minutes, Colorado goalkeeper Nicolas Hansen kept the home side from turning pressure into a lead. Dallas finished with 27 shots and 10 on target; Hansen made seven saves, and Daniel Job struck the left post in the 45th minute.
Bernard Kamungo also had a first-half stoppage-time attempt saved, while Petar Musa repeatedly appeared in the match's dangerous areas without finding the finish.
Those chances explain why Dallas eventually won. They also explain why the match became uncomfortable. Colorado had only six shots and one on target, but one clean transition changed the scoreboard.
In the 47th minute, Morgan Whittaker finished Georgi Minoungou's cross after a fast break, putting the Rapids ahead despite Dallas owning most of the attacking volume. A team can control the supply of chances and still give the opponent the one sequence that matters most.
Dallas stayed behind from the 47th minute until the 75th. The equalizer came in the 75th minute, when Kaick's cross after a corner found Joaquín Valiente for a first-time left-footed finish from the right side of the six-yard box.
That was a set-piece reward rather than a flowing counter, and it mattered because it changed the match from a search for an opening into a contest Dallas could finally attack with the score level.
Kaick then supplied the sharper answer. Nolan Norris, who had entered in the 57th minute in place of the injured Sebastien Ibeagha, assisted Kaick's right-footed goal in the 88th minute. The finish put Dallas ahead, and Santi Moreno added insurance with the clock at 90+2 after Logan Farrington crossed during a fast break.
Farrington had entered in the 76th minute, so the closing stretch featured contributions from players who had not started the match, as well as Valiente and Kaick.
That late burst is the best reason to resist treating Saturday as a warning siren. Dallas did eventually convert its pressure, and it did so through several different routes: a corner, a goal assisted by a substitute, then a breakaway finish involving two more late entrants. The attack had enough variety to change the outcome after Colorado's goalkeeper had made the game stubborn.
Still, Portland will present a different kind of test. The Timbers have won four straight, and their 2-0 result at Austin carried them into the No. 7 position and into Dallas' path. Earlier meetings offer a sensible dose of caution: Portland and Dallas drew 2-2 in Portland, then Dallas won 2-1 in Frisco.
