By Ridge Mahoney

Kudos and plaudits are being bestowed upon the New York Red Bulls and Coach Bruce Arena for eking into the playoffs by beating Kansas City, 3-2, with an Amado Guevara hat trick. His first two goals came on penalty kicks and the Wizards also had Nick Garcia sent off with three minutes left as they were trying to score the equalizer that would have squeezed them into the playoffs at the expense of the Red Bulls.

Under Arena the New York Red Bulls finished the season 4-5-3 in league play. Hardly remarkable, but good enough, and they did post two wins and a tie in the last three games.

Colorado needed only a tie to secure fourth place in the Western Conference and rallied three times from one-goal deficits to earn the needed point, 3-3, in Houston. Rookie Jacob Peterson headed the equalizer over Pat Onstad in the 88th minute, after Thiago Martins had matched goals by Craig Waibel and Paul Dalglish. Waibel – the right back! — struck again in the 73rd minute to make it 3-2, but Peterson got his head to a Jovan Kirovski flick to score his fourth of the season.

Tales of D.C. United’s impending demise may yet prove to be greatly exaggerated, but United has certainly given its rivals hopes of knocking off the Eastern Conference champion in the playoffs by losing five of the last seven games.

Chicago beat D.C. Sunday, 3-2, with goals by Gonzalo Segares, Nate Jaqua and Andy Herron despite a pair of goals by Christian Gomez that took his tally to 14 for the season. Freddy Adu set up both Gomez goals to set a personal mark of eight assists in his third professional season.

Also leaking goals over the weekend was Western Conference champion Dallas, which Los Angeles thrashed, 5-2, at Home Depot Center a week being eliminated from playoff contention by losing, 2-1, at Pizza Hut Park.

Landon Donovan scored a pair of goals and Herculez Gomez, Cobi Jones and Santino Quaranta netted one each. A flowing, energetic Galaxy attack – notably absent during the past month — overran playoff-bound Dallas.

MLS Results (Oct. 14-15)
New York 3 Kansas City 2
New England 1 Columbus 0
Houston 3 Colorado 3
Los Angeles 5 FC Dallas 2
D.C. United 2 Chicago 3
Chivas USA 1 Real Salt Lake 1

PLAYOFF SCHEDULE, Quarterfinals, First Leg
(home teams listed first)
Saturday, Oct. 21
New York-D.C. United (2 pm ET on Direct Kick, HdNet).
Colorado-FC Dallas (9 pm on Fox Soccer Channel).
Sunday, Oct. 22
Chicago-New England plays (1 pm on ABC)
Chivas USA-Houston ( 4 pm on ESPN2).