By Ridge Mahoney
Senior Editor, Soccer America

Tales of D.C. UnitedÆs 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.

Ivan Guerrero earned two assists of his own for the Fire and also earned a penalty kick that Nick Rimando saved from Andy Herron. But in the 74th minute Herron took a Guerrero pass at the end of a lengthy passing sequence and smashed home what proved to be the winner for his ninth goal of the season.

In its last four home games, United conceded nine goals while winning once, tying once, and losing twice.

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 û notably absent during the past month — overran Dallas, whose atrocious defending offset goals by Abe Thompson and Arturo Alvarez that were set up by Ronnie OÆBrien.

Kudos and plaudits are being bestowed upon Red Bull New York 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.

Kansas City took a 1-0 lead through Dave van den Bergh, but gave away PKs when Ryan Raybould tripped Chris Henderson at the edge of the penalty area and Jose Burciaga pushed over Marvell Wynne with his right arm.

Guevara put away both penalties and added a third goal with a long shot that took a slight deflection and skimmed past Bo Oshoniyi just inside the post with 15 minutes left. Scott Sealy chested down a fine cross from Sasha Victorine to tuck away his 10th goal of the season in the 83rd minute but GarciaÆs ejection for dragging down John Wolyniec effectively ended Kansas CityÆs hopes.

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 û 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.

New England nailed down second place in the Eastern Conference with a late goal by Khano Smith after peppering the CrewÆs goal for most of the match. A boisterous crowd, for a change, was on hand at Gillette Stadium to celebrate a hard-fought victory. The Revs finished the season with a three-game winning streak and a seven-match unbeaten run.

With their postseason fates already known, Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake played a 1-1 tie Sunday at HDC. Brent Whitfield scored his first MLS goal to give playoff-bound Chivas a 1-0 lead, and Costa Rican Jafet Soto did the same in the 89th minute to garner a point for RSL, which had been eliminated from playoff contention when the Rapids tied Saturday night. Even it RSL had won, and thus tied Colorado in the standings, the Rapids 2-1-1 edge gave it the head-to-head tiebreaker.

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).