Three games to go and the Hounds are still in playoff contention. If you would’ve told us that back in July we would have thought you were crazy, but here we are. They’ve won 7 of their last 11, and 5 straight at home. If it wasn’t for a couple stumbles here and there we would be in a much more comfortable position going into the final three games.

The nice part about the wins is for the most part they are solid victories. 2-0, 2-0, 5-2, 3-1, 3-1. These are not score lines of a team just squeaking by. It took a long time, but we’re finally seeing flashes of the team we expected to see from the beginning. Kudos to Niko for finding a formula for success is all the mess.

The bad side is when they’ve stumbled it’s been right off a cliff. A 0-2 loss to OKC Energy where they got down early and never recovered. A 0-5 beat down by Sacramento Republic that we rather forget. And most recently the 3-1 disappointment in Arizona on a night where they were missing four starters. The Sacramento loss you have to kind of wave away, but the other two are ones that are going to haunt the Hounds. Arizona is currently 1 point ahead of the Hounds, and OKC is tied. OKC owns us on most of the tie breakers, but the Hounds have a game in hand. Arizona only has one game left in their season- a probable loser goes home match at Highmark Stadium on September 6th.

The other sort of knock against the Hounds recent success is two of their recent wins are against MLS reserve teams. The Hounds have had the reserves’ number over the last two seasons, going 3-0-1 and having a +6 GD. Hell the USL in general is kicking the reserves’ asses, going 13-7-3 +9 GD this year (and similar numbers last year). The RSL game was a weird one and FC Dallas didn’t really give it their all (though the Hounds did look pretty good). It’s tough to measure the team in these matches, but points are points.

It’s a bit of a shame the Hounds had such a hard schedule early on when the team was crap. Even though they didn’t win, the Hounds held their own against Orlando at the beginning of the year. I would like to see how they stack up against the number one team now. Who knows though, that wish may be granted in the playoffs.

Last year when the Hounds needed wins they played an MLS reserve squad and then the next weekend had back to back games in the Carolina’s. The Hounds won all three. Like many things this season once again we’re in the same situation. This time we have our fingers crossed that for once this year history will repeat itself for the better. Ideally they need to win all three remaining games, but of the three beating Charlotte on Friday and Arizona next week are the most critical. If they’re going to drop any points doing so to Charleston is the best option with how far ahead in the standings they are, and that they don’t play any other team around us the rest of the year. That said, even if the Hounds get 6, 7 or 9 points over the final three games they will still need a lot of help from other teams.

Playoff Predictions (I’m an optimist mind you)-
Orlando
Richmond
Sacramento
LA II
Harrisburg
Charleston
Rochester
Pittsburgh

#UNLEASH