6. LOOKING OUT FOR NO. 1: It didn’t come in the manner Louisville City FC had hoped for – via the Charleston Battery’s draw against Ottawa FC on Sunday rather than a win of its own in Rochester on Saturday night – but there was still plenty of celebration for the club and its fans upon the garnering of the No. 1 seed in the USL Eastern Conference for the upcoming postseason, and rightly so. Louisville’s consistency at both ends of the field this season has seen the club rank in the top five of both goals scored and goals conceded, a claim that only Real Monarchs SLC can otherwise make, and will mean any team that has to visit Slugger Field will have its work cut out for it to deny Louisville from going one step further than in its first two trips to the postseason.

7. COMING UP CLUTCH: Given everything that had transpired this season, particularly during FC Cincinnati’s run to the Semifinals of the 2017 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, it might come as a surprise that FCC goalkeeper Mitch Hildebrandt had only saved two of the nine penalty kicks he had faced this regular season. With his side facing the possibility of once again dropping points in its pursuit of the playoffs on Friday night against the Charlotte Independence, though, Hildebrandt came through to earn a vital 1-0 win to remain just above the fray in the race for the playoffs. Cincinnati remains in a fight for a playoff place, especially given results elsewhere this weekend, but the light at the end of the tunnel is certainly brighter now.

8. CHARGING AHEAD: The New York Red Bulls II have had to fight for their return to the playoffs and still have a tricky road ahead to close out the regular season, but a fifth consecutive home victory to close out the club’s first season at MSU Soccer Park showed the side is closer than ever to the type of form that earned it a title last year. New York has scored at least two goals in six consecutive games after its 2-0 win against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds – a result that helped eliminate the Riverhounds from playoff contention on Sunday – and in the likes of Stefano Bonomo, Junior Flemmings and Florian Valot, they have the firepower needed to compete with anyone should it clinch a postseason berth.

9. CLOSER AND CLOSER: The Red Bulls II’s visit to face the Tampa Bay Rowdies on Wednesday night should be a must-see, with the Rowdies looking to sew up their playoff place and push toward second place in the Eastern Conference with a win. Tampa Bay’s 1-1 draw against Bethlehem Steel FC offered some frustration as the side’s lack of accuracy in its finishing saw much of its good pressure go wanting. Thanks to Sebastian Guenzatti’s equalizer, though, the host managed to salvage a point from the back end of its home-and-home series with Bethlehem to keep its path to a top-two finish alive.