For a sports fan, proper perspective is tough to come by and it’s especially hard when you’ve been tortured over the years like Philadelphia Union fans.

The Philadelphia Union have the longest playoff drought in MLS at four seasons and with a win over Orlando City, they would have gotten the monkey off their back. But as is usually the case with Philadelphia sports teams, it wasn’t that easy. They came out and laid an egg against Orlando in one of their worst performances this season (yes that includes the 5-1 loss to the Impact) pushing back clinchmas by another week.

The Union will end their playoff drought unless the New England Revolution are able to win and overcome a goal difference of 12 (not likely). The fact that they will end the drought should be celebrated especially since the Philadelphia Union have no silverware in their history. But there’s a difference between celebrating a playoff berth and being satisfied by it.

The elephant in the room is that during the second half of the season, post-Nogueira or whatever you want to call it, the Philadelphia Union have been the worst team in MLS. They began the season on a hot streak going 6-3-5 to pick up 23 points in their first 14 games. After the break, they have gone 5-10-4 picking up only 19 points in 19 games.

Averaging one point per game would put the Union level with the Houston Dynamo as the second worst team over the full season, slightly ahead of the Chicago Fire. That’s the mark of a team that’s making the playoffs in spite of their performances not because of them.

There was a time when the Philadelphia Union looked like they wouldn’t drop lower than fourth in the playoff standings but that was before the team had their worst six-match streak since April-May of 2014 by picking up two points out of a possible 18 in their last six matches.

MLS has a good illustration of their regression below:

Be wary of the red line. A look at the Eastern Conference standings throughout the season. https://t.co/UH1SQspOGi — Major League Soccer (@MLS) October 17, 2016

That’s unacceptable and it’s clear that fans and the team aren’t satisfied, however, this isn’t the time to worry about that. The Philadelphia Union could be the only Philadelphia sports team to make the playoffs this year. A year that was supposed to be a rebuilding year. The foundation looks good with an amazing draft that included Keegan Rosenberry, Joshua Yaro, and Fabian Herbers. The new training facility is beautiful and the academy is beginning to bear fruit.

There is much to celebrate this season even if it’s tough to find the silver lining now. As fans, we’ll have the entire offseason to ponder over, “who will replace CJ Sapong?” , “What happens when Andre Blake leaves?” , and “how does the midfield shake out next year?“.

For now, it’s important to go out and support the team through their final game of the regular season against the New York Red Bulls and worry about everything else once the seaon is over. Earnie Stewart is a man with a plan and he will make moves to improve the team for 2017. This may not be the optimal end to the season but a playoff berth is worth celebrating.