SAN JOSE — The wait continues for Dominic Kinnear and his struggling Earthquakes.

Ninth-place San Jose is looking for its first run of the season with three games in eight days starting Saturday night at Avaya Stadium.

The team’s desperate playoff chances depend on it as the Quakes’ postseason aspirations slip away.

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Late goal prevents Earthquakes’ win “We have six games to make a difference,” midfielder Fatai Alashe said of the end of the regular season. “We’ll just have to try to get something out of it.”

Most teams enjoy a nice series of games without a defeat during the eight-month campaign. After winning the first two in the spring, the Earthquakes have yet to knit together a head-turning undefeated streak. It has led to their plummet in the Western Conference standings and the strong possibility of missing the Major League Soccer playoffs for the fourth consecutive year.

“We’ve had our moments where we walked off the field feeling confident, then the next game we haven’t gotten that win,” Kinnear said. “People may think I’m crazy. I have complete belief these guys can go on a run.”

In many ways, it comes down to the game Saturday against Sporting Kansas City, a team that has a 12-game road winless streak. But Kansas City (11-12-7, 40 points) holds the final playoff spot in the Western Conference because of a strong home record that includes nine victories. Sporting could help its playoff chances by winning in the Bay Area for the first time since 2000.

San Jose (7-8-13, 34 points) probably needs to end its five-game winless streak to have any chance of sneaking into the playoffs.

The Quakes’ season-long issue with injuries might limit their ability to finally break loose, though. The midfielders who control the team’s flow are listed as questionable: Anibal Godoy has missed three games in a row because of a hamstring strain; newcomer Darwin Ceren has a quadriceps injury.

But everyone understands the stakes. They travel to Montreal on Wednesday to face their final Eastern Conference opponent before playing host to Real Salt Lake on Oct. 1. Two of San Jose’s final three games are at Colorado and Kansas City, adding to the pressure to win at Avaya this weekend and next.

“From my mentality, we need to win these three games,” veteran defender Jordan Stewart said of the long week. “At this stage, if you want to be a playoff team these are the games you have to win.”

San Jose’s playoff record of two appearances in eight years has been as unflattering as almost any in MLS. The playoffs aren’t an exclusive club with six of the 10 teams in each division advancing.

It might seem far-fetched, but San Jose does have a real chance of changing its fate this fall because it has two games in hand on many of its rivals. It starts with ending its season-long scoring drought that has produced a league-worst 27 goals. The Quakes have been shut out in three of the past five matches.

The MLS playoff tiebreaking system penalizes low-scoring teams because the first determining factor is goals scored. The second is goal differential, in which the Quakes are minus-three.

Leading scorer Chris Wondolowski has 10 goals, but only three since April. It is his lowest output in seven years so far.

Kinnear, however, believes there is time to rally.

“We’re as good as anyone in the league,” he said while conceding that the lack of goals has been a serious problem.

“It’s just getting that little bit of magic going forward that has been escaping us,” Kinnear added.

He and the Quakes still are waiting.