MLS reviews and previews: the final weekend of the regular season

• Last weekend of the MLS regular season

• Who will win the Supporters' Shield?

• Playoff positions to be decided

Will Bradley Wright-Phillips and the New York Red Bulls be celebrating this weekend? Photograph: Smiley N. Pool/AP

Welcome to week 35 of MLS — the final weekend of games for the 2013 regular season. Now obviously we're a little early with this preview, as owing to the ongoing pressure to comply with the FIFA calendar, the final week of the 2013 MLS regular season is scheduled to be played at half-time in the 3rd/4th place game at the Qatar World Cup (though the playoffs will go ahead as planned).

Yes, it's the end of the regular season, and in one of the more touching examples of charitable inclusivity, everybody gets to play a part — even Chivas. The Goats played RSL on Wednesday night, in Salt Lake's final game of the regular season — and also host RSL's rivals for first place in the West, Portland on Saturday night. And Chivas's counterparts in the East, wooden-spoon wise, will have their own say on the playoff race when D.C. host a Houston team who had the worst possible set of results for their own playoff hopes last weekend and find themselves on the outside looking in at the start of the last weekend.

Also on the outside, but outside permanently, San Jose and Dallas, both eliminated after last weekend, both facing off-seasons of rebuilding. Mark Watson may have done enough to get the permanent job at San Jose after taking over as interim coach halfway through the season, but his side has struggled for goals (actually, technically, San Jose could still make the playoffs if they score at least 12 goals and Colorado lose without scoring). Meanwhile Schellas Hyndman will be stepping down at Dallas after another disappointing year, but that's about it for meaningful intrigue from that game. 

The two other Saturday games see Sporting go to a Philadelphia team who need a win to keep their playoff hopes alive (while for Sporting a draw will not be good enough to overhaul New York in the Shield race), and Toronto getting to take one last kick at Montreal to see if they can at least knock them into the Eastern wild card playoff game, if not out of the playoffs altogether.

The Revs did the hard work in their mini-playoff series against Columbus by winning the back-and-forth game that eliminated the Crew from the playoff running last week. now they travel to Crew Stadium on Sunday looking to secure their own slot. Watching their progress carefully will be Chicago, who will have the advantage of knowing exactly what they have to do when they kick off, and the disadvantage of being up against a New York team who would guarantee their first ever trophy with a win. 

Still two more games to go that night. like New England, Colorado saw off playoff rivals at home last week and now go to visit said team's sullen supporters in Vancouver, trying to climb up the league. And then the weekend finishes with the game that at one point looked like it might be a Supporters' Shield decider, and instead is shaping up to be a battle to avoid the wild card game, as LA go to a Seattle team who'll now forever be etched in the MLS "Big Book of Truisms" under the heading, "Games in hand are not points" after losing their last four and being winless in six. And as the last artificial turf pellet is combed out of DeAndre Yedlin's hair there, that will be that for the regular season, and we can all draw breath before the playoffs.

One group of people who regularly draw breath (and make a sandwich) before hitting 'send', the writers and fan reps who make up our regular cast of Guardian MLS previewers, who are here with all that's going on with their teams before a vital weekend. See what they have to say below, add your comments and join us on Monday to find out exactly what we can look forward to in the next month of playoffs (where we will have live minute-by-minute coverage of all games).

And as some of our writers will be taking their leave for the season at this point in proceedings, this seems as good a time as any to thank them all for their sterling work this season - not least regular Chivas correspondent Alicia Ratterree, whose team helpfully ducked out of the running while she was dealing with the sleepless nights of her new baby. Congratulations to Alicia and thanks again to all our contributors. See you in the playoffs.

All kick off times are listed as ET