If the Timbers get chopped down at home to RSL, then a victory at Buck Shaw Stadium, where they haven’t won in four attempts, would see the Whitecaps in the playoffs with a game to spare. A game where they can either try and keep momentum going against a defensively woeful Colorado side, maybe even grabbing some confidence boosting goals in the process, or rest up some key or close to suspension players like Pedro Morales.
A Portland point against Salt Lake, would see them jump ahead of Vancouver on the tiebreakers, but the ‘Caps would then just need at least one point of their own against the Earthquakes to claim it back a day later.
A Portland win (we don’t really even want to consider that option), would mean Vancouver falling back out of the playoff places and sitting two points behind the Timbers. But fear not, because matching the Timbers’ result, no matter what, see them back above the red line. Not getting anything out of this scenario is simply unthinkable.
For all that Vancouver want their focus to be solely about themselves, Portland have perhaps an equal part to play in the whole race to the playoffs.
"I said we couldn't look at Portland too much, we're little bit forced to look at them now," goalkeeper David Ousted told us at training this week. "It's about us finishing the job.
"Win, draw or lose for Portland, we still need to go and get hopefully two wins to push our way in there. If we get two wins, it doesn't matter what Portland does. If we can focus on that, it's going to be easier for us. If they lose points, then good for us and we don't have to maybe make a win too, but still, we need to push our way in there and not hope that Portland loses."
Carl Robinson has preached for weeks that all that matters is taking care of their own business and it doesn't matter what anybody else does if the Caps can't do their own job.
He has shifted from that stand with two games to go, but him and his squad will most certainly be watching Friday's Portland result with keen interest.
"I think my players will generally watch [Portland's] results," Robinson told us. "I watched them on Wednesday night [against San Jose]. We beat Dallas 2-0 and suddenly we were in a decent position and then they followed up with a result and then they followed up again with another result and then apparently the pressure was on us.
"I just said to the guys, 'listen, it doesn't matter what anybody else does, we've just got to concentrate on ourselves' and we did on Friday [against Seattle] and we won the game. It changes every week and every game that goes on, a different result changes the dynamic of the playoff race.
"If we win two games we're in. I'm trying to make it as simple as possible for them [the players]. Obviously I'll look at their result Friday and watch their game, because I love watching games of football, and if they win, then it puts a little bit of pressure on us. If they don't win it puts pressure on us because we need to get our result."