The Union have the playoffs in sight, but there’s work to be done in finale vs. Revolution

The Union don’t have as much to play for in the regular-season finale Saturday at New England (6 p.m., Apple TV, free) as other Eastern Conference teams do, but there are some stakes.

Having long since clinched a playoff berth, the Union will seal third place with a win, or any better result than fourth-place Columbus gets against Montreal at the same time.

(It’s unlikely that the Crew will drop points at home, but Montréal also has much to play for as one of five teams battling for the last two playoff spots.)

Even if the Union lose, they’d finish fourth and still have home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs as long as the defeat is by fewer than six goals.

Still, playing for pride isn’t just a cliche at the moment. Though the Union haven’t lost since the end of August, they’ve won just two of their last eight games. The other six were ties that ranged from useful to infuriating.

“Of course you always want to be as high [as possible] — we want to be number one,” centerback Jakob Glesnes said after practice Friday, knowing how long ago that opportunity was lost.

“So of course you want to take third place in the regular season,” he continued. “We know how much confidence it is. We saw that last year when everything was going almost by itself, because we had [so much] confidence in the team. So that’s what we are looking for now, to build that into the playoffs.”

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There was much chatter on the practice fields about the potential for the Union and New England to meet again in the first round of the playoffs, which is a best-of-three series unlike the rest of the postseason’s single games. The two teams dislike each other enough already, and a playoff series would mean three or four straight weekends of matchups.

It also would mean another trip to Gillette Stadium, which might have the biggest contrast with Subaru Park of all the stadiums in Major League Soccer.

The Revolution (who are owned by the Patriots’ Kraft family) play at a cavernous NFL stadium with an artificial turf surface that’s widely regarded as MLS’s worst, and it will be even slicker than usual with a forecast of rain all day. The Union’s home is compact and raucous and has natural grass maintained by one of the league’s best grounds crews.

(They do have some things in common, though: long travels from their respective city centers and minimal public transportation access.)

“It is a tough away field,” Glesnes said. “There’s many games on turf through the year, so they have an advantage there. But we have showed the whole year now that we are tough to play against, home or away, so we prepare in the same way that we always do. We are going there to take three points and win.”

» READ MORE: The Union beat New England 3-0 at home in May

The good news for the Union is that New England has been in free fall lately, with three straight losses. The Revs have won just twice since selling star goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic to English superpower Chelsea for $17 million in August; and just once since longtime manager Bruce Arena resigned in early September amid an investigation into insensitive remarks. Clint Peay, a longtime player and the recent coach of New England’s reserves, is the interim boss.

The Union have been navigating their own rough waters lately, though not of the same scale, with player and fan discontent over Alejandro Bedoya’s and Kai Wagner’s contract statuses.

Glesnes played his part with an Instagram post last week criticizing the Union’s front office for trying to push Bedoya out the door. On Friday, he said the players have put that aside. On Saturday, they’ll be able to show it.

“We are focused now [on] the last regular-season game tomorrow, and the playoffs,” he said. “What happened behind the scenes, that’s not our job, but again, I have said my thoughts about it. So I don’t want to say more about that.”

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Continuing its years-long tradition, MLS does things differently on the final day of the regular season. Playing all the games in each conference heightens the drama. Every Eastern Conference game will kick off at 6 p.m. and every Western Conference game at 9 p.m.

The other big games to watch from a Union perspective are Cincinnati vs. Atlanta and Nashville vs. the New York Red Bulls, as Atlanta and Nashville could be the Union’s opening playoff opponents. The playoffs start Wednesday with the 8 vs. 9 seed games in each conference, then the first full round kicks off next Saturday.

Neither MLS nor Apple has given any hints about kickoff time slots yet.

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Here’s how things look heading into the weekend. The first standings tiebreaker is total wins, then goal difference.

1. FC Cincinnati, 68 points (20-8-5)

2. Orlando City, 60 (17-9-7)

3. Union, 55 (15-10-8)

4. Columbus Crew, 54 (15-9-9)

5. New England Revolution, 52 (14-10-9)

6. Atlanta United, 50 (13-11-9)

7. Nashville SC, 49 (13-10-10)

8. CF Montréal, 41 (12-5-16)

(9th-place D.C. United already played its finale, so is eliminated)

10. New York Red Bulls, 40 (10-10-13, -4 goal difference)

11. Chicago Fire, 40 (10-10-13, 40, -11 GD)

12. Charlotte FC, 40 (9-13-11)

13. New York City FC, 38 (8-14-11)