Key LA Galaxy pair Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan are working their way back to fitness for the opening play-off match on the weekend.
The attacking duo have not played in the league for the past three weeks but Galaxy assistant Dave Sarachan is confident they could be back to face one of the wildcard teams which face-off on Wednesday (FC Dallas v NY Red Bulls) and Thursday (Colorado Rapids v Columbus Crew).
"Robbie is making good progress," Sarachan said of Keane who injured an adductor whilst on international for Republic of Ireland on October 8.
"We're monitoring, obviously, but each day has gotten a little bit better progressively. We're hopeful that we'll see him sooner or later. I can't make any predictions at the moment, but we're kind of pleased with the progress."
As for Donovan, he added: "He's been feeling good. We've been cautious with Landon as well. He was involved in the day-to-day. We keep pushing Landon along. I think he's also now in a good place physically."
However, Sarachan admitted that Keane may be treated a bit more cautiously than Donovan, indicating he might not be used that much in the Conference semi-finals.
"It's hard to say," Sarachan added. "It's a delicate thing because those injuries, if you rush too much, then you're really set back.
"I think we're doing the right things, taking it step by step and we're hopeful that we're going to be able to utilize him. We're just not sure in what capacity."
