As St. Louis City SC approaches the climax of its season and teeters on the brink of playoff elimination, there is one thing that gives team members and fans hope: There is a solution, a path to a happy ending.

On Saturday, City SC, which is eight points behind the final Western Conference playoff spot with six games remaining, plays the first of two games against the team in that final playoff spot, Minnesota United (7:30 p.m., Apple TV Season Pass), at CityPark. Winning those two games would mean six points earned without any help. After that, the difference would be just two points, which seems relatively easy to manage.

All these hopes and dreams start with one thing: a win on Saturday. A defeat would be fatal, a draw would most likely only prolong the agony.

“There’s no denying that,” said interim coach John Hackworth. “If we want to give ourselves a chance to still be in the playoff race, we have to win from our perspective. There’s no point sugarcoating it. There’s no point screwing anybody over. If we want to have any chance at all of making the playoffs, we can’t lose a six-point game to a team that’s currently eight points ahead. That’s what dictates it. That’s where we are.”

“We need wins,” said center back Kyle Hiebert.

But as an example of the hurdles that still lie ahead, a City SC win does not guarantee that it will go from eight points out of a playoff spot to five. If Austin beat Toronto on Saturday and City SC wins, Austin would overtake Minnesota and move into ninth place, and then City SC would be six points behind instead of five, and City SC won’t play Austin again. And then Minnesota, Austin and Dallas all play again on Wednesday while City SC has a bye, giving those teams a chance to extend their lead to eight or nine points before City SC gets back into gear.

But winning both games against Minnesota—the other coming on the final day of the season—is just one aspect of a larger concern: The team’s next loss to anyone could be the end of them.

“We have two games against (Minnesota) now,” said right back Tomas Totland, who hopes to return to the starting lineup this week, “and yes, we basically have to win both of them and probably the rest of the games this year. We can’t afford a draw anymore. I think we showed in New England that we’ve come a long way on offense and that we create a lot of chances. We just have to score goals and not let those easy ones go.”

With the importance of the game clear, Hackworth increased the intensity of practice this week. The team was looking to improve its defense after allowing seven goals in its last three games, but part of that was working on maintaining possession and playing defense by keeping the ball away from the opponent.

“Klauss came in for treatment on Monday,” Hackworth said, “and I said, ‘Klauss, I’m going to really work you out in training.’ And he said, ‘Oh man, no.’ And after training he said, ‘You weren’t lying, were you?’ And I said, ‘No, I told you what was going to happen.’ That speaks to the work ethic of these guys and it’s nice when you as a coach can push the guys and joke with them in the training room about what’s coming and what my expectations are for them and the training ground.”

“Oh my God, he wasn’t lying,” said Klauss. “It was very hard, but very good and very important for us.”

City SC is undefeated in its last four MLS games and has three wins and three draws in its last six games against MLS opponents, including the Leagues Cup. So City SC has its game back under control. Now it needs wins.

With it being a must-win game, Hackworth and the team will need to approach the game differently. City SC needs to score at least one goal, but also needs to improve their defense. City SC has not kept a clean sheet since July 3.

“There’s a lot of different things that go into this situation,” Hackworth said. “You go through a lot of different scenarios that could happen in the game. Just looking at us and what we’ve done so far, you have to realize that we have to get better defensively. We have to make sure that we contain a very dangerous Minnesota team with their offensive players as best as we can to put ourselves in a position to be successful in this game. And as the game goes on, there are a lot of situations that can arise and opportunities that we have to change tactically because we know we have to play to win. That’s going to make us vulnerable and we’re going to have to take some risks if that’s the case towards the end of the game because there’s no point for us to play it safe and play for a tie.”

Minnesota is not exactly a team in top form. After starting the season 8-3-5 (WLT), it has a 2-8-1 record, with both wins coming against the league’s worst team, San Jose. Despite winning two of its last three games, Minnesota had a 0-7-1 record before the San Jose game.

City SC, on the other hand, must translate its game improvements into victories and not add to the 13 draws so far.

“I think the team is in good form at the moment,” said Klauss, who may be back in the starting lineup. “We are very confident. We know that the most important game of the season is coming up for us. So we will need everyone. We will need all the players. Our fans have to be very loud in the stadium. They have to bring the same energy, everyone has to pull together. And yes, it is a game that we have to win.”