Athletica coach Jorge Barcellos has told his forwards to be aggressive, to pressure defenders, and it paid off in a big way Wednesday when Eniola Aluko forced a turnover that led to the lone goal in a 1-0 win over Sky Blue FC. Jillian Loyden made some nice scrambling saves to protect the lead and caught a lucky crossbar to get the win in what will likely be her last game in goal this season.

The win moved the Athletica back into second and, by my reckoning, they need just four more points to clinch a playoff spot. They are at 26 points right now. Bay Area maxes out at 27 points, Chicago at 26, so they don’t figure much in the equation. The most New York can get is 31, the most Washington can get is 32. The Athletica need to finish ahead of one of those teams.

But, on the last Saturday of the season, Washington and New York play each other. That means that both teams can’t get their maximum available points. There are three scenarios: If that game between them ends in a tie, Washington maxes out at 30 and New York at 29. If Washington wins, it can get to 32 and Sky Blue to 28. And if New York wins, it can get to 31 and the best Washington can do is 29. Since Washington has the tiebreaker on Athletica, it has to finish with more points. The most points the fifth place team can have is 29, so if the Athletica can get to 30, they’ll clinch a playoff spot. Or, since what amounts to a “magic number” is four, it could be over on Sunday: If Sky Blue loses on Saturday to Boston and the Athletica beats the Bay Area, and that’s a decent parlay, they’d clinch a playoff spot then.

To clinch third place and a home playoff game, right now they need to get to 33 points. To clinch second, the Athletica pretty much have to stay ahead of Boston.

Here’s who everybody has left:

1. L.A. 37 points, at Bay Area, at Chicago, at Boston

2. St. Louis, 26, Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, at Bay Area

3. Boston 24, New York, at Washington, at St. Louis, Los Angeles

4. New York 22, at Boston, Bay Area, at Washington

5. Washington, 20, at Chicago, Boston, at Santa Clara, New York

6. Chicago, 17, Washington, L.A., at St. Louis

7. Bay Area, 12, Los Angeles, at St. Louis, Washington, at Sky Blue, St. Louis

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If you were watching before the game, you saw Daniela go through pregame warmups with the team and not look too bad. Her stamina, of course, is a big concern, but soon her knee should be good enough for her to play. The feeling seems to be should be back for one or two games at the end of the season and then the playoffs. She might not be able to go 90 minutes, but having her back for even 60, heck, even 45, would be big.

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Also, if you were playing close attention, you might have noticed during the game that Daniela wasn’t sitting on the bench, but rather was sitting on separate chairs to the left of the bench.

The WPS official roster sheet has room for 11 substitutes. That allows the home team to list all of its players. But only the first seven listed subs for the home team are eligible. The last four spots are enclosed in brackets with the words: “Not eligible for selection.” In filling out the roster sheet, Barcellos didn’t include the players who wouldn’t be eligible to come in anyway: Daniela and Melissa Tancredi, who are injured, and Erin Walter, since they weren’t in the first 18.

But since they weren’t listed on the form, they weren’t eligible to sit on the bench, and the officials ordered them off the bench. The Athletica does, however, have permission to have VIP seating on the field. So they set up three chairs, outside the ref-controlled technical zone, and put them there.

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Watching the game was Australian women’s coach Tom Sermanni was in attendance. He’s making the rounds of WPS games, checking in with players on his team. As best as I can tell, Australia has no matches coming up.

It was no surprise that Sarah Walsh hugged him before the game. Christie Welsh hugged him too. Sermanni was her coach with the New York Power back in the WUSA.

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This was the first game Stephanie Logterman didn’t start since she joined the team. She played, what, about 30 seconds in what seemed like a longer-than-planned injury time.

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Anyone else think the senior assistant ref, the one on the bench side of the field, was having a rough night? There were at least three out-of-bounds calls that I’m pretty sure weren’t right.

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England, by the way, got an 87th minute goal to beat Denmark 1-0 on Wendnesday. All the international players should be back with the teams now and be there for the rest of the season, except for the European players, who, most likely after the end of the regular season, will go home for the European championships.

Sara Larsson told me the roster for Sweden’s team would probably be named next week, and the same will likely go for England too.

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Kerri Hanks came on as a second half sub and didn’t get the game-tying goal. The other ex-Athletica player on Sky Blue, Francielle, didn’t get off the bench.