(Times staff / ROBERT GURECKI)

When the Union went through that forgettable stretch in March, April and May, when they won only two of their first 11 league matches, a couple of the beat writers had the same thought: What about Brian Carroll’s streak?

Carroll, the Union’s veteran midfielder, has made the playoffs in all nine of his seasons in Major League Soccer. Here are some of the highlights: He won league championships in 2004 and 2008, with D.C. United and Columbus, respectively. His teams made the league semifinal once, in 2006, and have qualified for the league quarterfinals every other year.

But with such an ugly start to the 2012 campaign, it looked as though the Union might buck Carroll’s career-long trend. Only recently, with wins in four consecutive home games, five wins in their nine games since John Hackworth took over for Peter Nowak, the odds of Carroll extending his playoff-appearance streak is looking up.

“Obviously, everything that has to do with the team comes first and it’s about getting the team to the playoffs,” Carroll said.

But…

“It certainly would be nice to continue that personal streak and make it 10 out of 10,” he added. “We’re on the right path. We’ve put ourselves in that position and we need to continue to gain ground.”

The Union (7-10-2, 23 points) can close in on the next team ahead of them, the Montreal Impact (8-13-3, 24 points), with a win today.