Eyeing East wild-card spot, Toronto FC face slumping Red Bulls

Toronto FC will try to halt a three-match league winless run and take a major step closer to an Eastern Conference wild-card spot when they host a New York Red Bulls side in its own slump on Wednesday night.

The Reds (11-17-4, 37 points) have only one point from their last three league matches, and are also coming off a difficult three-match, eight-day trip that included their defeat on penalties to the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Canadian Championship final a week ago.

They remain in eighth in the East -- a finish that would see them host the conference's wild-card match -- but Philadelphia and Montreal are even with the Reds on points and trail only based on TFC's greater number of wins. Those two chasing sides also have a match in hand.

Toronto earned a 1-1 draw at Chicago on Saturday night, but that felt more like an opportunity lost than one gained after Jonathan Dean's 84th-minute equalizer for Chicago canceled out Prince Osei Owusu's penalty just before halftime.

Coach John Herdman thought the leveler owed to some heavy legs.

"I thought we were comfortable," Herdman said of defending the second-half lead. "We needed to hit them in transition and we did. We just never really got that killer punch. And then that last goal, if we're fresh, that doesn't happen."

The Red Bulls (10-7-14, 44 points) have officially secured their playoff spot, but have won only twice in their last 15 league matches (2-4-9) and are coming off their most embarrassing defeat of the season, a 5-1 drubbing at home against rival New York City FC.

Lewis Morgan still leads RBNY with 12 goals but hasn't scored or assisted in his last five league matches.

New York coach Sandro Schwarz said his team spent a chunk of time following Saturday's Hudson River Derby defeat in collective self-reflection.

"We had a lot of individual talks, me as a head coach, with all players," he said. "And that was great talks, great conversations, really open about the game, about the behavior, about the preparation of the game, what happened during the game, what is now the feeling. And this is necessary."

--Field Level Media