Toronto FC are running out of chances to save their season. The Reds hope that a couple of weeks of training between games for the international break can spark a late playoff push.

Robin Fraser gave his players a couple of days off to recover from the Nashville trip, but then he expects them to get right back out on the training pitch to iron out some kinks in their game. The lack of goals and clinical finishing is a major concern for Toronto FC at the moment, but Fraser says that defending better is their key to success, and will also boost the attack.

“We are going to spend the next two weeks learning how to stop teams and really reinforcing that,” Fraser said after Saturday’s 2-0 defeat in Nashville, their third loss in a row. “It doesn’t matter how good you are, it doesn’t matter how talented you are, it doesn’t matter how good your attacking players are, if you can’t stop other teams.

“Then you’re starting attacks from too deep or giving up too many chances. That will be interpreted as a defensive statement, and it’s not a defensive statement. It’s actually something that’s going to help our attack. We need to really focus on that and concentrate on finding ways to prevent teams from getting deep progressions.

Related Read: Toronto FC ‘need to improve everything’ in final stretch: Osorio

Winning the ball in midfield, then charging forward with it is something that TFC did well in the few weeks they had their trio of designated players — midfielders Niklas Dorsch and Djordje Mihailovic, plus striker Josh Sargent — all on the pitch together at the same time.

Dorsch had a facial fracture, while Mihailovic is still recovering from a hamstring injury. Before Mihailovic went down again with his second long-term injury of the season following a pelvic stress fracture, TFC’s attack was starting to find itself again thanks to the American.

Courtesy: Shaun McLeod/Canadian Soccer Daily

“As we’ve seen all year, when we win balls in the midfield, we’re very dangerous in transition,” Fraser said. “The other part of it is just our ability to keep the ball when we do win it. We win it, we give it away right away. That also erodes our confidence. It’s a lot about what we do with the ball, and it’s how we stop teams.”

A 4-4 draw against Chicago was the perfect example of TFC finding success in attack, but their defence — and balance between the two — letting them down.

If TFC keep conceding multiple goals every week, it doesn’t matter how often they score. The Reds haven’t kept a clean sheet since July 22, one of just three on the season, and have allowed more than one goal in four of their last five games, conceding three twice in that span.

Luka Gavran’s nine saves and spot in the MLS Team of the Matchday couldn’t even stop Nashville on Saturday because of how leaky the defence in front of him was.

“Everyone wants to talk about what you do on the attacking end, that’s much more interesting to talk about, it’s much sexier to talk about what you do with the ball, but you have to be able to stop teams,” Fraser said. “We gave up far too many deep progressions today, which just erodes your confidence.

“It makes you feel like you’re playing uphill. And I think that that was the biggest part of the game, is that we didn’t put ourselves in good enough positions to be able to stop deep penetration.”

Captain Jonathan Osorio, who admitted that TFC “were just a step behind a lot of plays” in Nashville, said that was a reason why they were broken down so often.

“We have to watch the video and learn from this and use these two weeks, a really important two weeks, to get ourselves ready for what is the most important stretch of our season now coming up,” he said.

TFC’s first game back is an Oct. 10 derby at home against CF Montreal — whose playoffs hopes will also be crushed by a defeat at BMO Field that day, if they aren’t already. Toronto needs to win that game as well, for morale reasons and the much-needed three points.

With just six games to play — and only two more at home — after that, a big win over their bitter rivals could be the spark TFC needs to make a late charge over the playoff line.

Courtesy: Shaun McLeod/Waking The Red

“We’ve got two weeks to really become a team that’s hard to break down and doesn’t give up a lot of chances,” Osorio added. “I do think a lot of chances that we give up are self-inflicted, if I’m being honest. In these last seven games — which essentially, they’re all going to feel like playoff games, and the intensity and what’s for grabs with the teams involved coming up — there’s not a lot of room for error.

“We have to clean up those mistakes. These two weeks coming up are huge for us to really clean up those things. You’re going to need clean sheets coming into the stretch, and if you want to be a playoff team, you have to be a strong defensive team. It’s not something to be concerned about or panic about, it’s something more to really focus on and improve now in the coming weeks in training.”