During their lengthy homestand over the past several weeks, Toronto FC have found a way to come back from losing positions to get points on a few occasions, including twice last week in 3-3 draws with Austin FC and the Philadelphia Union. While having that level of resilience is impressive, it can’t be relied upon, and Reds head coach Robin Fraser is calling on his team to put together a complete 90-minute performance instead of just responding well to conceding goals.

Alexey Miranchuk gave his side the lead early in the second half, and Tristan Muyumba doubled their advantage in the 67th minute, which finally sparked some life into the Reds after a slow first half where they didn’t manage a shot on target. An Emilio Aristizábal header pulled one back for the Reds late, and they nearly pulled off another comeback when Malik Henry missed the bottom corner of the net from close range by a matter of inches, and Jules-Anthony Vilsaint had a goal disallowed for a marginal offside.

Atlanta held on for a 2-1 victory, ending Toronto’s seven-game unbeaten streak. After the match Fraser gave credit where it was due to a solid Atlanta performance, while still being frustrated that his team didn’t adapt to what the visitors were giving them until late in the game.

“The last 20 minutes were good, I think prior to that we were just a bit tentative,” Fraser said. “To be fair, Atlanta did a really good job of making it difficult to do the things that we did well and have been doing well. I thought they did a really good job of making it difficult for us to build out, but this is a game, they take something away, you have to be able to find other ways to hurt them.

“I thought we probably didn’t run in behind enough early in the game, so the way that they set up defensively, I think the only way to really kind of loosen them up would have been to get in behind and I feel like we didn’t do enough of that. But credit to them like I said, I thought they did a really good job.”

Courtesy: Shaun McLeod/Waking The Red

Aristizábal scored in the 71st minute and from that point Toronto FC were the better team as they chased a second goal. Fraser says his team needs to play with that intensity from minute one to minute 90, not just when the going gets tough.

“When I look at the last 20 minutes, I thought we were able to get ourselves into some good positions, get guys facing forward, and then we were able to make ourselves quite dangerous,” Fraser said. “It’s obviously disappointing [to lose], but certainly the positive of it is the manner in which we finish a game, but that needs to be from the beginning.”

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Their next game will be a major test of where they are as a club at this point in the season. The San Jose Earthquakes visit BMO Field on Saturday, winners of six MLS games in a row including victories over the Vancouver Whitecaps and LAFC — who are second and third behind them in the Western Conference.

The Earthquakes have scored 25 goals and allowed just six in their 10 MLS games so far, so the Reds will need to be locked in from the opening kickoff.

It won’t get any easier from there, with Inter Miami in town to close their nine-game homestand, with a Canadian Championship match against Atlético Ottawa sandwiched in between.