MLS

• New York aims to rebound vs. last-place TFC

  
  

  East Rutherford, NJ (Sports Network) - The New York Red Bulls will try to get back on track after losing three of four Major League Soccer fixtures when they host Toronto FC at Giants Stadium on Saturday.

  New York's previously solid playoff footing is starting to slip and it needs to find its form quickly if it doesn't want to be out of the cold when the playoffs start in a little over a month.

  A positive for the team is it squares off against a Toronto team that is last in the entire league and has just one win in the last 14 league fixtures, including going 1-6 on the road during that span.

  The Red Bulls (9-9-8) are coming off a wild 5-4 home loss to Colorado last week in which Conor Casey scored a hat trick - including the 90th minute game winner.

  "Very disappointed.

  I have been beaten before, but I never in my life have allowed four goals in the first half," New York coach Juan Carlos Osorio said. "Atrocious defending. Looks like a shootout game for both teams. For the fans probably good, for the coach it was total chaos and really, really poor defending." The poorest defender on the field was probably New York's Gabriel Cichero, who was benched for the second half.

  "I think that was a wake up call for him, they played very direct football and he just couldn't handle it," Osorio said of Cichero. "It was too much, and we made an adjustment around the 30th minute, we went with four in the back, we controlled, we scored, we tied the game, and then we went up 3-2 and we conceded two goals in the last five minutes. Absolutely terrible defending." Toronto (7-12-7) is coming off a 1-1 draw vs.

  Houston at home, its seventh straight fixture without a victory.

  TFC has just 28 points after 26 league fixtures, and with four games to go, is all but mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.

  "I've sat down with the guys and said look at this, there's 12 points to play for, we're six points behind it, we have to go to New York [on Saturday], one of the sides that are just above us, so that's a six-pointer again," TFC coach John Carver said. "We've seen what happened over the weekend - [New York] get beat 5-4 against Colorado and we did a double over Colorado. If I can take what I got in the second half [against Houston] and get it for 90 minutes in New York, we'll win the game." TFC's Carlos Ruiz and Julius James are both listed as questionable on the injury report as is New York's Dave van den Bergh and Dane Richards.

  10/03 18:15:40 ET