Michael Bradley sat dejected in his locker stall, almost lost for words as Toronto FC's season looped to another loss.
Can't defend. Can't score. Can't win. Repeat and add another loss to the standings.
That was the bottom line of a 2-0 defeat Saturday afternoon at the hands of the Philadelphia Union that saw first-half goals by Conor Casey and Andrew Wenger extend Toronto's MLS misery.
"We've been through this before," Bradley said with a sigh after a long pause. "To be quite honest, you get sick and tired talking about it . . . When you constantly dig yourself these kind of holes then you know it's going to be hard to come back and get anything out of the game."
Toronto (9-11-6) has lost three straight via shutout, is winless in five (0-4-1) and has just three victories in its last 15 outings (3-7-5). Toronto has dropped 31 of 45 points over that period.
The club that once talked of making BMO Field its fortress has not won there since July 12 (0-2-2) and now has a 5-6-2 record at home in 2014.
Still Toronto came hard in the second half at a Philadelphia side that had two first-half goals in its back pocket. The home side hit the woodwork three times, only to see its goalless streak stretch to 280 minutes.
"I think we have more," said manager Greg Vanney, whose record at the helm dropped to 0-2-0. "We have to be better. It wasn't good enough.
"We have eight matches left. We have a full week of training next week. I think it's important that we take a good hard look and set our identity, the identity of this team and how we're going to push forward for the next eight games and get everybody on the same page. We're still sort of a group moving in one direction and another group moving in another direction"
Vanney has been handed an almost impossible task, trying to arrest the slide of a team whose bad habits have been amplified by injury and lack of squad depth at certain positions.
Once again, Toronto paid the price for early slack defending before a disappointing crowd – announced as a sellout of 22,591 but showing plenty of empty seats – that booed them off the field for the second home game in a row.
Toronto is 2-8-4 when it allows the first goal and 7-3-2 when it scores first The team is sliding down the standings like they were a greased pole. Toronto, with 33 points, started the day fourth in the Eastern Conference. It finished the game in fifth and could end up in seventh if Columbus and New York both post wins.
"We played like we were a little bit underwater," said Vanney. "Maybe fatigued at a third game in seven days."
There was some good news for TFC supporters. Fan favourite Dwayne De Rosario got his first start since April 12 and injured star striker Jermain Defoe, whose future with the club has come into question lately, is expected back in training in Toronto on Sept. 20. Vanney said he expected Defoe to play "soon thereafter."
Toronto has games Sept. 21 and 27 and then five more in October.
Defoe offered cause for hope for Toronto fans by tweeting: "Big game for boys tonight good luck can't wait to be back out there scoring"
Apprised of the Sept. 20 return for Defoe, Bradley said: "Awesome. Sounds good."
And he insisted Toronto can turn things around and make the playoffs.
"Frustrated for sure but not even close to giving up," said Bradley before taking a glass-half-full view of the schedule. "There's still a lot of games left, a lot of soccer to be played and a lot of points still on the board.
"Anybody that thinks that we're ready to pack it in has another thing coming."
While Toronto players take a long hard look at themselves, the well-drilled Union (9-9-9) are headed in the other direction.
The victory, Philadelphia's second in three days over Toronto with Casey scoring in both games, means the Union have won three of four and lost just one of its last nine (5-1-3). Philadelphia is 6-2-3 in MLS play since Jim Curtin was hired as interim manager.
"I'm happy with the guys' performance," said Curtin. "Toronto is a very good team who are missing some pieces right now and we are a little bit fortunate to get them at the time we did."
Toronto was without injured defenders Steve Caldwell and Justin Morrow and Canadian midfielder Jonathan Osorio. Veteran Bradley Orr, who played at centre back despite a painful toe injury, declined comment after a difficult day at the office.
Vanney said he chose a sore Orr to play because the backline badly needed some experience.
Canadian coach Benito Floro did the team a solid by releasing De Rosario and fellow midfielder Kyle Bekker from the national team game for Saturday's game. The 36-year-old De Rosario, showing bursts of energy, got a standing ovation in some quarters when he came off in the 69th minute. Bekker started on the bench, coming in just before halftime for an injured Collen Warner.
Vanney and his players had hoped for a fast start to get the fans into the match.
Instead it was a late-arriving crowd and Philadelphia went ahead in the eighth minute after a series of botched Toronto clearances allowed Sheanon Williams to deliver a perfect cross to Casey. The burly striker, who played two games for Toronto in its inaugural 2007 season, made no mistake with the header for his eighth of the season.
Philadelphia went ahead 2-0 in the 44th minute off a corner and yet another failed clearance. Mark Bloom's header went to Williams, who headed it back it to Wenger at the other end of the goal. Wenger, free of any Toronto pressure, headed it in for his fifth goal.
Bloom had Toronto's best chance to date in the 54th minute when his long-range shot bounced off the post. Nick Hagglund's bicycle kick went just wide minutes later. Bradley forced a save off a diving Zac MacMath in the 66th minute. A header by Brazil's Jackson hit the crossbar in the 77th minute and Bekker slammed a ball off the crossbar in the 90th minute after his free kick came back to him.
The Philadelphia defence bent but didn't break.
Toronto had 16 attempts on goal – including 12 in the second half – but only put three on target compared to 12 (seven on target) for the Union.