TFC, Chicago Fire meet Saturday with both teams badly in need of points

TORONTO — While a clash between the 26th- and 28th-ranked teams in Major League Soccer is hardly something to mark down on your calendar, Toronto FC and the Chicago Fire both badly need a result Saturday.

Toronto (3-7-3) is winless in its last six league outings (0-5-1) although it posted a 2-1 road win over HFX Wanderers in Canadian Championship quarterfinal play Tuesday.

Chicago (2-6-5) is winless in nine (0-6-3), hoping to avoid a third double-digit winless run in a single season (both previous slides came in 2011 with 11 straight from April-June and 10 straight from June-August).

Saturday's game is followed by an international break, with Toronto's Jonathan Osorio heading west to join Canada in Vancouver. TFC does have a game looming, however, with the rescheduled 2020 Canadian Championship final against Forge FC on June 4 in Hamilton.

Both Chicago and Toronto coaches have had to deal with injuries. And both believe their teams are better than the record indicates.

"We haven't had a chance to put the same lineup out on a consistent basis," said Chicago coach Ezra Hendrickson. "I think once we do that … we'll be better.

"Because if you look at the games, we're really close. We're not getting beat 4-0, 5-0 every game. We're very, very close."

Four of Chicago's six losses have been by one goal, including a 1-0 defeat at New York City FC last time out.

"They're well organized defensively," said Toronto coach Bob Bradley. "Early in the year you see a lot of hard-fought, tight games. They're still working through that in terms of figuring out exactly what they are and how they can improve in a bunch of different areas. So I think they are similarities in that regard."

Toronto rallied to tie D.C. United 2-2 last weekend in