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Union draw TFC, but still clinch postseason spot

Oct 16, 2011 - 4:58 AM Chester, PA (Sports Network) - The Philadelphia Union clinched a postseason berth Saturday in just their second season in Major League Soccer, even if the result was not what they was looking for against Toronto FC.

Sebastien Le Toux scored his 11th goal of the season, his 10th in his last 11 games, as the Union tied Toronto FC 1-1 on Saturday in front of a record crowd at PPL Park of 19,178.

Philadelphia (11-7-15) is even on 48 points with Sporting Kansas City atop the Eastern Conference entering the last week of the regular season. The Union are at Red Bull New York on Thursday in their last game before the postseason.

Ryan Johnson scored for Toronto FC (6-13-14), which was previously eliminated from postseason contention.

With Faryd Mondragon back in goal following a seven-match absence because of a fractured finger, Philadelphia was in good position for its 11th shutout after Le Toux scored the opener late in the first half.

Le Toux took advantage of a Toronto miscue in defense, then curled a shot into the right side past a diving Milos Kocic from 25 yards.

"It's a great thing," Le Toux said. "We knew we could have success after the first game we played against them in which we had a tremendous amount of success scoring. I had some space so I just took my chance at the far post and it went in."

Philadelphia was unbeaten in 15 matches when scoring first, and maintained the unbeaten record, but Toronto pulled the goal back 12 minutes after halftime as Johnson beat Mondragon to the bottom-right corner off a Nick Soolsma cross.

Mondragon's eighth shutout vanished, but Philadelphia playoff berth didn't, as it held on for the draw to extend its season and take some pressure off for an important showdown with New York this week.

"We want to do our best and we want to go into the playoffs with momentum and that means playing our best soccer against New York at that place," said Union midfielder Brian Carroll. "It will be a test just like the playoffs will be so we need to be prepared. I know the guys will come prepared on Monday to work and be ready for New York because it will be a playoff type of atmosphere and that type of game it?s going to take a good performance to play well and get a good result there."

New York lost to Sporting Kansas City, 2-0, on Saturday, and could need a win to have any chance of advancing to the postseason.