TORONTO - With Toronto FC's tenuous post-season hopes on the line, John Carver told his players simply to give themselves a chance.
They did exactly that, and then left the rest to fate.
Needing a victory to have any hopes of making the playoffs, Rohan Ricketts scored a pair of goals and Amado Guevara added one to lead Toronto to a 3-2 win over the Chicago Fire on Saturday in the team's final regular-season game at BMO Field.
Toronto then had to wait with fingers crossed for results of later games Saturday to know if the team was mathematically still alive.
"I said to the group, `Put on a good show for the home fans, play with a big smile on your face, work as hard as you have done over the past few weeks and if you do that, you'll get the right result.'
"I said, `You guys deserve a chance because of what you've shown me early in the season and towards the end of the season. Just give yourselves a chance.' That's all I can ask of them."
Justin Mapp and Cuauhtemoc Blanco replied for Chicago (12-10-7), which had already clinched a post-season berth.
With one game to go in the regular season, Toronto (9-12-8) has 35 points in 29 games, and is last in the Eastern Conference. The team could still make the playoffs with a win in next Saturday's season finale against the San Jose Earthquakes, coupled with some favourable results from other teams.
Toronto players planned to be watching Saturday's late games from a local bar, as their fate could be determined by a pair of games: if both the New York Red Bulls beat Columbus and Kansas City defeated San Jose, Toronto would be officially eliminated.
"We'll be disappointed because you want to make playoffs, that's what you want to do for ourselves, for the fans, for the club," said Toronto captain Jim Brennan. "If we don't make playoffs, we just have to carry that momentum on to next season."
Toronto has fared well late in the season, with Saturday's win stretching their unbeaten streak to four games. But the team could have been breathing much easier if not for a penalty in stoppage time last Saturday that allowed FC Dallas to gain a 2-2 tie.
"We've played well against some of the best teams at home and away, and to get screwed by a call and our own destiny isn't in our hands anymore, it's so heartbreaking," said Toronto forward Chad Barrett.
Now, Toronto FC clings to hope it won't go another season without a berth in the playoffs.
The team finished at the bottom of the league last year in its inaugural season, winning just six games, but the team's fans remained among the best in the league selling out every home game and each of its 16,500 season tickets for 2008.
It remains to be seen how long Toronto's fans will remain faithful. A group of fans hung a banner on the railing behind the south net Saturday that read: "We deserve better!"
Brennan insists the team is far better than the one that finished last in its rookie year.
"Night and day, compared to last year," he said. "The players we've brought in are a lot more quality, I think we're playing good football, so this year has been a big improvement. J.C. (Carver) has come in and done a great job, and next year we'll be there for sure."
Guevara scored his fourth of the season in the 12th minute, firing a rocket past Fire 'keeper Jon Busch from just outside the penalty area.
Ricketts, who Carver admitted he almost didn't start because of uninspiring play in recent games, gave Toronto a two-goal lead six minutes later on a penalty shot, awarded when Marvell Wynne was taken down in the box. The shot bounced off Busch, but Ricketts sprinted in to hammer home the rebound.
Chicago replied in the 25th minute when Mapp one-timed a left-footed shot past Toronto goalkeeper Greg Sutton from inside the 18-yard box.
Ricketts scored a beautiful goal on the last play before the half. With his back to the net, the midfielder took a pass from Carl Robinson, spun and launched a volley into the net.
"When I scored my second goal, that was for him because he changed my career around," said Ricketts, a former starter for Arsenal who was acquired by Toronto early this season, of his coach.
"You can say I was on a downward spiral for the talent that I have, it was a crime. John Carver saw me and revitalized my career.
"I owe him so much, and I don't know how I can repay him, so that goal was a thank you for turning my career around."
Blanco scored in the 59th minute, making the final half an hour tense for the capacity crowd of 20,294 red-clad Toronto FC fans on a sunny but chilly afternoon. The MLS all-star scored his seventh of the season when he one-timed a pass back from Brian McBride.
Chicago threatened to tie the game in injury time when Blanco took a free kick from 25 yards out, but Toronto's defence easily cleared the ball and the final whistle sounded seconds later, and the Toronto players walked around the pitch after the game applauding the crowd.
Wynne didn't play the second half after taking a shot to the face earlier in the game.
"It was like a right hook from Mike Tyson, and it actually picked him up off the field," Carver said of the shot. "To me, that was as good as the goals we had scored, because he put his body on the line and blocked it."
The game may have marked the BMO Field finale for Danny Dichio.
The popular striker, who scored the first goal in franchise history and has five this season, suffered a concussion in July that sidelined him for six games and is concerned about the debilitating effects another knock to the head might cause.
NOTES: The game also pitted Barrett against his former team. Barrett was acquired by Toronto in a trade in August, and has scored four goals in 12 games since... Dichio, Guevara, and Hunter Freeman picked up yellow cards for Toronto, as did Chicago's Gonzalo Segares.
