Less than three days after putting in a dominant performance over New York Red Bulls to secure a first-ever post-season berth, Toronto FC looked to be hungover from the midweek celebrations in a listless 2-0 loss to visiting Columbus Crew today (AEDT).

In stark contrast to last week's win, Toronto appeared bereft of ideas against a hungry Crew side, resulting in an outcome that vaulted Columbus ahead of Toronto in a tight Eastern Conference race that has seen several positional changes over the past few weeks.

The lack of offensive thrust by the home side allowed Columbus to leave BMO Field unscathed, despite Crew sporting a negative goal difference heading into the match.

"We just weren't as sharp as we needed to be with the ball," Toronto head coach Greg Vanney said after the match. "[Crew is] always going to be a good team with the ball, that is their thing. You have to have your share of the ball, you have to create your chances, and you have to be dangerous against them, and today it took us too long to get into that mould."

Nowhere was the lack of ideas by Toronto more evident than at the very front of the attack, where Sebastian Giovinco was isolated for long stretches of time as Crew cut off the supply line to the Italy international.

Giovinco saw very little of the ball, effectively neutering Toronto's main attacking threat and — with Toronto doing the same to Columbus striker Kei Kamara — nullifying the much-hyped meeting of the league's two challengers for the golden boot.

In the end it was a frustrating end to a positive run of results for Toronto, but captain Michael Bradley stressed that his team cannot lose sight of the bigger picture as it heads into the final week of the regular season.

"Overall [it was a] disappointing result but it's been by-and-large a very good stretch for us," Bradley noted. "We get a few days now to recover and get ourselves ready for the last regular season game in Montreal [on 25 October] knowing that everybody is going to go into that game with a lot play for in terms of positioning and home field advantage. 

"We'll see where the chips fall."