New York Red Bulls made life even more difficult for themselves when they drew 1-1 with MLS' bottom side Vancouver Whitecaps on the weekend.
The Red Bulls needed a win to move closer to the Eastern Conference's top three teams but failed to do so and are now in danger of missing the finals.
But head coach Hans Backe is remaining defiant even though the odds are against his New York side.
"We're still in it,'' said Backe. "I was a little bit surprised when someone told me we are the 10th or 11th team to reach the playoffs, so that's quite unbelievable after all the tied games; so it's still up to us. But of course we have to perform better."
New York lost Jan Gunnar Solli to a red card on the stroke of half-time and Backe admits it hurts when the team loses players but kept his hopes up about a strong finish in the final seven games of the regular season.
"We need to (not) pick up these red cards, these soft injuries, things like that so we have to change the lineup all the time," he added.
"Hopefully, hopefully we will get some players back; but still we have red-carded players. But I think we're good enough the last seven games to pick up wins.
"Of course time is running out; we need to have three or four wins to be solid to reach the playoffs.''
