Fall is upon us, and with that comes the true home stretch of the MLS season, one that will still play a round of games through the upcoming international break.

Every team has somewhere between seven and nine games remaining, and while the Whitecaps are well-positioned at the top of the Western Conference, the clock is nearing midnight for Canada's two teams out East.

Here's what stuck out in matchday 27.

Lack of intensity

Robin Fraser probably had the most apt quote on the situation.

"I think that they played like a team that has confidence of a seventeen-game unbeaten streak, and I feel like as a group, we had done really well when we've been up against big challenges," the TFC manager said post-game. "And I felt like today, I don't necessarily think we matched that intensity."

St. Louis City is now 18 games unbeaten in all competitions, one of the longest stretches in MLS history. But Fraser is correct in the fact that over the past month or so, Toronto has done very well in big tests.

The Reds went to Miami and won. They beat league-leading Nashville at BMO Field. They've also won against or taken points off of New England, Charlotte and Chicago in the past six weeks. 

That's a number of positive results against each of the top five teams in the Eastern Conference, all in a fairly concise period of time. Not all of these games were pretty, and they likely didn't "deserve" a result in terms of the balance of play of some of those fixtures.

But they got them thanks to an intensity off the ball that at a minimum aimed to stop midfield progression and cut out anything dangerous in behind the back line as much as possible.

Against St. Louis, that slipped, and too often did the home side's midfield – particularly Alex Mǎțan, who was brilliant in space – have too much time on the ball, and it allowed runners to slip in behind and find big chances.

There's not a much better example of this than the 1-0 goal, where Mǎțan is rotated out wide, gets a step inside on Richie Laryea, no midfielders are in the area to come and cover that space, and the midfielder can play a ball in behind where both Rafa Navarro and Carlo Holse are a step quicker than their man in a jumbled TFC back line, and Holse buries it on his first touch.

These mistakes can't happen if you're a team trying to sit in and press the ball, and that lack of intensity in midfield mixed with a few mistakes at the back will lead to more losses than wins.

To go further, it can be argued that a team so reliant on hard off-ball work combined with hopeful transition play isn't how you build a legitimate contender in MLS. Under Fraser, Toronto has not developed enough meaningful patterns in possession to win games with the ball.

In 2025, Toronto and St. Louis sat 25th and 26th, respectively, in average possession. They each finished on 32 points, both meaningfully outside the playoff picture.

In 2026, both teams have brought in new designated players, including breaking their club record signing fee on a striker.

The difference is, St. Louis has found a coach in Yoann Damet who stresses intensity off the ball while building fantastic possession patterns, like the one that caused that 1-0 goal, that help them win games. Toronto is still stuck sitting back and hoping for something when the game stretches on the counter.

St. Louis is now 18 games unbeaten and third in the West. Toronto is still 12th in the East.

When the season is over, will Jason Hernandez look to try and replicate what former TFC executive Corey Wray has done in STL?

Only one thing left to play for

It's now five straight losses for CF Montréal in MLS play, as they now sit bottom of the East, 12 points back of the last playoff spot and five points back of 14th-placed Atlanta. It's not mathematical, but the postseason isn't in the cards this season.

Despite underlying numbers suggesting this team has been unlucky in some ways to be this bad, even if they were playing up to their xG, the Impact would still be a fringe wild card team in the East.

It's easy to repeat the truth, which is that there isn't enough quality on this roster; there needs to be more investment put into bringing some actual star players to Montréal, but that's not really going to get anyone anywhere at this point.

The game against Columbus went as a ton of Montréal games have gone this season. In attack, there were a few decent moves as a team, but there's not enough quality to find any consistent final action.

In defence, the lines can get stretched a bit, and a couple lapses in concentration saw Mo Farsi and Brais Méndez beat Sébastian Breza, both probably on strikes the Montréal goalkeeper would want back.

That was basically it, with the hosts walking away with a 2-0 victory and sinking the Impact further into the bottom of the East. 

At this point, the entire season rides on the Canadian Championship final in a month's time. Getting some silverware and a trip back to the Champions Cup would be an appropriate silver lining, because the league season is officially a lost cause.

A get-right game

These days, few teams in MLS are in worse form than Real Salt Lake. After this weekend, they're now 12 games winless in league play, with nine of those being losses, and their tailspin has dropped the Utah side to 12th in the West.

This kind of struggling opponent is exactly what the Whitecaps needed after a couple of frustrating 2-1 losses, first to Austin FC at BC Place last weekend, and secondly losing their grip on the Canadian Championship as they bowed out in the semifinal at the hands of Montréal.

It was comfortable right from the start against RSL, as it took just nine minutes for Brian White to score in his third consecutive MLS game. Thomas Müller blasted one in just before the half-hour mark, and Yadaly Diaby capped off a real breakout MLS performance to make it three in the 63rd minute.

The home side rarely threatened and looked short on confidence and ability as they search for a first MLS win since May. 

But Vancouver must win the games in front of them, and they now lead the West by five points, while also holding a game in hand over all of the teams still chasing.

It feels like they're starting to find solutions to the questions that popped up over the summer about squad selection. Having both White and Müller fit and firing certainly helps, but this group has still been searching to find the right duo on the wings all season long, seemingly. 

Last year's combo of Ali Ahmed and Emmanuel Sabbi was one of the more underrated parts of the machine that did so well in so many different competitions, but due to Ahmed's sale to England, Sabbi's injuries and inconsistency, and waiting on the group of other signings to settle in, the wings have felt mostly unsettled throughout the season.

Diaby's performance Saturday was perhaps a hint that he could have the inside track to that spot on the left, as the Guinea international was direct and effective in a way Cheikh Sabaly and Bruno Caicedo haven't quite been. Sabbi was also much more like his normal self on the right, making smart off-ball movements at the back post and finding a ton of shots inside the 18-yard box.

The Whitecaps need to iron out their best XI before the playoffs come around in November, and perhaps they've found part of the key with these wingers.