With just three matchdays to go until the World Cup break in MLS, the spring sprint is nearly at a close.

For Toronto, BMO Field is now in FIFA's hands after a disappointing homestand. For Montréal, there are three games left to keep in the playoff race. For Vancouver, three more tricky road games stand between them and sticking near the top of the league table.

The break will mean different things for each club as well. TFC desperately needs the time off to get healthy, and do the Whitecaps to a lesser extent. Meanwhile, the Impact are in good form, and may not want the extended time off disrupting their momentum.

That said, let's not get too caught up in what's ahead. Here's a look at what stuck out in MLS' matchday 12.

The end of the homestand

Back in March, there was some optimism building for Toronto. Their squad was starting to come together after some late signings were integrating, a long homestand had begun with some good results, and it seemed like things were on the right track.

Fast forward a couple of months, and things are a bit of a mess again. The double-digit injury list hangs over a squad that is now winless in seven, all at home, including an embarrassing week containing a Canadian Championship loss to Atlético Ottawa and 45k supporters packing BMO Field to see Inter Miami take over.

Maybe it's harsh to criticize a team missing the majority of its back line, both DPs and numerous other key starters, but going 2W-5D-2L on a nine-match league homestand is just not good enough.

Toronto seem bereft of ideas in attack, and they actually had chances in this weekend's encounter. Miami were not ready to play in the opening half hour, turning the ball over multiple times in midfield and handing Toronto opportunities in transition against a pretty poor defensive side.

But TFC's mostly backup attackers didn't have many ideas. Too many times a Markus Cimermancic, Deandre Kerr, or even Raheem Edwards pressing up from the back would make a good play out of possession to step on a loose pass, hit their pressing trigger or play a quick one-two to open up space, and then waste a 3v3, 4v3 or even 4v2 transition moment with a nothing shot from outside the box, or a hope cross to nobody. 

These were legitimate attacking chances, and Toronto ended with seven shots in the first half, but just two were from inside the box. Of those two, only Dániel Sallói's curler that Dayne St. Clair parried away caused any true danger, and that came after Rodrigo De Paul's opener, which shifted momentum.

And honestly, the first half was more or less positive for TFC tactically outside of the goal against. They exploited the space between Miami's lines and turned them over routinely, and the Herons' only good chances came off free kicks.

The second was a different story, and Miami ripped up Toronto again and again in transition as the Reds shedded any defensive solidity they had, trying to find a goal. It was not pretty, unless you were one of the many wearing pink in the crowd to watch Lionel Messi put up a goal and two assists.

There were too many errors and turnovers against a team with the quality of Inter Miami, and a pair of late Emilio Aristizábal goals were just consolation, already down 4-0.

One last note on a long Toronto section here is about Benjamín Kuscevic, who may be the most important player in the squad, at least on the defensive side. With the Chilean in, playing 90 minutes, TFC have three wins, two draws and no losses, and have conceded five times in those five games.

Without Kuscevic playing 90 minutes – he has one 20-minute cameo in the Atlanta loss where he was forced off due to injury, the rest he did not feature – Toronto has zero wins, three draws and four losses, and has conceded 19 goals in those seven games.

Grinding out home results

It's now four wins from five in all competitions under Philippe Eullaffroy for CF Montréal, with all four wins coming at home.

The latest needed some late heroics after a pretty stale 90 minutes against Orlando, but a Daniel Ríos penalty and a dagger from Dagur Dan Thórhalsson (haha, get it?) now push the Impact up to 11th in the East, three points out of a playoff spot with a game in hand.

They probably deserved the win in this one, creating more chances than an Orlando side whose defending has been so bad all year. It's clear they entered this one trying to find a clean sheet. Iván Jaime was lively, with five shot attempts and two chances created, and Wiki Carmona was just as busy on the other wing with five shot attempts of his own alongside five chances created.

It took until Robin Jansson took down Luca Petrasso in the box at the start of stoppage time to find a breakthrough, though, as Ríos put his penalty past Maxime Crépeau, and then Thórhalsson finished nicely to kill the game off at 2-0.

Now, the bleu-blanc-noir's schedule in the league has been pretty light, with their three recent league wins coming against teams in the bottom half of the East, including this Orlando team that's second-bottom, and frankly just not a good team at all.

They have three more tests before the break. Wednesday is an inconsistent Portland side coming to town that has alternated winning and losing their last six games, but is coming off a 6-0 shellacking of Sporting KC.

Then, the Chicago Fire, who sit fourth in the East, before a trip to fifth-placed DC United, who are currently five matches unbeaten.

If Montréal really want to stay alive in the playoff race, they need to keep finding results in matches like these. Stay afloat here, and you can keep your season alive heading into the break.

The glaring lack of a playmaker

The Vancouver Whitecaps, no matter what, are a very good MLS team.

This weekend, they travelled to league-leading San Jose and got a credible 1-1 draw where they threatened the entire final 80 minutes, and ended up with a 2.23-1.02 xG advantage. They did this missing both of their creative DPs, with Thomas Müller and Ryan Gauld both out.

That being said, the Earthquakes were missing Timo Werner and Niko Tsakiris, their two most important playmakers as well, but it does show how dominant Vancouver can be.

They do lack the cutting edge with Müller missing this season, it seems. Jeevan Badwal has done a credible job being the one to typically step into that attacking midfield role, but as good as he is as a workhorse connector type in midfield, he lacks the playmaking gravity the German legend possesses.

The Whitecaps have been at their best all year when they get their midfield three all on the pitch at the same time. The blip earlier in the season without Andrés Cubas showed, and now they're at another speedbump because of Müller's illness.

It's important and good that this team can still grab results and play very well, missing a few players. But if they really want to win a Supporters' Shield, they'll need to get healthy and try to string three wins together before the World Cup break.

They have two games in Texas and a trip to San Diego. None of those fixtures are easy, but the heart of a champion can pull out results on the road. We'll really see what these Whitecaps are made of as they finish off this extremely tough stretch of fixtures.