In the wake of Toronto FC throwing away one (if not three) points in Columbus, I was concerned coach Chris Cummins was going to wax poetic about the positives of scoring two on the road or just being a victim of circumstance in the end. Afterall, Cummins still operates under the interim label and it is probably not in his best interest to ruffle too many feathers until the tag is removed.

But Cummins was downright ornery in the wake of the late-game collapse. That's right, ornery; an adjective-to-this-day never used to describe the good-natured Englishman. A confident man of a few chosen words; Cummins chose to add a choice few more before getting back on the bus to Toronto:

"I'm disappointed. I'm angry. I'm fuming," said TFC coach Chris Cummins. "They didn't beat us. We threw the game away."

It was beautiful.

At training on Monday Cummins was a little less ornery, but had moved on to the next stage of being candid.

"I have said to the lads, we need to start learning. 'Are we learning at the moment?' No we are not," Cummins said of his club conceding three avoidable goals to the Crew. "And if we do not start learning we are not going to make the playoffs, it is as simple as that."

Circle this date; the official first time anyone dared to bring up the fact the city's beloved Reds might not play beyond the 30 assigned games.

"We are not far away, don't get me wrong," Cummins added. "But as it stands we are a middle of the road team that needs to do better."

The loss in Columbus has already been red-flagged as a turning point in the season for Toronto FC. I am prepared to say the same thing for its coach. After 19 games, it would seem that Cummins is down tip-toeing around."

"It is always difficult after games, you are quite emotional, you're angry, you're disappointed and sometimes you say things you might regret. I am not normally one to say too much after games but unfortunately in this one I did," Cummins added. "But I was right in saying what I said."

Wait, wait ... no need to even half apologize. I have said before that teams will always be a reflection of their coach, and on the eve of yet another big game in the Cummins' metamorphosis is impeccably timed.

The opposite of impeccably timed, however, is the Reds' current roster situation heading in to the first-leg of the CONCACAF Champions League home-and-home with the Puerto Rico Islanders.

"We have a couple (of injuries)," Cummins said ahead of the match. "Nana (Attakora) is going to be out, he is struggling with his hamstring and it is going to be a couple of weeks for Nana. Adrian took a knock in the game, as it stands now he is not going to be fit. And Amado (Guevara) is getting the X-ray (on Monday).

Three more reasons why Cummins' calling out party might be the intangible TFC needs to overcome the relatively unknown on Wednesday night.

"(The Islanders) are a good team. They are big, strong and athletic and they will probably look to play on the counter. They also play well off the set piece, a lot of the lower league teams do."

But before wrapping up the post-training Q&A Cummins reiterated the message that was the source of his unusual, but embraced by at least myself, behaviour:

"We need 90 minutes. If we don't we will concede the goal that we have been conceding of late."

TRAINING NOTES: The good news amid the injury bad news is first-year midfielder Sam Cronin will be back from international duty ... Construction crews worked on the north end grand stand seating for Real Madrid. The first row of the seats appears to be at crossbar level ... The training session was brief on Monday, with much of the time spent on possession drills.

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