(Sports Network) - The San Jose Earthquakes are eliminated from participating in the 2009 Major League Soccer playoffs with three games to go in the regular season, but that doesn't mean they aren't playing for anything.

The 'Quakes (7-13-7) will be aiming to play spoiler when they travel to take on Toronto FC on Saturday afternoon.

Toronto (9-10-8) currently sits fifth in the Eastern table, trailing the New England Revolution by three points for the final playoff spot, meaning a win on Saturday is imperative.

The Red are coming off a 2-2 draw at Chicago in their last league fixture on Sept. 26.

"It's terrible, we let ourselves down, two times we were in the game and we could have come home with three points and there at the end we could have come home with zero points," TFC attacker Dwayne De Rosario said. "... We are very disappointed we got a point and we still aren't out of it yet. We put ourselves in another tough position where we have to have three wins in three games. We need to get those results."

"We needed to come here and get the [win]," TFC forward Chad Barrett said. "We did well to fight hard, but we did not do a good job of managing the game. But maybe this point is the one that will get us into the playoffs."

San Jose is coming off a loss, one that mathematically eliminated them from playoff contention.

"I am disappointed with the result," San Jose coach Frank Yallop said. "We should have at least tied the game to be honest. We had chances, but we didn't play real well. Our general play, especially in the final third, was poor tonight. We had chances at 1-1 to go and break and score a goal. We couldn't even muster a cross or a shot, which is tough."

The 'Quakes are banged up, but will try to close out the regular season on a good note with some positive results.

"It might be difficult, but we're going to go to Toronto and try and win, and obviously go to Chivas and to L.A. and try to do the same thing," Yallop said. "We are a good team, I think. We've got to make sure that we look at the whole thing, and we were starting to really play well, and we get a few injuries, that really hurt us."

The 'Quakes will be without midfielders Darren Huckerby and Andre Luiz, while forward Cornell Glen and defender Jason Hernandez are questionable with injuries. Arturo Alvarez, Ramon Sanchez and Simon Elliott will also be absent on international duty.

Toronto will be without midfielder Carl Robinson, while defender Marvell Wynne is questionable, and defender Adrian Serioux forward Pablo Vitti are probable with injuries. Amado Guevara will be absent on international duty.



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