Toronto FC president and GM Kevin Payne made the best of a bad situation by dealing Designated Player Eric Hassli to FC Dallas for a conditional second-round pick in the 2014 SuperDraft.

By standing pat on its collection of DPs, Toronto FC’s front office has, in fact, decided to play craps.

Still, the move will likely dampen the enthusiasm of TFC fans who hold the moral high ground over Montreal and Vancouver supporters; TFC fans could claim their team’s Canadian content was much higher than the Impact and Whitecaps. But, if the three Academy grads and Cann aren’t replaced by other Canadian prospects, that moral high ground won’t be as lofty in 2013 as it was in 2012.

The last time the Reds won an MLS game, July 18 over Colorado, Canada was still in control of its World Cup destiny, Mitt Romney still hadn’t become the official GOP candidate, Robin Van Persie was still an Arsenal player and Lance Armstrong had seven Tour De France titles.

When you are at the head of an organization, and a candidate turns down the job offer, the drill is simple. You shake the person’s hand, wish him or her well and you move on to the next candidate.

It was the indifference that might be the most worrying thing for the Reds as they finish their sixth straight year out of the playoffs — out of the announced 16,151 in attendance at BMO Field, the majority of the noise seemed to be coming from the 150-odd Impact fans in the visitors' section.

"We come to the end of every game and we don't tense up," said forward Andrew Wiedeman. "We all think this is the game we're going to right the ship. I firmly thought we were going to pull it out and get the win, the way we were peppering the goal. We put them under so much pressure in the second half but we couldn't pull it off."

"If you want to give teams a two-goal stand then carry on, but we’re not that good. We were the architects of our own downfall, playing ridiculous balls in the wrong area of the field. I thought we eradicated that, but obviously some of the lads that have been in the squad haven’t been listening."

"There's no way that was a 3-1 game," said TFC head coach Paul Mariner. "I thought we were a little tentative in the first half and in the second half we played much better… We matched them for 89 minutes."

Despite running the balance of play and looking like they were on their way to locking up a relatively easy three points, the Dynamo and their fans looked stunned the Reds escaped with a 1-1 draw at Houston's BBVA Compass Stadium on Saturday night.