Ryan Nelsen almost produced the perfect road tactics to guide Toronto FC to a vital away win on the weekend.
The Reds led Philadelphia Union by a goal after leading scorer Robert Earnshaw's fifth of the season in the 71st minute at PPL Park but conceded to Jack McInerney in injury-time after Ashtone Morgan was sent off for a second yellow card with two minutes remaining.
Despite the late leveller, Nelsen was pleased with the team's performance which recorded their first point on the road in 2013 and first away from home since August last year.
"It kind of went according to plan, and unfortunately the sending off had an impact," former New Zealand skipper Nelsen said.
"Unfortunately, we could not see the job done. I thought the guys were brilliant. They worked very hard. They defended really well. And when they were asked to be accountable, they were. It was a very silly sending off and it cost us.
"When you are 1-0 up going into the last couple of minutes, you like to see the game through. I know we would have if we had had 11 men. Obviously the sending off caused a momentum swing and we couldn't really get on the ball to kill time."
