Just three days after being all but eliminated from the Major League Soccer playoffs, Toronto FC has seen its hopes of advancing in CONCACAF Champions League vanish.

A 68th-minute goal by Argentine Javier Morales gave Real Salt Lake a 1-1 tie at BMO Field Tuesday night, propelling the MLS Cup defending champions into the next stage of the competition for club teams from North and Central America and the Caribbean.

Salt Lake (3-1-1) will be joined in the quarter-finals by Cruz Azul (3-1-1) of Mexico City, which defeated the fourth team in the group, Arabe Unido of Panama, 2-0.

“It’s really disappointing,” TFC captain Dwayne De Rosario told reporters, “but we can hold our heads high. We played hard right up to the end.”

TFC (1-2-2) will host Arabe Unido (1-4-0) on Oct. 19 in the final group stage game. It will also almost assuredly be the final home game of the season for TFC. The Reds are seven points behind Colorado for the eighth and final MLS playoff spot with four games to play, which means they need a miracle to make the post-season.

In four seasons of existence, TFC has yet to make the MLS playoffs.

Tuesday night, TFC, needing wins in their last two games in the group stage to advance in Champions League, gave 10,581 fans at BMO Field, the smallest announced crowd for a Reds home game, a reason to cheer early as Jacob Peterson opened the scoring in the 20th minute.

Goalkeeper Jon Conway, starting in place of regular Stefan Frei, began the play with a long throw from his own penalty area. Salt Lake’s Canadian international midfielder, Will Johnson, lunged at the ball just before the centre line but missed. The ball skipped to Peterson, who ran at back-peddling defender Chris Wingert and moved the ball from right foot to left at the top of the penalty area before thumping a left-footed shot just inside the left post past a diving Nick Rimando.

The strike, on which Conway got the only assist, was Peterson’s first in a TFC jersey in his 27th game in MLS, Canadian championship and Champions League competition.

Peterson said he and Conway have worked on that long baseball-like pass

“We know Jon has a great arm on him . . . so we knew on the counter-attack we might get some joy,” Peterson said. “Fortunately, we did on that one.”

TFC had a couple of good chances early in the second half to double the lead, but De Rosario couldn’t convert on a scrambled rebound in the 56th minute. Just two minutes later, his drive from 25 yards was stopped by a diving Rimando.

De Rosario, his teammates and interim head coach Nick Dasovic insisted his public spat with management over wanting a raise, which was highlighted by the captain’s cheque-writing gesture after scoring in Saturday’s MLS game, was not a distraction.

“I’m still going to keep giving 100 per cent for the club,” he said.

The Reds’ inability to add to their lead would prove costly.

Morales made no mistake on a free kick from 22 yards. The midfielder curled a right-footed shot over the TFC wall and into the right corner past a helpless Conway and beyond Julian de Guzman who tried unsuccessfully to knock the ball away with his arm.

It was the first time Salt Lake had scored at BMO Field in five appearances.

TFC’s best chance to take the lead came in the 85th minute when second-half substitute O’Brian White got his head on a cross in the goalmouth but steered it wide.

The rest of the way, Salt Lake defended solidly and prevented any real threats.

Striker Chad Barrett insisted the players weren’t disappointed by the sparse crowd.

“Even though the crowd didn’t really show up in full force they still sounded like they did,” Barrett said. “They’re backing us up the whole time.”