Toronto FC had a choice to make after giving up a game-tying goal to D.C. United in injury time Saturday night: wallow or win the game.

The Reds opted for the latter approach in their first-round playoff match, putting four goals past Wayne Rooney and company in the first half of extra time to write their ticket into the Eastern Conference semifinals at New York City FC on Wednesday night. The game will be played at Citi Field instead of Yankee Stadium, New York’s usual home park.

“You always get knocked down, you’re always going to have controversy, but it’s how you respond and we responded very well,” Reds midfielder Nick DeLeon said.

Things will only get tougher for the Reds, who are looking to advance to the conference final for the third time in four years. NYCFC, the East’s regular-season champion, will have had two and a half weeks of rest by kickoff, while Toronto will be on an unfamiliar pitch just four days after playing 120 minutes of playoff soccer. The questions surrounding the health of some of Toronto’s key players, like striker Jozy Altidore and centre-back Omar Gonzalez, don’t help.

Altidore went down with a quadriceps strain on Oct. 6 and hasn’t played since. He was able to get through chunks of TFC’s return-to-play process, which tests sprinting and the power of his shots, before Saturday’s game but couldn’t complete every step. Reds head coach Greg Vanney is hopeful he can play a role Wednesday.

“The risk outweighed the reward (on Saturday) and now we’ve bought ourselves a few more days to continue to push him through that,” Vanney said.

Gonzalez’s hamstring issue is “very minor,” Vanney said, The defender underwent fitness testing Saturday only to be ruled out of the game about an hour before kickoff. Fellow centre back Chris Mavinga left the D.C. game in extra time on Saturday after rolling his ankle, and Vanney spotted midfielder Marky Delgado rubbing his groin and stretching his hamstring, which the coach hoped was just cramping.

The club’s top priority over the next few days will be to heal those bumps and bruises as best they can.

Toronto feels confident going into their upcoming matchup. The Reds are riding an 11-game undefeated streak, including a 1-1 tie at New York in September in which NYCFC keeper Sean Johnson stopped a 78th-minute penalty kick by Alejandro Pozuelo to deny Toronto a win. TFC also beat New York 4-0 at BMO Field in March. The teams have met once in the playoffs, in 2016, when the Reds won a two-leg semifinal 7-0.

“They’re a very good team,” TFC captain Michael Bradley said. “There’s no two ways about it ... But it’s the playoffs and everything starts over and, on top of it, they’re playing in a stadium that’s not theirs ...

“Yeah, we played 120 minutes (on Saturday) but on the other hand we now have 120 playoffs minutes under our belt in terms of understanding what the intensity is about, what every play is about. We’re going to use every bit we can to our advantage.”

Midfielder Jonathan Osorio, who scored two goals Saturday to help offset Altidore’s absence, won’t entertain the idea that any extenuating circumstances will play a part in the result in New York.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “It’s playoffs. All that does not matter at all. We’re going to do whatever we can to recover and get ready. That won’t be an excuse.”

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