A dismal road record is of little worry to Toronto FC coach Chris Cummins. A dismal road record is of little worry to Toronto FC coach Chris Cummins. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

It would be hard to imagine a coach of any pro sports team being satisfied with winning just two road games in a season.

Toronto FC's Chris Cummins is the exception.

Toronto sports an 8-7-6 record this season, good enough for 30 points and third place in Major League Soccer's Eastern Conference. More importantly, the Canadian club finds itself in prime position to secure its first playoff berth since entering the league as an expansion franchise in 2007.

There's trouble ahead, though, as six of Toronto's nine remaining games are on the road, which wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that the team has struggled mightily on its travels this season, with just two wins in nine contests away from the cozy confines of BMO Field.

The fact that those victories came against two of the worst teams in MLS (the San Jose Earthquakes and Kansas City Wizards) and that Toronto has conceded a whopping 20 goals on the road (compared to just 11 at home) further highlight the problem.

Statistics only tell half of the story behind Toronto's road woes. The other half is just how poorly the team has played on the road when it has lost, most notably in suffering utterly embarrassing away losses to the Houston Dynamo and Real Salt Lake.

Curiously, all of this appears to be lost on Cummins. To hear the Toronto FC coach tell it, things have gone just swimmingly away from home this season.

"Do you think we've struggled on the road?" the Englishman shot back at CBCSports.ca during a media scrum following the team's Tuesday practice.

"Nine points in nine games, a point per game. It's not bad, is it?"

Well, in fact, nine points out of a possible 27 on the road is bad, even by MLS standards where all but three of the league's 15 teams have a losing road record this season.

Traditionally in MLS, teams secure a playoff spot on the strength of their home record, grabbing a few extra points on the road. But Toronto only has three home games left, and if it is to earn the 12 to 15 more points by season's end that Cummins believes the team needs to get into the playoffs, it has to start winning on the road now.

It's going to be tough, but Cummins remains confident the club can get the job done.

"I'm not overly concerned about our away record, to be honest with you," Cummins said. "I think it's improving on last year. We still have more games left this year, so I think we're going to get more points than what we got last year."

In truth, it would be hard for the club not to exceed last season's total of 10 points on the road, but Cummins' focus shouldn't be trying to merely do better than last year – it should be leading this team into the playoffs.

Nine points in nine road games is simply not good enough. Although Toronto has a respectable 6-3-3 record at home, BMO Field is far from a fortress, which means the team can ill afford to slip back into its losing ways during an upcoming three-game road trip.

The key to winning away from home, according to veteran midfielder Carl Robinson, is for the team to concentrate and play for a full 90 minutes.

"We've got three massive away games now, and it's going to be a test for us because on the road we have picked up some points, but we need to be more consistent, and that's been our problem all year," Robinson explained.

After Saturday's game in L.A. against Chivas USA, Toronto visits the Seattle Sounders on Aug. 29 (CBC, CBCSports.ca 3:30 p.m. ET) before wrapping up their three-game road swing on Sept. 5 versus the Colorado Rapids.