“I told them I felt that they wanted to win but that I didn't think wanting was enough. I also said that I felt we could turn the game around,” said Schallibaum when asked what message he addressed to his troops. “We did and I'm very proud of everyone on the team. We have had some difficult weeks and this is a kind of liberation. I'm happy for everyone because we deserved this win, it's a good moment for us.”

“Above all statistics,” Saputo enthused, “Marco is player who has proven his worth by his presence in the locker room and his leadership with our young players and, even at 37, he is a true professional and still has the desire to win.

Reluctant to rotate his personnel for the bulk of the season, Impact head coach Marco Schallibaum, prompted by injuries and suspensions to his regulars, fielded a squad that read like a reserve side, starting Evan Bush in goal, putting three youthful academy products on the back line and adding another couple to his bench.

If you only looked at the season-long list of MLS Players of the Week, you’d assume that the Vancouver Whitecaps were comfortably ahead of the pack in the Western Conference.

So, when news hit Monday (again, sigh) that MLS might look at a winter schedule, a charge that the league denied, I couldn’t help but feel that this was a lot like November, 2010 all over again.

“It's always difficult to explain after a game like this one,” declared head coach Marco Schallibaum in his post-game comments. “In short we were not strong enough. We were not able to cause the other team any difficulty. The will was there but the quality was not. We took a goal in the first half and were chasing it the rest of the game. We were not strong in the last 20 metres. We were just not good today,” he concluded.

“I always have this feeling, every game, that I'm going to make an impact,” Manneh told reporters following the game. “No matter how much time I play — if I start or come off the bench — I'm always looking to make an impact on the game.”

“If I was sitting in the stands I think I would be going home a very happy fan, but unfortunately for us their 'keeper makes two world-class saves,” captain Jay DeMerit told reporters following the match. “They should be making a statue of Donovan Ricketts in Portland right now, because he's definitely kept them in it, which is disappointing for us, because that was a game where we should have taken three points.”

You know that you’ve had a special game when you score a spectacular free-kick goal from outside the area… and that’s NOT the goal everyone is talking about.

"We knew they’d come with numbers because it was a must-win for them," said TFC coach Ryan Nelsen, who kept the locker room closed nearly a half hour afterwards before coming out to meet with reporters. "We knew there was going to be a lot of space for us to play in. It turned out as we hoped. We had a two-on-one and three-on-one, but couldn’t capitalize."