“It’s just what happened,” Davidson said after the match. “I reacted wrong. For all of it, I just want to apologize to all the players. It’s very tough to play pretty much the most of the 90 minutes with 10 men. I just want to apologize to all the fans and supporters that came to watch the game."

“We showed a will to win, to play through difficult circumstances. This is a team that is willing to run for each other and to run for the team. We played well in the cold with 17,000 fans here to support us. We’re certainly on the right track,” declared head coach Marco Schallibaum in his post-game comments.

Brad Davis played a key role in helping the Houston Dynamo extend its home unbeaten streak to 35 games. His assist and winning goal in a 2-1 decision over the Chicago Fire earned him the MLS Player of the Week honour.

But, if you’re lamenting lost points, you need to take a step back and look at the game as whole. If not for TFC keeper Joe Bendik, who put in a performance that’s worthy of Player of the Week votes, the Union would have won this match by three or four goals.

With the MLS season moved up to its earliest start ever, forgive us if we don’t feel 100 per cent totally prepared for First Kick. Judging by the way many MLS teams finished preseason, with tentative matches and still looking at trialists with a week to go before the games count in the standings, a lot of coaches aren’t quite ready for the early start, either.

Both Canadian teams were upstaged by a Canadian trialist in the final day of group-stage play at the Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic.

"It doesn't matter how well you play for 89 minutes, it's the whole game that matters," said O'Dea. "The ability is there. There is no question of that. The team is mentally weak. Tough times in games we don't hold out, we concede late goals."

The MLS Disciplinary Committee announced Thursday that it had added two more games to Rivas’ suspension for headbutting Philadelphia’s Antoine Hoppenot. That’s in addition to the automatic one-game suspension he earned for the straight red.

Andrew Wenger, playing up top in place of Marco Di Vaio, presently in Italy facing questions in that country’s most recent game-fixing scandal, gave the Impact a one-goal lead moments before the interval.

After 80 minutes of 0-0 soccer, Saturday’s match between the Philadelphia Union and Montreal Impact exploded with three goals in the final 10 minutes and change.