“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.”

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.

If Friday was your first day following MLS, all you’d need to do is look at the second stage of the Re-Entry Draft to comprehend just how many players have called Toronto FC home over the club’s relatively short six-year existence.

Mariner praised how his players responded after he "gave them both barrels at halftime."

Whenever a team can go into the Denver suburbs and steal a road win, it’s a positive. It doesn’t have to be pretty.

We tallied up our votes, and came up with our list of how the teams will finish, who will win MLS Cup and who will be the league’s MVP. No need to play the season, now. We have it all figured out.

Sanna Nyassi was a role player on the Colorado Rapids just two weeks ago. Now, he’s the MLS Player of the Week.

But, in the one-goal loss, like so many of the Whitecaps other losses that season, a silly mistake undoes 90 minutes of work.

Seattle defender Jeff Parke got the nod after a runoff vote was needed to break a tie between him and Philadelphia Union forward Carlos Ruiz after the the first round of ballots from the North American Soccer Reporters was counted.