Despite playing almost the entire second half with an extra man, Toronto couldn't score against the 10-man Rave Green side. Then, in yet another crushing late-game blow, Fredy Montero converted a free kick to give Seattle the 1-0 victory. "It's incredible that we have lost the game that we deserved to win. We played very well and in the end we gave it away," said TFC head coach Aron Winter. "It's hard that we lost since we deserved more than defeat."

So, Saturday’s road date in Seattle — one of the big boys in the West, and sure ro be inspired in its first game after losing midfielder Steve Zakuani thanks to a horror tackle from Colorado’s Brian Mullan — was arguably the first true exam of TFC’s credentials. And, it showed us the club has a long way to go. A long way. All of the pundits who have been placing TFC at the bottom of their MLS power rankings were proven right as the Reds stumbled to a 3-0 loss.

This week, both Canadian keepers are nominated for MLS Save of the Week. Sutton made a couple of fantastic stops on attempts from Seattle’s Fredy Montero in a 1-0 win, but the best was a reflex stop with his arm as Montero tried to get one upstairs from only a couple of yards out. Onstad, who is old enough to recall a time when players wore cotton jerseys, made a diving stop off a redirected Columbus Crew corner, as D.C. United won its opener by a 3-1 count.

It’s become obligatory for every sports journalist to provide season previews for the league he or she covers. It’s automatic, and a great space killer! In that vein, The 11 presents its “waited until the last possible second before the regular season” season preview! Why the wait? Because it’s hard to figure out the East. The West? Wow, a lot of power and depth there. As for the East? Last season, New York and Columbus and six other mediocre to bad to awful clubs were in the conference. New York and Columbus left them all in the dust.

Major League Soccer continually talks about the importance of having its teams succeed in international competition but, once again, the league has placed its All-Star game in direct conflict with the CONCACAF Champions League. MLS announced that it will host its annual All-Star Game July 27 at Red Bull Arena. But, as has been the case with the last two All-Star events, it clashes with the preliminary round of the CONCACAF Champions League. CONCACAF has already slated July 26-28 as the window for the first legs of the opening round.

The first domino has fallen. Wednesday, Seattle made Fredy Montero, the franchise's top scorer, it's newest Designated Player. Not counting Landon Donovan's grandfathered deal with the Los Angeles Galaxy, the Colombian star becomes the first MLS regular to graduate from the normal salaried ranks to DP status. MLS knew this was coming. When the new DP rule was rolled out on April 1, allowing each team to have a maximum of three slots, the league knew that its member clubs would soon need to use spots so they could retain existing players, not just to attract players from Europe and South America.