It just wasn’t that the Whitecaps gave up five. Jozy Altidore was rampant, scoring a hat trick. The Reds were as sharp offensively as they've been all season. But, wow, were the Whitecaps bad. Awful. Insipid.

But, what makes this final hard to take, well, it’s because CONCACAF just had to go and go all 1970s NASL with the format. It’s ridiculous that a continental club championship doesn’t provide for extra time to be played if the two teams are level after two legs. To go straight to penalty kicks… ugh. Give the players 30 more minutes to try and decide a championship in an 11-v-11 environment.

Pizarro was simply wonderful on the night; the best player on the pitch. He looked to be playing in a variety of positions, tirelessly running to help out the back line when needed, going out onto the wing when needed, and supporting the attack when needed.

Two Canadians involved in maybe one of the biggest goals ever scored by a Canadian club, in one of the world’s true soccer cathedrals. Pinch me.

They’re at BMO field, in the lousy, blustery rainy weather. Before the game, at some point, you'd think manager Miguel Herrera and his staff would have looked at some video of Toronto FC in action, and thought to themselves, “wow, Jozy Altidore and Sebastian Giovinco can really burn you on the counter.”

After nearly a decade of suffering, I have come to the conclusion that there’s a TFC fan who watched Tuesday’s game knowing full well that (s)he has made a deal with the devil.

Osorio with the wonderful through-the-legs back-heeled effort off a pass from Sebastian Giovinco, then Mavinga with the game-saving lunge. On a pockmarked winter-scored pitch in Toronto, Wednesday night was a time for heroes.

Toronto FC was, by a wide margin, the livelier team, and got two well-deserved road goals. A 2-0 result in the CONCACAF Champions League Round of 16 first leg gives the Reds a commanding advantage heading home for next week’s second match.

Based on the run of play, the chances created, the scoreline should have been far more severe than 2-0. Really, 6-0 or 7-0 would have been fair.

Back in the day, when Toronto FC was a brand-spankin’ new team, it developed a rivalry with, of all teams, the Columbus Crew. There was no rhyme or reason for it; if you look in the history books, there is no mention of the great Columbus/Toronto war.