“We do not want to be close to the playoffs, we want to be in the playoffs. We want to reach our season-ticket subscription objective. We do not want to experience a dip in attendance like we had in our first game at Saputo Stadium. We do not want to leave points on the pitch by allowing so many late-game goals.”

The New England Revolution came to town looking to salvage a bit of pride and avoid being swept by a first-year team in their season series, but the Impact had something more tangible to play for: The top spot among Canadian pro teams and along with it the right to face FC Edmonton in the opening round of next year’s Amway Canadian Championship.

While the Montreal Impact were eliminated from the Eastern Conference playoff race weeks ago, and the Vancouver Whitecaps have made the postseason in the West, both have 42 points.

It was the indifference that might be the most worrying thing for the Reds as they finish their sixth straight year out of the playoffs — out of the announced 16,151 in attendance at BMO Field, the majority of the noise seemed to be coming from the 150-odd Impact fans in the visitors' section.

The official “wait till next year” mantra can now be uttered throughout the Montreal Impact camp.

And there’s a wisdom that exists about injury-prone players. They have a tendency to remain injury-prone. Hence the use of the word, “prone.”

Even the Canadian Soccer Association has no faith in Toronto FC.

Bernier: “We’re a little disappointed because we had four games to play and we knew we had to win them all to have a chance at the playoffs. We didn’t have the same energy in the first half as we did in the second and you can’t play that way against a team that knows exactly what it has to do and then goes out and does it. We came up with too little too late and now we have three games left in the season.”

The Impact pressed the host Fire early, and took a 1-0 lead thanks to some guile from striker Marco Di Vaio, but the Impact’s experience in the defence was outweighed by its lack of movement, as it surrendered three unanswered goals.

The Argentine forward was named NASL Player of the Week for the second consecutive time on Monday. He got 17 of the 19 first-place votes from the members of the North American Soccer Reporters.