For the better part of a decade, supporting Toronto FC was an exercise in futility. But, after getting to within one Stefan Frei fingertip from winning MLS Cup, expectations are high in Canada’s largest city. Where do the Reds go from here?

The fact that MLS Cup was able to beat hockey on a Saturday night – well, that's an impressive feat for a sport we're used to seeing getting pre-empted by late-running curling matches.

Stefan Frei, drafted by Toronto FC in 2009, may have dreamed back then about winning an MLS Cup at BMO Field. He probably didn’t imagine at the time that he’d do it as a member of the Seattle Sounders.

Lodeiro and the Sounders may feel like a Cinderella story; but, really, it would be absolutely incorrect to call them that. Really, they are yet another example of the kind of team that usually wins MLS Cup. They have all the ingredients of teams that have won previous titles; they were highly rated in preseason, struggled to start the season, tinkered and tinkered, finally found a rhythm, then scrambled just to make the post-season and then stayed hot once the playoffs started.

Just the thought of corner kicks will give Impact supporters nightmares throughout their offseason. All three TFC goals in regulation time of the second leg came off of corners that Montreal couldn't deal with.

Damn straight that refs are calling the games more closely and more harshly than ever before. And guess what? It’s because fans and the league asked them to do it that way, that’s why.

So, as MLS looks to tweaking or making major changes to the international rule as it relates to Canadians, the Canadian Soccer Association and the league need to set a goal that’s more cut-and-dried than giving more roster spots or even, gasp, dropping the Canadians-as-internationals-on-American-teams designation. Someone needs to write down a number. And that number would be a ballpark average of first-team minutes for Canadians.

If you only looked at the season-long list of MLS Players of the Week, you’d assume that the Vancouver Whitecaps were comfortably ahead of the pack in the Western Conference.

“I always have this feeling, every game, that I'm going to make an impact,” Manneh told reporters following the game. “No matter how much time I play — if I start or come off the bench — I'm always looking to make an impact on the game.”

He scored the opener in the third minute and then got the second assist on Lamar Neagle’s insurance goal. The win allowed Seattle to seize top spot in the MLS Western Conference, and first-place overall in the league. If MLS regular-season play ended today, Seattle would now be guaranteed home field advantage all the way to the Dec. 7 MLS Cup, if the Sounders make it that far.