TORONTO – Montreal Impact captain Patrice Bernier said he and his teammates took a message from team owner Joey Saputo to heart after their crushing loss to Toronto FC at BMO Field on Wednesday night ended their Cinderella run through the Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs.
"He just said that at this stage there's no worries but we fought hard and that he was very proud, and that we will learn from this and we will keep going and we're going to take this as a lesson to build to get here again," Bernier said after Montreal's 5-2 loss in extra time eliminated the Impact, who fell short of becoming the first Canadian team to play in MLS Cup.
Montreal, who finished in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, won four straight playoff games after failing to win consecutive games during the regular season.
The Impact won the first leg of the Eastern Conference Championship series, 3-2 at Olympic Stadium on Nov. 22. Aggregate leads changed several times along with the momentum in the second leg, but Toronto led 3-2 through 90 minutes to force extra time.
The Reds punctuated the wild all-Canadian series with a pair of goals two minutes apart in the first 15 minutes of extra time to claim top honors in this most significant edition of the 401 Derby.
"I'm just sad for this team because we battled a lot of adversity," Bernier said. "Nobody saw us here, nobody. Nobody could say – all the predictions, even when we beat teams, they still picked us last. So nobody saw us here, and we got here. And last year, they didn't see, we did well, we did better than last year, and this club will be back here in the future, that's for sure."
It remains to be seen who will be returning to the Impact next season.
Didier Drogba came off the bench in the 73rd minute in what proved to be his final game for Montreal on Wednesday. Bernier, a Montreal native who is one year younger than Drogba at 37, hopes to be back.
"I don't know, I'm not going to talk about it now," Bernier said of his future. "We'll see in the next few weeks, talking with the club. I still feel I've got a lot. This is home so I think that's what pushes me to play even more, but we'll see. We'll see at the end of the season how it goes with the club, but personally I do feel I've got more to give."
