TORONTO – After finding his team on the wrong end of an epic playoff match, Montreal Impact coach Mauro Biello bluntly assessed what caused his team to fall one win short of playing for the MLS Cup.
"They scored three goals from set pieces and got themselves into the MLS Cup final," Biello said after Toronto FC eliminated Montreal from the Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs on Wednesday night.
Biello congratulated Toronto coach Greg Vanney and the Reds on their 5-2 win in extra time win in the second leg of the Eastern Conference Championship series in front of a record-setting crowd at Toronto's BMO Field.
Toronto won this most significant edition of the 401 Derby, 7-5 on aggregate. The Reds, and not the Impact, will be the first Canadian team to play for the MLS Cup, and they will host the Seattle Sounders on December 10 (8 pm ET; FOX, UniMás; TSN and RDS in Canada).
"We win together, and we lose together, and I think the set pieces were the key to the game," Montreal defender Hassoun Camara said. "It's tough, it's very tough. I think the feeling is very difficult for us. We would like to bring the Cup in Montreal, for sure. It's tough for us but I think about our fans in Montreal, who would like us to bring it. So we are very, very disappointed and it's a difficult night tonight."
The Impact, who failed to win consecutive games during the regular season, saw their Cinderella run of four straight playoff wins end when Toronto scored goals two minutes apart in the first 15 minutes of extra time.
"Obviously we're disappointed," Montreal goalkeeper Evan Bush said. "We had the advantage, and then lost it, and then got it again. And it was a lot of emotions throughout the game, for sure. Unfortunately, we kind of ran out of gas there a little bit and Toronto deserved to win. I think that they were the better team, especially in the overtime session, and I think if we wanted to win the game, I think we needed to win it before regulation when the away goals would still have given us an advantage. And we didn't do it, and unfortunately they capitalized on their chances in the overtime."
Montreal got off to a promising start, extending their aggregate lead to 4-2 as Dominic Oduro's goal 24 minutes put the Impact ahead 1-0 on the night and shock the enthusiastic crowd into silence.
The Reds revived their fans as they battled back on goals by Armando Cooper and Jozy Altidore to take a 2-1 lead into halftime. But Montreal regained the aggregate lead at 5-4 when Ignacio Piatti got credit for tying it at 2-2 in the 53rd minute as the Impact drew level in away goals in the series.
Nick Hagglund scored 68 minutes in to put Toronto ahead 3-2, and the result held through 90 minutes to force extra time. Toronto would quickly slam the door on Montreal with goals in the 98th and 100th minutes to put the series out of reach despite the Impact's best efforts to claw one back.
"It's grueling out there," Biello said. "Today was a tough game and a lot of emotions in the playoffs and it's a long season and in the end, the players gave everything all the way to the end. And it's a tough moment for everyone, when you're so close and falling short. But in the end, we'll be back. We'll be even stronger. There were a lot of good things that we did and we're going to continue to grow, we're going to continue to learn, and we're going to come back even stronger next year."
