Montreal 4, Toronto FC 3
Q. How do you diagnose that? It was a great start, and then four goals against.
MICHAEL BRADLEY: Yeah, great start. Really good tempo. Good -- everything that we want in the start to a big game. You know, get two goals, and yeah, it's been a stretch where we -- yeah, the way that we give away goals in this last stretch is -- has hurt us. The goals obviously themselves, because goals are what decide games but also the way in which you give them away.
Really frustrating night. You know, it's obviously been a year with a lot of twists and turns, and we still feel that we have felt good about the way we continue to go and continue to move ourselves forward and continue to be resilient.
Yeah, tonight would have been -- tonight would have been a big step. We haven't been able to -- a bunch of times this year, we have put together, you know, little like stretches, good results in good games and good football. And when we have had a chance to then take a big step with winning a big game and taking a real step forward, that part has been hard for us.
Q. The team is a work in progress, and there has been a real resurgence since the Charlotte game. If you can eliminate the moments, the mistakes, how good a team can this team be, do you think?
MICHAEL BRADLEY: Yeah, again, we feel good about it. But we have to find a way to take that step forward. Part of that is eliminating mistakes. At a certain point, again, the positive feelings, the confidence that we have in ourselves when we step on the field on a lot of days, the football that we play, it's all great.
But again, we've got to really look hard at ourselves to figure out now how to take that big step forward.
Q. Bob talked with the team having a strong mentality; that's got to be tested after tonight.
MICHAEL BRADLEY: For sure, for sure. It was a game -- we've lost points in hard ways in this last stretch. You guys don't want me to sit here and go through some of the games, but late equalizers, give away goals at bad times, you know, self-inflicted.
You know, a few games to go, and we have to -- we've got to -- the mentality has to be strong, continue to play, continue to fight and continue to take every point on the board and see what happens. It's as simple as that.
Q. How does this team take that next step forward?
MICHAEL BRADLEY: Yeah, I mean, look, we can control what we can control, so again, that's now look hard at ourselves and being ready to step on the field. 90 minutes at a time for the games that we have left and not worry about anything else but ourselves, how we play, how we compete, and then try to take every point that's on the board.
The reality is that it doesn't just -- it's not just up to us. We have to -- but you can't play like that and you can't think like that. We are still laying the foundation, the structure for what we are trying to do going forward, and that's still -- that goes beyond obviously these last two games.
But again, it is our absolute duty, responsibility, to make sure that, again -- and every single guy that has stepped on the field the last two games has stepped on the field ready to give for everything and finish in a really strong way and take every point possible and see where the chips foul.
And in the process, that will continue to lay a really good foundation for what we are trying to do.
Q. Mark-Anthony's first game in five or six weeks, I know off the bench but what did you make of his comeback?
MICHAEL BRADLEY: Great to have him back. Great to have him back. In a short time here, he has -- in a short time back, he's established himself as a really important guy on our team on the field but off the field as well. Really, really good to have him back. Yeah, continue to rely on him in a big way moving forward.
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