Toronto FC fans won't soon forget this edition of the Canadian Classique.
The Reds were all smiles after Saturday's 6-1 rout of CF MontrƩal, scoring a club-high six goals in an MLS match to seize the headlines from their Rivalry Week clash at Stade Saputo.
Even sweeter, the win exorcised the demons of a recent setback where MontrƩal knocked Toronto out of the Canadian Championship in a heartbreaking shootout loss after a 2-2 tie.
"This is our biggest rival in MLS. This is our biggest game of the season, really. And we were waiting for this day, for weeks now, ever since the elimination in the Canadian Championship," said winger Theo Corbeanu, who scored a brace off the bench.
"To do it against MontrĆ©al in the way that we did it, with the amount of goals that we scored ā and the goals that we did score ā it's an amazing feeling."
Bernardeschi shines
In a game with plenty of tasty stats to dive into, Toronto forward Federico Bernardeschi had a vintage performance with four goal contributions (2g/2a).
It helped that MontrƩal defender Joel Waterman was red-carded in the 21st minute, when TFC were already leading 1-0 through Tyrese Spicer's opening strike. But Bernardeschi still played all the right notes and capitalized on the extra space to operate in.
"Fede was so dangerous almost every time he touched it," head coach Robin Fraser said of their Italian DP. "And it's really fitting that he's had a two-goal, two-assist day [because] I thought his decisions with the ball were really good ā times to give it up, times to keep it himself.
"When he shares the ball like that, he becomes less predictable. And when he's less predictable, he's super dangerous."
Momentum boost
Can this Rivalry Week win be the turning point Toronto have been searching for? While they're still below the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs line in the Eastern Conference, they're slowly stacking points.
"Our main goal was to come here and ā¦ get our redemption," said Corbeanu, a Canadian international who's on loan from Spanish side Granada.
"Obviously to beat them ā by the amount that we beat them ā and our archrivals is even better. The morale boost is great and we need to take this energy going into the next games."
For his part, Fraser hopes the best is yet to come.
"It's a great day and we're going to enjoy it, but we know we have so much more to do, and we know that we have to make up for what was not a great start," said Fraser, who was hired in January as John Herdman's replacement.
"So, we will enjoy this for sure. But come Tuesday, it's back to work. We've got another tough game next week [at Nashville SC]. But I do want them to enjoy these two days because they really earned it."
