Toronto FC went blow-for-blow with defending Supporters’ Shield champions FC Cincinnati on Saturday night at BMO Field, falling 4-3.

Deybi Flores opened the scoring in the 25th minute with a deft header from a Lorenzo Insigne corner kick to give TFC the lead into the break, but the visitors responded with a pair of their own shortly after the restart.

Luca Orellano was involved in both, nabbing the first in the 53rd minute with a low shot that found the bottom corner after Luciano Acosta found a yard of space and rolled the ball forward, and then outracing Tyrese Spicer to a loose ball to create the second. His initial shot was parried by Sean Johnson, but Kevin Kelsy was on hand to convert the rebound.

Toronto would reply eight minutes later when Lorenzo Insigne orchestrated a short corner kick move that saw him play off both Raoul Petretta and then Jonathan Osorio as he worked toward goal from the right, banking a driven ball in off defender Ian Murphy. Only for Orellano to reinstate the lead in the 79th minute as a one-two with Acosta allowed him to pick out Sergio Santos in the box and when he was felled by Kobe Franklin the loose ball popped into the Argentine’s path and his quick shot beat Johnson once more.

Insigne re-equalized in the 85th minute from the penalty spot after Prince Owusu was pulled back by Miles Robinson and rattled the crossbar from range a few minutes later, but a moment of magic from Acosta, lifting a pass for Yamil Asad between two defenders, would prove the winner. Asad’s touch settled for the surging run of Santos to finish.

Toronto had the ball in the back of the net in the 96th minute, but Insigne’s run saw him drift off-side in the build-up, and Derrick Etienne played an inviting ball through the goalmouth in the 101st minute, but nobody arrived at the back-post to turn it in.

In the end, TFC just ran out of time.

“I loved it,” said John Herdman post-match. “Loved the passion, the spirit, from both teams. Two teams that wanted to win. Exciting game.”

“As a coach, I enjoyed it – I enjoyed that football match – seeing the lads give everything, two good teams going after each other, a lot of quality players on the pitch showing their quality, and just a hell of a game,” he continued. “I enjoyed it, but no points. It doesn't help us – doesn't help us catch Cincinnati.”

Saturday was billed as a measuring stick for an upstart Toronto side. It showed both that they can hang with the best, but also that more work must be done.

“Mixed emotions of course,” said TFC captain Jonathan Osorio in the aftermath. “Good performance, we can take a lot of positives from that.”

“Today we played a contender in this league, the reigning Supporters’ Shield champions,” he continued. “It was always going to be a tough game; it was a game we were up for.”

“At the end of the day, it’s the result that matters and we didn’t get it,” Osorio levelled. “Disappointed with the result, but a good performance, something to learn from, as well. They showed why they are a contender, showed a lot of character to stay in the game and find a way to win. These are things that we have to take away and move forward.”

Step one was matching the intensity and confidence that Cincinnati brought to the kickoff. At first Toronto struggled, but a tactical tweak and the Flores opener smoothed those initial nerves.

“We knew the intensity they were going to bring,” said Herdman. “They are an aggressive team. You see the physicality of their number nine, when he's charging down at you. The lads were, ‘Oh, okay, this is a little bit different than training.’”

“We had to adjust the tactics, an important shift to get more of a goalkeeper-back-four and get Raoul that inversion. They matched up well, so we had to shift him lower,” he explained. “A couple of things we did and we found our footing in the game.”

“And Deybi,” Herdman added. “I asked him to be our Roy Keane tonight and he got the goal, the Roy Keane goal.”

Said Osorio: “Deybi’s been a great player for us all season.”

“He's been a threat on a couple of occasions on corners and set -pieces and today he found his way on the end of one,” he continued. “It was a great finish. He helps us a lot without the ball, recovering it, making tackles, and things like that, but to help us on the score-sheet as well shows how big of an impact he can be for our team.”

Toronto took confidence from that lead.

“The lads were brilliant tonight,” said Herdman.

“It was a real top-level attacking performance against one of the best defensive teams in the league.”

Cincinnati had allowed just 11 goals through their first 14 matches.

“You have to be brave,” continued the coach. “If you're going to get after them, you're going to leave yourself open, you've got to take some risks and they have got high quality. For long periods, they managed Acosta, they really did, and like Insigne, top players find their ways.”

“Proud of the effort, but more proud of the performance,” added Herdman. “There was some passages of play there that were the best of the season.”

Big players step up in big games. Insigne found his moments.

“He's going to rise to those occasions,” said Herdman. “Lorenzo has had a rough ride. It’s not been easy. The lad came here with high expectations to do big things. He's a winner. He wants to win everything, but he's had injuries and it's the first time really, in his career, just one after another, so tonight, to see him going 99 minutes, a hundred minutes, it was a big step for the team, for the fans.”

“His commitment in those minutes,” he focused in. “If he played another ten, he could have scored another two goals. He was just loving it. That shot against the crossbar, maybe only [Lionel] Messi could do something like that in this league. That was magic.”

Said Osorio: “That’s our guy. He showed his quality today.”

“He showed the will that he has to win – it was really contagious, it spread throughout the team,” he continued.

“With him on the team, you always believe that you're in the game and that you can come back in a game and win a game. He had a great performance today.”

But so too did Acosta and the rest of Cincinnati’s threats.

“We got some of the attacking right tonight and then some of the defending pieces, you're in the hands of the gods when you genuinely are dealing with top players that know how to win football matches,” said Herdman. “I don't want to even criticize the defence tonight. You can look back and say, he should have done this or he should have done that, but it was the spirit in which the team attacked and defended.”

“It wasn't a game where they peppered our goal and should have scored four goals. I felt like any time they got a good opportunity, they took it,” he continued. “That's the gap we’ve got to close because we had some very good opportunities that we should have took. Etienne, that last second of the game, that cross he put in, normally we have a wing-back on the back post scoring that, that could have been a goal.”

After the final whistle, Toronto assembled in a huddle, as has become customary, for a debrief.

“I asked them to be brave before the game – the bravery piece is really important in these matches. I came back to that,” recounted Herdman. “They were brave tonight. Some of the passages of football were top level. It took a lot of courage to break their press at times and players were living right on that razor's edge – players took themselves to a place where big mistakes are right on the other side, but they were living on that edge.”

“Proud of that,” he continued. “I felt we showed a championship ability tonight against a team that is a championship team, but there was a gap still and the gap was the loss. We've got to close that gap, but 15 games in, that's two very good games against Cincinnati. We’re close. We’re closing.”

Toronto will close out this gruelling stretch with a pair of away matches: next Wednesday against the Philadelphia Union and Saturday at D.C. United.

The clock may have run out against Cincinnati, but it was another step on the journey.

“It's experience now, experience of pushing that championship level,” replied Herdman, asked what was needed to close that gap. “Against Cincinnati, it's easy to come in here and, similar to what we did when we were away, talk about everything they are great at and all the threats and sit tighter, but that was an important step for us tonight to really get after a top team.”

When the two met in February it was about surviving the test; Saturday was about trying to rise above it.

“The performance,” Herdman underlined as the key takeaway. “I said to the players, they have to feel something tonight – it's how they feel coming off the field.”

“We don't control the results; we just don't control those outcomes, but I said, you have to feel something tonight,” he continued.

“You have to make them feel that dread of coming back to this stadium and you've got to come out here feeling like you're getting closer as a championship squad.”

“That feeling was important,” Herdman closed. “They'll take that into a tough two games on the road, knowing that they are not far off.”