TORONTO – All things come to an end.

Toronto FC lost their first game in over a year on Tuesday night falling 1-0 to the Montreal Impact at BMO Field.

Rudy Camacho scored the game’s only goal in the 14th minute after an errant pass led to an Impact corner kick and Romell Quioto’s delivery at the end of a short corner interchange was met at the back-post by the defender with a firm header across goal.

The defeat snapped TFC’s unbeaten streak at 18 matches, one shy of matching the all-time record.

Though an end was inevitable, one needn’t be happy about it.

“It was a frustrating night because we were in the correct spots in the correct moments, especially in the first half, created quite a few chances. Sometimes it goes in sometimes it doesn't,” said Quentin Westberg post-match. “The stars weren't aligned tonight. A little bit because Montreal did its best and a little bit because we could have been sharper.”

“It's always the same game,” he added. “It was a game that was on a thin line, could have shifted our way, but unfortunately tonight it didn't.”

That an end is coming is inevitable, but how and when, that can be affected. Toronto authored their own downfall.

“We gifted them the corner that led to their goal and then we lose some marking responsibilities or we just get beat at the back-post, so that's 1-0 we’re down,” said Greg Vanney. “I’m not sure what was going on on the penalty kick – we're down a goal, we should just be burying the ball in the back of the net and move on. So we gift them the fact that they don't even have to make a save or do anything on a penalty kick.”

“And we have a number of other opportunities: their keeper makes a good save on Jozy [Altidore] in the first half, we've got a number of other chances where we get balls played across the face of the goal, different things like that where we have nice looks. The game ended up being very open,” he continued. “Defensively we were pressing a touch too much when we weren't quite set and ready to press and then they were able to find time between our lines and Quioto and [Lassi] Lappalainen are just running.”

“The game gets stretched out, it gets open, players start to get tired on relatively short rest, we're chasing the goal, when you do that, you expose yourself even a little bit more. But the goals at the end of the day are what changes the game,” he added. “The one we gave up, we shouldn't have even given them a corner kick. And the second one that doesn't happen is a penalty kick that we've been pretty consistently good on and it just doesn't make sense that we wouldn't just put the ball in the back of the net.”

Having seen an earlier shout for a shove in the back of Altidore from Luis Binks, Camacho was penalized for an arm over the shoulder of the TFC forward, who returned to the starting lineup.

Alejandro Pozuelo, who had converted eight of his nine penalty kicks, opted to lay the ball off to an onrushing Pablo Piatti. The whistle was blown and a free-kick given Montreal’s way, leading to much confusion.

It was a move that has been attempted previously elsewhere, to equal bouts of acclaim and infamy, depending on whether it was successful or not.

Just one of the frustrating moments on the night that could be seen on the Spanish midfielder’s face as the game wore on.

“Yeah, because I don’t like to lose,” explained Pozuelo of the grimace. “We played a good game, we had a lot of chances. They have only one chance to score. The first half we had all the control of the game. We had one or two chances with Jozy, I also had one chance, Pablo also had a chance.”

“Second half they had some counterattacks because we need to win so we go in to attack, but normally this game we need to win because we have a lot of chances to,” he added. “Sometimes I have frustration because we miss a lot of chances. I don’t like to lose, but we need to continue.”

In the lead up to the match, over the past few weeks as talk of the streak and history rose, TFC were unimpressed.

The streak was a by-product rather than the goal itself

“For us it’s just been trying to get a result each game,” reiterated Vanney. “There's so many different things going on now in the world and these games are regular season games, they're also Canadian Championship games. We don't need to pile more things like records and stuff on. We just need to focus on performing and winning a game and we weren't able to do that.”

“Our goal now is to try to get a win or get a result in the next game and if that starts another streak then great,” he continued. “But it's just one game at a time. The times are already challenging as it is and we don't need to get caught up in too many other things other than performing on the night and playing to get the result we need.”

Matches, individual results come and go, but the way the team goes about it is the defining characteristic.

“Most important is our principal, the soccer that we create week in, week out. This is what got us to that streak, that got us these statistics,” reframed Westberg. “Ultimately unbeaten streaks, this, that, shutouts, they're good, they’re glorifying, but at the end of the day it's really what we produce and this is what we can rely on moving forward.”

“Creating chances is always a good sign. Of course we need to put them [away], we need to avoid taking as many goals as possible. It's a game of balance,” he continued. “But we can still be very proud of the type of football. This is what led us to that streak. With all the [stoppages] and everything, for sure it didn't have the same flavour, but it's always gratifying to not lose.”

“Tonight the loss hurts more than not breaking the record or this or that,” he added. “We're all competitors and we hate losing in any case. I hate that feeling.”

And in a cruel universe it just had to be Montreal.

But there is little time to nurse any lingering wounds as Toronto faces yet another quick turnaround with a trip to Vancouver to face the Whitecaps set for Saturday.

TFC will then face the Impact in the conclusion of the six-game all-Canadian portion of the regular season next Wednesday.

Take the good with the bad and move on.

“There will be some moments that we’ll take away and continue to build on, but there will be some things that we'll want to clean up too because they were able to get through us a few times too easily,” said Vanney. “We never let a game go by without taking something out of the game, both good and bad. But we have another quick turnaround here in four more days and so we won't harp a ton on it, we'll just try to pick a couple things that we want to improve upon as we continue to move forward.”

Rest, reset, bring on Vancouver.

“It's always better to be able to turnaround quickly and play another game,” said Westberg. “This year has been very challenging, but one that thing hasn't changed is our principle. It's staying true to that, not getting over frustrated.”

“For sure, bring some of this into the next game, but frustration is not going to win games,” he added. “Completed passes, scoring goals, being strong defensively, this is what's going to win games moving forward.”