Toronto FC fans clamouring for Greg Vanney to go for it on Wednesday night against the Montreal Impact got their wish.

Jozy Altidore, Sebastian Giovinco and Michael Bradley started in the decisive leg of TFC’s Canadian Championship semifinal at BMO Field.

The designated players were fantastic, but poor TFC defending was no match for the exploits of Giovinco, Bradley and Altidore.

Giovinco, Altidore and Benoit Cheyrou scored for the Reds, but Montreal added two goals of their own. Though the final score from the two legs was 3-3, the Impact advanced to the final of the Canadian Championship on away goals.

Montreal’s final goal of the night, courtesy of former Red Dominic Oduro, turned out to be the dagger.

Here are three takeaways from Wednesday night’s game.

Paying For A Passive First Leg

Frank Klopas had one major goal in mind for the first leg last week in Montreal. Keeping a clean sheet would go along way in that game, and in the end, TFC’s inability to get a goal on the road would end up haunting them.

TFC was the aggressor on Wednesday, with their designated players running the show. Two defensive errors, however, cancelled out their strong offensive showing.

"It's disappointing with the away goals rule, 3-2 wasn't enough for us,” said Collen Warner following the match. “But there's positives to take away."

Warner’s performance, along with his fellow midfielders and Altidore and Giovinco, were those positives.

A Sterling Performance From The DPs

All three of TFC’s designated players were fantastic in the 3-2 win.

We weren’t sure if all three would play, but Klopas had a feeling they would, in order to gain some momentum ahead of this weekend’s trip to New England.

“With their home game on Sunday, they didn’t get a result so they needed something positive so I thought they would play.”

"Look when you give Giovinco opportunities in the open field he is very dangerous,” Klopas continued.

“I thought Michael (Bradley), what can I say, he is a two way player, he is fantastic, one of the best in the league. And then Altidore is handful and they have a lot of quality with those three guys. They are a solid team, regardless of the start [on the road], I know that they are team for sure that is going to be there in the end.”

Falling Asleep At The Wrong Times

Offensively Montreal didn’t have a plethora of chances, but Toronto paid for some costly lapses at the back.

“Unfortunately we make an error at the end and we have to get better at a few of those things,” said Greg Vanney.

“It’s not the first goal that we have given away at the back with the weak side centreback losing his mark."

Eriq Zavaleta, who started alongside Damien Perquis at centreback, pointed to set piece issues.

"The set piece marking was an issue throughout the game,” he said. “That's something we need to address."

Scoring Summary

TFC – Jozy Altidore 22’ (Sebastian Giovinco)

MTL – Kenny Cooper 25’ (Calum Mallace, Eric Miller)

TFC – Benoit Cheyrou 56’ (Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley)

TFC – Sebastian Giovinco 58’ (Jozy Altidore)

MTL – Dominic Oduro 84’ (Eric Miller, Jack McInerney)                        

Misconduct Summary

MTL – Dominic Oduro 16’ (caution)

MTL – Patrice Bernier 63’ (caution)

TFC – Sebastian Giovinco 73’ (caution)

MTL – Eric Kronberg 90’ + 5’ (caution)

Lineups

Toronto FC – Chris Konopka; Justin Morrow (Nick Hagglund 89’), Eriq Zavaleta, Damien Perquis, Ashtone Morgan; Collen Warner, Michael Bradley ©, Benoit Cheyrou, Sebastian Giovinco, Jonathan Osorio (Warren Creavalle 81’); Jozy Altidore (Luke Moore 82’)

Substitutes Not Used: Quillan Roberts, Jay Chapman, Daniel Lovitz, Jordan Hamilton

Montreal Impact – Eric Kronberg; Eric Miller, Wandrille Lefevre, Laurent Ciman, Maxim Tissot; Calum Mallace (Ignacio Piatti 68’), Patrice Bernier ©, Dominic Oduro, Eric Alexander, Dilly Duka (Andrés Romero 64’); Kenny Cooper (Jack McInerney 32’)

Substitutes Not Used: Evan Bush, Bakary Soumaré, Marco Donadel, Nigel Reo-Coker