There's been anger, frustration and heartache these past four years and it continued for Vancouver Whitecaps in Toronto tonight.
Toronto ran out deserved 1-0 winners on the night and 2-1 Champions on aggregate, as the home side lifted the Voyageurs Cup for the fourth straight year.
It wouldn't be the Canadian Championships of course if there wasn't also a little controversy thrown into the mix, with two players sent off in a fiery second half.
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With the teams tied at one apiece going into tonight's matchup, Toronto had the slight advantage of Ryan Johnson's away goal from the first leg.
Vancouver had to score and Martin Rennie sent out an attacking line up with all three first choice strikers, Eric Hassli, Sebastien Le Toux and Camilo Sanvezzo getting the start.
The main debate before the match was whether Vancouver would go for the quick kill or play the patience game. The line-up suggested the former and it was an open game from the first whistle, with Toronto having the better of the early chances and Vancouver struggling to really find their groove.
The home side had the first shot on target in the fifth minute, when Joao Plata shot straight at Joe Cannon from the edge of the box, but the Caps keeper was untroubled.
Toronto came within inches of opening the scoring on the night just over a minute later.
Torsten Frings had returned to the TFC line-up after injury and the German chipped a delightful ball towards the back post. Plata met it on the edge of the six yard box, but couldn't get full contact and his header across goal trickled past the right hand post, with Cannon scrambling.
Vancouver were happy to let Toronto have the better of the possession, but slowly showed signs of wanting to take control of the match.
Camilo whipped a long free kick into the box from near the halfway line in the 22nd minute, and Alain Rochat met the ball unchallenged but directed his header wide left.
Seconds later and John Thorrington had a 25 yard drive fly over the bar, as the Caps were keen to show that their goalscoring threat came from all parts of the team and not just the strikers.
It was nearly a case of déjà vu for the Whitecaps in the 32nd minute.
Camilo sent a long free kick deep into the box, Gershon Koffie rose to meet it and just failed to make contact. The ball bounced, but unlike in the game against Seattle on Saturday, this time it didn't end up in the net and Toronto keeper Milos Kocic fumbled the ball around for a corner.
Toronto caused some danger with a free kick of their own with eight minutes of the half remaining, with Frings' fierce low drive curling left.
The half petered out with a bit of a whimper, but with all still to play for, the second half was always going to be a tense affair, with neither side able to afford any defensive mistakes.
Vancouver had a scare in the 56th minute when a deflected Frings shot had Cannon scrambling and nearly carrying the ball over the goal-line.
Seconds later and the game exploded into life.
Plata and Y-P Lee challenged for the ball and from out of nothing, a melee broke out.
Julian de Guzman threw Le Toux to the ground and then slapped Jun Marques Davidson, who went down like he'd been hit by a brick.
De Guzman saw a straight red and Le Toux got a second yellow, for what the referee deemed to be a stamp, and quickly followed the Canadian for an early bath.
You could argue that De Guzman deserved a yellow for both offences, which would have been harsh, but to us, Le Toux's booking seemed to be for nothing, as there did not appear to be a stamp with any sort of intent.
Tensions remained high and tackles flew in, as a game of football didn't appear to be close to breaking out any time soon.
Vancouver made three quick substitutions as time was running out on their Cup hopes, with full on attack clearly on the visitors mind in the closing stages.
Frings tried another long range effort with eleven minutes remaining, but it was well wide of the right hand post.
Toronto thought they had taken the lead two minutes later.
A quick break up the right from Richard Eckersley had the Caps defence scrambling, but although his cross-come-shot was turned in by fellow sub Nick Soolsma, the Dutch midfielder was several yards offside.
Toronto weren't to be denied and took the lead moments later.
Soolsma did well to head a cross back into the path of Reggie Lambe and the Bermudan did well to keep composed and fire through two Caps defenders and past Joe Cannon.
The goal didn't change too much as Vancouver still had to score on the night and they tried to fight back.
With five minutes left, Davide Chiumiento landed a free kick onto the top of the goal, but that was as close as the Caps got.
The game moved into five minutes of stoppage time but Vancouver's impotent attack could find no way through a Toronto defence that held firm.
The final whistle signalled jubilation for the Toronto players and their fans.
Vancouver got what they deserved out of the two legs - nothing.
Tactically and performance-wise the Caps were simply not at the races. A lot of credit has to go to Toronto for failing to let them play their attacking game, but it was a poor 180 minutes from those in blue and white.
Failure to make the Champions League can be considered Martin Rennie's first failure with the Whitecaps. There is no spin that can be put on this result.
Now full attention has to be turned to the League. Scant consolation at this point in time.
FINAL SCORE: Toronto 1 - 0 Vancouver Whitecaps (Toronto win 2-1 on aggregate)
TORONTO: Milos Kocic; Jeremy Hall, Adrian Cann, Doneil Henry, Ashtone Morgan; Julian de Guzman, Torsten Frings, Eric Avila (Richard Eckersley 60) ; Reggie Lambe (Terry Dunfield 84), Ryan Johnson, Joao Plata (Nick Soolsma 77) [subs Not Used: Quillan Roberts; Ty Harden, Luis Silva, Danny Koevermans]
VANCOUVER: Joe Cannon; Young-Pyo Lee, Martin Bonjour, Jay DeMerit, Alain Rochat (Jordan Harvey 65); Gershon Koffie, Jun Marques Davidson, John Thorrington (Davide Chiumiento 73); Sebastien Le Toux, Eric Hassli, Camilo Sanvezzo (Darren Mattocks 66) [subs Not Used: Brad Knighton, Omar Salgado, Etienne Barbara, Matt Watson]
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