Kristin Knowles had been waiting a long time for Sunday to arrive. A Toronto FC season ticket holder and supporter since day one, Knowles stood at the back of section 117, and could barely contain her excitement. After years of misery, the very trophy named for people like her was in Toronto, at last. Once the laughing stock of Major League Soccer, TFC hoisted the Supporters’ Shield in front of their fans after a sloppy 1-0 defeat of the Montreal Impact during their last home game of the season.



It was the moment Knowles was waiting for.



“As a fan for all these years, through the drama, the rotating coaches, the seasons with close to 50 players, where you can’t even remember who played, when you stood in the rain with 5,000 people, despondent, unhappy — to have this moment, and to know that we did this and they did this, we can call ourselves the best in the league,” she said.



Officially TFC won the Supporters’ Shield,...