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“We’ve seen it so many times in the history of this league — a team wins the Supporters’ Shield, but they’re not ready for the difference in the playoffs. They’re not ready for things getting cranked up.

He continued: “They’re not ready to embrace the tough moments. We understood from the beginning that (the playoffs) weren’t going to be the same (as the regular season).”

One team (the 2011 L.A. Galaxy) has claimed both the Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup since Toronto FC entered MLS in 2007.

“Our ability to win games in different ways has meant we’re sitting where we are right now,” Bradley added. “If people don’t recognize that or appreciate that, that’s their problem. It doesn’t bother me one bit.

“The focus and the single-mindedness of our team has been like nothing I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t faze us. It doesn’t throw us off. We see a lot of (what’s being said). We laugh about a lot of it.”

Expressions shift, however, when attention turns to the Sounders, a side bent on spoiling TFC’s Christmas for a second-straight season.

The 2017 Sounders are a better version of the listless side that ground out an ugly MLS Cup win one year ago.

“They didn’t steal anything,” Bradley said when reminded the Sounders didn’t produce a shot on frame. “They played the hand they had at that time and they got to lift the trophy.

“Everyone gets the chance to play, to compete, to go about it however they want. At the end, you won’t hear me pointing fingers and blaming them for how they won. They won.”

Now the Reds have a chance to right that wrong — to do what they feel they already should have done.

“You don’t get a million chances,” Bradley said. “Before the second leg against Columbus we said, ‘Let’s make sure we spill our guts on this field to get ourselves back to a final.’

“When you’re on the doorstep, the emotions of what it means to be so close to a final, to a game where you have a chance to win something, you can’t explain to anybody. They’re why you play.”

In other words, league awards are usually coveted more by those who aren’t playing on the final day.