Jozy Altidore has been partying since Saturday, but on Monday he and his Toronto FC teammates took to the streets to share the celebrations with thousands of fans.

Two days after the Reds beat the Seattle Sounders 2-0 at BMO Field to win the club’s first MLS Cup title, the team and club staff piled into a pair of red double-decker buses armed with champagne, beer and, of course, hardware: the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy.

“A trifecta: great city, winning team, awesome fans,” said Larry Tanenbaum, chair of Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, once the buses arrived at the fan rally they were destined for.

From Maple Leafs Square to York St. to Front then Bay they rode, following an army of fans leading the charge on foot. Larger-than-life Toronto FC flags and personalized chants signalled to any passersby that the champions were on their way.

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Given the number of Toronto fans that lined the bus route, you’d be forgiven for thinking Nathan Phillips Square, home to the rally itself, might be a little desolate. It was the middle of a day on a Monday, after all.

But even the space in front of City Hall was littered with Reds fans, patiently yet loudly awaiting their team despite below-freezing temperatures.

While the devotion from their fans is not unfamiliar to TFC, the turnout exceeded expectations.

“They told me that we could own the city a few years ago when we started this project,” said general manager Tim Bezbatchenko, as he was serenaded by the crowd.

“It’s all we’ve been thinking about; it’s all we’ve been thinking about. They said, ‘You could paint the city red, that they would come out, there would be an incredible parade and just a sea of red everywhere.’ Today you proved it. We have the best fans in all of MLS.”

Making this group of dedicated fans, a long-suffering gaggle who offered unwavering support despite little to cheer about in the first eight years of the franchise’s existence, has long been a goal for this particular TFC squad. One of their in-house mantras is “Remember how you make them feel,” speaking specifically to the diehard supporters that have become the team’s unofficial 12th man.

So it was only fitting that reigning the MLS coach of the year Greg Vanney, the subject of a #VanneyOut protest on social media little more than two years ago, asked the question of the crowd: “How do you feel?”

He received one of the biggest cheers of the day.

Putting into words how much fans mean to the team is difficult for captain Michael Bradley. Time and again, he has praised and thanked supporters for their commitment. He is well aware they could have walked away after last year’s devastating MLS Cup loss on penalties to Seattle; instead, they embraced the team even tighter.

And the team gave them several reasons to cheer this season.

Toronto (20-5-9) was the best team during the regular season and set a record with 69 points — the most in MLS history — to earn the Supporters’ Shield.

Led by Bradley and forwards Altidore and Sebastian Giovinco, the Reds set franchise records for wins (20), goals scored (74), fewest goals allowed (37), shutouts (13), home wins (13), home points (42), road wins (seven) and road points (27).

Toronto also won the Voyageurs Cup as Canadian champions, beating the Montreal Impact in a two-game series in June. That, combined with the Shield and MLS Cup victory, made the Reds the first team in MLS history to win a domestic treble.

In the grand scheme of the world, Bradley said as the official ceremony wrapped up but chants continued, soccer doesn’t carry a lot of weight. But people want to feel a part of something bigger than themselves; a vessel for hopes and dreams. In Toronto FC, both fans and players have found common ground.

“Sport is passion, it’s emotion,” Bradley said. “This is why we play.”

If Reds fans had their way, Bradley might be occupying a spot on the field and in the office. After he called Toronto the best sport city in the world as well as the best city in the world, he earned a wave of “Bradley for Mayor” chants.

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The American, who belted out “O Canada” with his mostly international teammates to start the ceremony, harkened back to one of the city’s greatest sporting accomplishments — the Toronto Blue Jays winning the World Series in 1992 and ’93 — as he laid out a blueprint for what the Reds’ planned to do next.

“They won, but then they won again the next year, so we’re going to enjoy this for a little bit longer and then we’re going to dust ourselves off an make sure we get back to work so that we can be lifting that trophy again next year,” he said.

Bill Qualtrough and Kyle Meaker weren’t around when the Blue Jays won it all. That’s why the pair of Toronto FC fans were out in the cold on Monday.

They had never seen anything like the championship celebration.

“It was awesome,” said Meaker, a Reds fan from Day One. “I was at the home opener, the very first game that they had. It was kind of cool to see the start and then now today, kind of the finish.”

With files from Canadian Press

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