Giovinco, Altidore lift TFC over the Impact

Toronto FC has been winning a lot this season, but victory seems to taste a little better when it’s against the Montreal Impact.

TFC, the runaway leaders in Major League Soccer this season, got a pair of goals from Sebastian Giovinco and another from Jozy Altidore as they downed the Impact 3-1 before a full house of 20,801 at Saputo Stadium on Sunday.

Toronto (16-3-8) stretched its unbeaten run to nine games, set a team record with 56 points in a season with seven games still to play, and stayed on course to produce the best regular season record in MLS history.

“You get to this time of the year and points are important, and the intensity, the tempo and the importance of every game gets cranked up a few notches,” said TFC captain Michael Bradley. “We’re giving everything to try to win the Supporters Shield (regular season championship) and do it as quickly and as dominantly as possible.

“But obviously, games against Montreal always carry a little bit of extra weight.”

Another prize was stopping Montreal’s four-game winning streak and making life complicated for the Impact (109-6), who are in a battle just to make the playoffs. The teams meet twice more this season on Sept. 20 and Oct. 15 in Toronto.

The rivalry between Canada’s two biggest cities hit an all-time high last November when TFC came out on top of a wild Eastern Conference final, scoring twice in overtime of the second leg of the two-game series to win 7-5 on aggregate. Toronto won again by a 3-2 aggregate when they met in Canadian cup play in June.

“It’s exciting for the league, it’s exciting for football in North America and Canada, because some of the games and the spectacles people have been treated to have been incredible,” said Bradley. “We’ve got two more in this next stretch and who knows, maybe a few more in November.”