TORONTO -- So much of Saturday evening's MLS Cup rematch between the Seattle Sounders and Toronto FC inspired déjà vu.

The prematch buildup at BMO Field was just as raucous, if not even more so, than it was last December. The a cappella version of O, Canada from the home crowd brought familiar goosebumps to the fore.

Just as in the 2016 final, TFC controlled the game but struggled to turn that dominance into an actual breakthrough. For an hour, the reigning title-game MVP, Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei, was on track for a repeat award following a series of increasingly outlandish saves, and the energy inside the building was infused with a "here we go again" sense of dread.

Then Jozy Altidore split the Sounders' defense up the seam with a well-timed run to finish past a helpless Frei, and everything changed.

The feeling within the away locker room of BMO could not have been more disparate than it was at this time last year. No protective covering in front of the lockers was necessary. Clumps of athletic tape and sod littered the floor, rather than discarded celebratory beer cans. Instead of a heaving, champagne-spraying, dancing mass, the players kept mostly to themselves in their respective stalls, shoulders slumped and eyes watery.

"You feel like you let down a whole city," third-year midfielder Cristian Roldan said. "You feel like you let down yourself, your teammates, your family. It's very tough, emotional. But at the end of the day, you can't do anything about it now. You have to look forward."

Clint Dempsey and the Seattle Sounders fell short of back-to-back MLS Cups, losing 2-0 on Saturday in Toronto. Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

The vibe was very much reminiscent of a different defeated Seattle finalist from a few years back: the 2014 Seahawks. That group was even more shaken, given the traumatic way they lost, with quarterback Russell Wilson throwing an interception on the New England Patriots' goal line with less than a minute remaining.

Yet there was the same sense of a precious, fleeting opportunity missed. These Sounders, like those Seahawks, would have been back-to-back champions. No matter how strongly you feel about your current team or how unbroken its upward trajectory, those chances don't come around all that often.

No one is more painfully aware of just how much hard work and good luck go into reaching a championship game, let alone winning one, than the athletes themselves.

Seattle forward Will Bruin qualified for MLS Cup in each of his first two seasons as a pro while with Houston. The Dynamo lost both of those finals to the LA Galaxy, the last MLS team to win consecutive titles, but to a youngster such as Bruin, the team's eventual triumph felt like only a matter of time.

It would be five years and would require a change of scenery for Bruin to earn another shot. He spoke earlier this week about no longer taking these moments for granted, and that realization made Saturday's defeat that much tougher to swallow.

"It sucks," Bruin said. "It probably hurts more now because this is such a good team we have. ... It's not every year you get to go to MLS Cup. Hopefully we can keep this group together. If we keep the core of this team, we can learn from this experience. It sucks now, but if we bring back the nucleus and the core, it will make us stronger."