Toronto FC beat the Montreal Impact 1-0 on Friday night.

Alejandro Pozuelo scored from the penalty spot in the 50th minute to extend Toronto’s unbeaten streak to 18 matches, one shy of the all-time MLS record. Jonathan Osorio made his 250th appearance for the club.

But those details paled in comparison to the larger issues that need to be discussed at the end of another tumultuous week.

On Wednesday night, all five of the scheduled MLS matches, as well as games in the other sports leagues across the continent were protested and postponed, boycotted as part of the ongoing conversations prompted by yet more examples of the continued racism, violence, and inequality in the world.

It was unclear whether the game on Friday would be played until Toronto boarded a plane for Montreal. Even then little was certain – events have changed quickly in these long months.

“It's hard to put into words everything that we've been through, not only in the past 48 hours, but in the past months really,” said Justin Morrow post-match. “There’s things coming at us from so many different angles, especially after Wednesday night.”

“All the players were talking a lot and we didn't even know about restarting the league until late last night and early this morning all these conversations were still happening,” he continued. “But for me, and for the players, the most important thing is that Wednesday night, something positive comes out of it.”

“The reason why we do any of these things and use our platform is so that it can affect real change,” Morrow stressed. “We're going to be dealing with the owners so that we can use MLS, which is our platform, as a vehicle for change. We'll be meeting with them pretty soon to work on something together. And now we can say that we do have something positive that came out of Wednesday night.”

“Incredibly tough to play tonight,” he added. “I know there was a lot of players on Montreal that didn't want to play, there was a lot of other players around the league that didn't want to play, but the most important thing is that Wednesday night meant something. And so that's what we accomplished by starting again today.”

As the executive director of Black Players for Change, Morrow has taken on more than most.

“Exhausted, is the right word,” admitted Morrow of the week’s events. “The thing that lifts me up is knowing how many allies that we've had – not only the past couple of days, but in the past months.”

“Wednesday night was chaotic in a lot of ways because it wasn't planned,” he continued. “The narrative gets spun that it was a lot of the black players driving this, and it was, but I can't understate how many players of other races joined in this fight and were real leaders.”

“Not all those games get postponed if other people don't step up to the plate and they did for us. And because of that we were able to show a unified front and that makes an impact,” he added. “So I can only say thank you to those guys; thank you to everyone that put their necks on the line.”

Morrow’s leadership off the field has not gone unnoticed, nor did his efforts on it.

“I pulled him aside just a few minutes before coming out here and said how proud I am of him,” said Greg Vanney. “You can't even imagine what this guy has gone through in the last 48 hours – what's been asked of him; the responsibility and the weight that he feels on his shoulders.”

“For him to step on the field tonight and use what energy he had left – I don’t know where he got it – to play phenomenal was just incredibly impressive. I had to share that with him. He was outstanding,” he added. “He hasn't played a ton of minutes in this run because he was injured and now coming back to it, but I thought he was excellent. I'm really proud of everything that he's been able to do.”

Since Colin Kaepernick first sat, then took a knee during the national anthem in 2016 the conversation has been degraded to how the protest is expressed rather than what the protest is about.

So when Vanney and Michael Bradley were noted to be standing during the Canadian National Anthem it was little surprise that became the issue.

It wasn’t one for Morrow.

“First and foremost, I completely support them,” he began. “There's no other two people that have been in my corner more than those two guys.”

“I explained how difficult this whole situation has been for me in the past couple of days, how much has been on my plate and these guys have been behind me every second of the way,” Morrow continued. “The conversation gets turned sideways. These guys show their support in so many different ways. It wasn't with the national anthem tonight, but they take knees, other times they wear shirts, they support us behind the scenes, and, for me, that's more than enough.”

Vanney explained his reasoning.

“I have one assistant coach on my staff, Jason Bent, who is a Canadian and he was going to stand through the anthem and we stood with him,” he said, referencing the entire coaching staff standing together. “And in addition to that, I knew there was going to be a moment of silence for Black Lives Matter and I was going to take a knee during that period to honour that cause. I tried to do both at those two times.”

Bradley rejected the premise.

“It's obviously something that I've thought a lot about. I spend a lot of time reading, speaking to different people. I could talk about myself and give you some of my thought process, but it's not about me,” he said. “30 seconds talking about myself is 30 seconds that we should be talking about the real issues that exist in our society.”

“The conversation and the rhetoric that has been created around the decision for people to protest by kneeling is designed by the people who don't want change to take away from the real conversations that we all need to be having every single day. That's what they want,” he continued. “They want this divisive, hateful conversation where there is no nuance, there's no middle ground.”

“I will always be a strong voice for racial equality. And I will continue to try to do everything I can to use the platform that I have to talk about things that I believe are important,” he stressed. “When you look at our society right now, it's heartbreaking to see the systemic racism that still exists after hundreds of years. The social injustice, the police brutality, it all has to end.”

“I wholeheartedly support Black Lives Matter,” he emphasized. “I will continue to try to live my life in a way where I am able to help in any way that I can to enact that change.”

“I spent that moment during the national anthem thinking of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Jacob Blake; thinking of them, thinking of their families,” he explained. “I want justice for them and I want to live in a world and a society where the hateful, hurtful things that have been going on for hundreds of years come to end.”

Change begins with conversations, often very difficult ones.

“These conversations are incredibly hard,” confided Morrow of the events leading up to the decision to return to the pitch. “It was something that we talked about as a team before, but even up until the last minutes before you're walking on a pitch, players are still making decisions.”

“It was important that we talked about it beforehand so that guys knew what was coming,” he continued. “The worst thing that could happen is players are unsure that the anthem is even going to be played and they get caught in the moment and then they're just awkwardly doing what their teammates are doing without thinking it through.”

Difficult conversations and shared experiences unite intentions.

“We have an incredible group,” summed up Bradley. “We have a group that has been together for a long time. We have a group that supports each other in real ways. We've had hard experiences, tough experiences on the field, off the field. But we're living in uncharted territory right now in so many different ways.”

“The things that drive our group every single day – the character, the love and the support that we have for each other – those are the starting points,” he continued. “It doesn't make anything that we're going through right now easy. I have seen firsthand the emotion and how difficult some of these days have been for our black players. For Justin Morrow, for Jozy Altidore, for Richie Laryea, for Chris Mavinga, for [TFC General Manager] Ali Curtis.”

“The way that they have led us, the way that they have shown such courage and leadership in all of this, it's been incredible to see,” he added. “I'm proud to be a part of this club with them and we'll continue to find the right ways to move forward and support each other in everything that we do.”

Wednesday’s action and Friday’s return is one step. There will be more; there needs be, there must.

“There was lots of uncertainty,” said Morrow of the decision to play. “It wasn't just guys in this team, it was guys all around the league. We need to use Wednesday and have a positive outcome, because otherwise it's for nothing.”

“We use our platform as professional athletes through Major League Soccer to make change and if we don't see results of that, then there's no point in doing these things that we do,” he weighed. “This is why we kneel. This is why we boycott. This is why we protest. So that we can have something tangible come out of it. And there will be something tangible coming.”