Postgame Pontifications: Needing to suffer

SEATTLE – Seemingly nothing about the Seattle Sounders’ season has been easy. They have endured their longest-ever losing streak, gone four months without a win and have suffered so many injuries to so many key players that taking account of them all feels almost impossible.

It was probably fitting, then, that in a game they led 2–0 before halftime and in a season where they started 6–1–1, that they’d have to sweat out the final 10 minutes of their regular-season finale before knowing if they had advanced to the playoffs for the 17th time in 18 seasons.

"We talked at halftime about going out and scoring a third goal, putting the game really to bed," Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said.…