Postgame Pontifications: Winning pretty is fun, winning gritty is important

Photo by Omar Vega/Getty ImagesThe defining characteristic of a championship team is not how ably they avoid problems, but how they handle them.

Although a variety of challenges have cropped up throughout the season, the Seattle Sounders recently hit their first patch in which they struggled to meet them. The most concerning part about their recent five-game stretch in which they went 1-3-1 was that it included a three-game homestand where they claimed just one point and scored only two goals. Heading into a three-game road trip spread out over seven days, it was not hard to imagine that stretch of games snowballing into a genuine crisis.

Now two games into that sojourn, those concerns seem…