Osvaldo Alonso picked up a second-half red card in Wednesday’s 0-0 tie for Sounders FC (13-13-6).
The Sounders haven’t made it easy on themselves in 2016.
They’ve squandered many a goal-scoring opportunity and dug an early-season hole halfway to China. They’ve dealt with wave upon wave of fresh adversity, some self-inflicted and some not.
So of course, needing only a home win against a last-place team to clinch a postseason berth, they were instead held to a scoreless draw by the Houston Dynamo. Osvaldo Alonso’s 64th-minute red card proved the defining moment, as a Wednesday night crowd of 39,772 filed out of CenturyLink Field with expectations unfulfilled.