There's a certain emotion that comes with Sporting Kansas City in the playoffs the past three seasons. It's increasingly a form of numbness combined with frustration and anger, where it's hard to look ahead to the next season because the same result keeps happening.
So when the Seattle Sounders scored a late goal to eliminate Sporting Kansas City from the 2016 playoffs, it was a feeling all too familiar. The Sounder hung on for a 1-0 lead in Seattle on Thursday night.
It was a match between two teams on opposite sides of the momentum spectrum. Sporting KC had stumbled their way into the playoffs, while Seattle had surged from a midseason coaching change.