Believe it or not, that was Clint Dempsey’s first straight red card

It has been quite some time since we did one of these columns, but Wednesday’s 5-0 win over FC Dallas just begged for it. This was the largest margin of victory the Sounders have ever enjoyed in a regular-season game, and that was just the start...

1 - Clint Dempsey has been suspended numerous times, most recently for his part in the Red Card Wedding, but his straight red card in Wednesday’s win was his first of his career. Yes, that includes his 364 league appearances in both MLS and the Premier League, the 22 Cup games, the 33 continental appearances, as well as his 130 international caps. It was only the second time that Dempsey had even been ejected from a match, as he technically picked up two yellow cards in the infamous 2015 U.S. Open Cup match.

2 - FC Dallas only managed two shots, by far the Sounders’ best defensive performance of the season. Dallas’ first shot didn’t come until the 83rd minute and the only shot they had that looked remotely dangerous was in the 88th.

4 - Osvaldo Alonso picked up a pair of assists to push his season total to four. That’s more assists than he had in the last three seasons combined and set a new career high.

5 - The Sounders’ five goals signified several bench marks. It was more goals than they had scored in their last eight games combined (four) and nearly as many goals as they’d scored in their nine previous home games (seven). It was also the first time they’d scored five goals in a game since Aug. 25, 2012 and the five-goal margin was their largest in a league match. This was also the first time they’d gotten goals from five different players.

7 - Jordan Morris’ goal was his seventh of the season. That’s the same number of goals Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey each scored in their first MLS seasons. With one more goal, Morris would also move into a tie for the third most goals by a MLS rookie.

9 - Alonso completed 9 of 10 "long" passes, including his assist to Andreas Ivanschitz. He’s now completed an impressive 133 of 166 for the season.

24 - The Sounders started four players 24 or younger. Two of the players they brought off the bench were younger than 24 as well. There’s not a bonafide youth movement going on at CenturyLink Field, but this is about as close to one as we’ve had in quite some time.