SEATTLE– Maybe, just maybe, this is the year.

The Seattle Sounders have played two matches this postseason and have brought two ignominious, franchise-haunting streaks to abrupt ends. Just days after finally dispatching the LA Galaxy from the playoffs for the first time in four tries, the Sounders turned around on scant rest and won the first leg of a playoff series for the first time in club history.

The Sounders had gone 0-5-3 in eight first-leg matches spanning the last six seasons.

Perhaps fittingly, securing that first win — against top-seeded FC Dallas in front of 39,599 at CenturyLink Field on Sunday night — was anything but easy, especially for a shorthanded team playing on little rest.

A second-half goal from Andreas Ivanschitz and a stunning late free kick from Clint Dempsey helped the Sounders rally past the visitors for a dramatic 2-1 victory in the first leg of the Western Conference semifinals. Seattle is now unbeaten in its last 11 matches across all competitions (7-0-4).

Dallas, which finished the regular season with the best record in the Western Conference, will host the second leg in Frisco, Texas, next weekend. The series winner with face either the Vancouver Whitecaps or the Portland Timbers in the Conference finals. The Whitecaps and the Timbers played to a scoreless draw in their first-leg match earlier Sunday in Portland.

No surprise, at this point, that Dempsey provided the game-winning goal.

When Seattle earned a free kick in the 86th minute, Dempsey stepped over the ball, surveyed the landscape, and did what big-time designated players do, promptly lacing a 25-yard laser around the FC Dallas wall and into the upper corner for a 2-1 lead that Dallas never threatened.

It was Dempsey’s fourth goal in Seattle’s last three games.

“Nothing Clint does,” said Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid after the match, “surprises me.”

For his part, FC Dallas head coach Oscar Pareja was upset referee Kevin Stott awarded the free kick in the first place.

“It wasn’t a foul,” said Pareja, “and as big as the stage is, you cannot give that. It’s incorrect.”

With the win, the Sounders are well-positioned to advance to the Western Conference finals for the third time in four years and to eliminate Dallas from the playoffs for the second straight season. The sides played to a 1-1 aggregate draw in the 2014 conference semifinals, with Seattle advancing thanks to the away-goals rule.

“We fully expect to go down to Dallas and play Sounders soccer,” said defender Zach Scott, who started in place of an injured Brad Evans. “We attack and try to win no matter where we go. We’re not going to sit back on a 2-1 lead.”

Ivanschitz, stellar throughout the night, equalized for Seattle in the 67th minute, collecting a loose ball near midfield and thundering down the heart of the park before unleashing a 19-yard shot from the left side of the arc into the side netting to tie the score 1-1.

The Dallas strategy, as ever under Pareja, was to cede possession and shred the opposition on the counter with lethal quickness. It took less than 20 minutes for that plan to bear fruit against a Seattle team missing Evans as well as bruising defensive midfielder Osvaldo Alonso and defender Leo Gonzalez (not to mention center back Roman Torres, out for the season with a torn knee ligament).

Fabian Castillo opened the scoring in the 18th minute, released on the counter behind Seattle’s defense by a beautiful through ball from Mauro Diaz before burying a shot past goalkeeper Stefan Frei for the 1-0 lead.

“We knew coming on the road we really wanted that away goal,” said Dallas defender Zach Lloyd. “It’s good we were able to get that early. It is unfortunate we were not able to get out of here with a better result, but still coming away with an away goal is a positive.”

Dallas, looking to return to the conference finals for just the fourth time in club history, heads home with an away goal in its pocket, knowing it finished the regular season with the best home record in the league (13-2-2).

“The series is open,” said Pareja, “and we’ll see them in Frisco.”

Seattle now has a 7-1-1 all-time record against Dallas at CenturyLink Field.