In the moments after his shot flew into the back of the net, Víctor Rodríguez thought of his infant daughter. She was to turn 1-year-old that coming Tuesday, a milestone that wasn’t always assured. He thought of his parents and brothers watching on TV back in his native Spain, where they stayed up late to catch what had been an afternoon kickoff at CenturyLink Field. He missed all of them and was past due needing a reminder that the sacrifice he was making by living so far away was worth it.



He also spared, finally, an indulgent thought for himself. The year had worn on him. On top of everything else, he’d been limited by a series of injuries dating pretty much to the outset of training camp. For a player without occasion to doubt his body prior to arriving in the Pacific Northwest, its constant betrayals had been maddening.



So there were multitudes in his fist pump as he spun away from goal after notching his first tally since June against...