Exhilarating playoff victories to end a season aren't supposed to feel so somber.

Behind a furious second-half rally, Sounders FC beat Real Salt Lake 2-0 Wednesday on goals by Osvaldo Alonso and Lamar Neagle, but it turned out to be a fruitless victory. However exciting, the result wasn't enough to make up a three-goal aggregate deficit coming into the game, as Seattle lost the Western Conference semifinal by an overall 3-2 score.

"It's definitely a very empty, hollow feeling in our stomachs at this stage," said coach Sigi Schmid.

RSL had earned a huge 3-0 series advantage in the first leg Saturday at Rio Tinto Stadium and advances to the Western Conference final on Sunday or Monday against either the top-seeded Los Angeles Galaxy or the New York Red Bulls, a wild-card team from the East.

The Sounders have lost in the first round of the playoffs three years in a row.

"There's a lot of great things that happened (this season)," said defender Jeff Parke, "but at the end of the day, this was most important. This is going to be in your head for the rest of the offseason. It's a bitter taste."

The odds of a comeback Wednesday were long to start with. Only one team in MLS history had ever overcome a three-goal deficit in a two-leg playoff series — the 2003 San Jose Earthquakes.

That didn't keep the home team from making it interesting in front of an impassioned CenturyLink Field crowd of 36,021.

Comeback efforts, though, got off to an inauspicious start. Sounders FC lost midfielders Alvaro Fernandez and Brad Evans to first-half injuries and couldn't convert any of its 15 shots or 10 corner kicks before halftime.

One miss in particular stood out, when Parke's 36th-minute shot was cleared off the goal line by the head of RSL defender Tony Beltran.

Schmid called that early save "huge."

"If we'd gotten that goal in the first half, this place would've been even louder and it would've given us more time to get the third one," he said.

Scoring frustrations were relieved in the 56th minute when Alonso converted a penalty kick to get momentum going Seattle's way.

Seattle drew another goal back soon after that on a precision left-footed strike by Neagle, a Federal Way product, in the 61st minute.

Confidence surged.

"We knew we had a lot of time (left)," said Neagle. "We definitely thought we could put another away."

The Sounders pushed everything forward for a series equalizer, ultimately finishing with a dominating 26-4 advantage in shots. Alonso had an open look in the 78th minute and fired high.

Then, a minute later, RSL had a great counterattacking chance through forward Fabian Espindola, but goalkeeper Kasey Keller, in his final game before retirement, came up with a big save to keep his team in it.

With its season on the line, Seattle couldn't create any clear-cut chances in the final moments.

One miracle short of a comeback for the ages.

"You can't fault anybody (for the effort)," Keller said. "We had one of those bad days a couple days ago and came back here and restored a ton of pride. We just came up a little tiny bit short."

NOTES

• Schmid made three changes to the lineup from the 3-0 defeat Saturday: Mike Fucito replaced Sammy Ochoa at forward, Zach Scott started in place of James Riley in defense and Erik Friberg supplanted Neagle in midfield.

• Fernandez was replaced by Neagle in the 14th minute after injuring his left hamstring. Evans hurt his right ankle and was replaced by Roger Levesque in the 21st minute.

• Salt Lake's defense came into the game short-handed. Star center-backs Jamison Olave and Nat Borchers were each unavailable after suffering quad injuries Saturday. RSL had played just 117 minutes in the last four years without at least one of them in the lineup.

• Seattle finished the season 16-6-4 at home in all competitions — MLS (regular season and playoffs), U.S. Open Cup and CONCACAF Champions League.

• Perhaps RSL's greatest moment came in Seattle, when it won the 2009 MLS Cup here against the Los Angeles Galaxy in a penalty-kick shootout.

• Wednesday marked the eighth highest attended MLS playoff game and highest attended for a non-final.

• The Sounders are 1-4-1 overall in playoff games and have been outscored 7-3.

Joshua Mayers: 206-464-3184 or jmayers@seattletimes.com

Sounders FC 2, Real Salt Lake 0

Real Salt Lake advances on aggregate goals, 3-2

Real Salt Lake	0 0 — 0
Seattle FC	0 2 — 2

First half — None. Second half — 1, Seattle FC, Alonso 4 (penalty kick), 56th minute. 2, Seattle FC, Neagle 6 (Montero), 61st. Goalies — RSL, Nick Rimando; Seattle FC, Kasey Keller. Yellow cards — Beltran, RSL, 54th; Rimando, RSL, 56th; Levesque, Seattle FC, 62nd; Gonzalez, Seattle FC, 90th+. Shots — Seattle 26, RSL 4. Shots on goal — Seattle 9, RSL 1. Saves — RSL 7, Seattle 1. Fouls — Seattle 17, RSL 16. Corner kicks — Seattle 10, RSL 2. Offsides — RSL 3, Seattle 0. Referee — Jair Marrufo. Assistant referees — Corey Rockwell. C.J. Morgante. 4th official — Jason Anno. A — 36,021 (32,400)

LINEUPS

Real Salt Lake — Nick Rimando, Tony Beltran, Chris Schuler, Robbie Russell, Chris Wingert, Javier Morales (Luis Gil, 89th), Kyle Beckerman, Andy Williams (Ned Grabavoy, 57th), Will Johnson, Alvaro Saborio (Yordany Alvarez, 76th), Fabian Espindola.

Seattle FC — Kasey Keller, Jeff Parke, Zach Scott, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leo Gonzalez, Alvaro Fernandez (Lamar Neagle, 14th), Brad Evans (Roger Levesque, 21st), Osvaldo Alonso, Erik Friberg, Michael Fucito (Sammy Ochoa, 76th), Fredy Montero.

All or nothing
Sounders FC's polar-opposite performances in this year's MLS playoffs:
	Game 1	Game 2
Result	3-0 loss	2-0 win
Sea. shots on goal	0	9
RSL shots on goal	12	1