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Watch: USMNT captain Clint Dempsey scores twice to hand Sounders win over Dallas

This was Dempsey's fifth league game in a row with either a goal or an assist. (Matthew Emmons-USA Today Sports) After scoring a hat trick in the Seattle
Liviu Bird|
Watch: USMNT captain Clint Dempsey scores twice to hand Sounders win over Dallas
Watch: USMNT captain Clint Dempsey scores twice to hand Sounders win over Dallas

This was Dempsey's fifth league game in a row with either a goal or an assist. (Matthew Emmons-USA Today Sports)

After scoring a hat trick in the Seattle Sounders' 4-4 comeback draw last week, Clint Dempsey scored two more on Saturday. His free kick from distance was an equalizer for the Sounders at FC Dallas after conceding in the first 10 minutes, and then he scored the winner in the last five minutes to give Seattle a 3-2 win.

Dempsey smacked his shot from about 30 yards off the crossbar in the 22nd minute, but replays showed the ball clearly bounced over the line before Obafemi Martins put back the rebound.

Watch Dempsey's free-kick effort from Saturday here:

The performance marked Dempsey's fifth league game in a row with either a goal or an assist, and he scored his fifth and sixth goals of the MLS season for Seattle. After a sub-par first half-season with the Sounders in 2013, Dempsey has regained the form that caused United States head coach Jürgen Klinsmann to give him the captain's armband.

He nearly scored a second just after the restart, slamming a side volley off the crossbar from 25 yards out. He would eventually score again — after he forced a Stephen Keel own goal in the 75th minute with a cross toward Obafemi Martins — which would prove to be the game winner.

In the 85th minute, Dempsey finished off a four-pass combination sequence by the Sounders with an easy tap-in.

Watch his game-winning goal here:

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Liviu Bird
LIVIU BIRD

Liviu Bird is a soccer analyst with more than 20 years of experience in the game. He learned how to play in the streets of Romania before moving to the soccer wilderness of Fairbanks, Alaska, escaping to play collegiately as a goalkeeper at Highline Community College and Seattle Pacific University, where he also earned his B.A. in journalism. Bird played semiprofessionally and had tryouts at professional clubs but hung up his gloves in 2012 to focus on writing and coaching at the youth and collegiate levels. He joined Sports Illustrated in March 2013 as a freelance contributor and has also written for NBC Sports, Soccer Wire, The New York Times, American Soccer Now and the Telegraph (UK).

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