the match on penalties and thus were eliminated from the competition. Seattle Sounders On August 3, 2013, Dempsey signed with MLS club Seattle Sounders FC as a Designated Player on a four-year contract, for a transfer fee of $9 million. He again donned the number 2 shirt, forgoing the number 8 he usually wears for the United States and the number 23 he wore at Fulham. The previous user of the number 2 shirt, DeAndre Yedlin, moved to number 17. Dempsey made his league debut for Seattle on August 10, 2013, in a 2–1 victory over Toronto. Dempsey entered the match as a 34th-minute substitute after Obafemi Martins came off with an ankle injury. Loan to Fulham On December 24, 2013, Dempsey re-signed with Fulham on a two-month loan. He made his return debut on January 4, 2014, in the Third Round of the FA Cup against Norwich City. Dempsey played the entire game which resulted in a 1–1 draw, and subsequently took part in the replay at Craven Cottage, a 3–0 victory for Fulham. Return to Seattle Although no announcement was made by Fulham, Dempsey appeared in the Seattle squad to face Sporting Kansas City in the season opener on March 10, 2014. Dempsey had made a return to form, scoring a hat-trick against Portland Timbers, and recording braces against FC Dallas and the Colorado Rapids, leaving his goal tally at 8 in 5 games for 2014. He earned the MLS's Player of the Month award for April. Both Dempsey's 15 goals and 10 assists were MLS career highs, as Seattle won the Supporters' Shield, but were eliminated in the conference finals of the MLS Cup by eventual champions LA Galaxy. On June 16, 2015, in the fourth round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup against rivals the Portland Timbers, Dempsey was sent off for ripping up referee Daniel Radford's notebook in protest at the dismissal of Michael Azira. The Sounders finished the match with seven men through three dismissals and an injury, and lost 1–3 at home. For the incident, he was given a three-match MLS suspension and a fine, and banned from the Open Cup for two years in addition to a second fine. On July 13, 2016, Dempsey picked up his first MLS red card after putting his hands in the face of FC Dallas midfielder Juan Esteban Ortiz, who came in with a late