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Sounders’ brass strongly backs Schmid for 2014

Seattle Sounders FC v CD Chivas USA

By JASON MITCHELL

On Monday, Seattle Sounders part owner and general manager Adrian Hanauer indicated a decision on retaining head coach Sigi Schmid could take weeks.

Guess not.

Majority owner Joe Roth issued a press release Thursday morning announcing Schmid’s return for the 2014 season. Hours later Roth and Hanauer held a joint conference call reaffirming that decision and strongly backing Schmid as the right coach to lead the team into its sixth MLS campaign.

The two held a lengthy meeting with Schmid earlier this week in Los Angeles.

“What I was looking for was a two-hour face-to-face with the coach [to] voice my opinions and hear his responses, to make sure that weโ€™re on the same page,” Roth said. “I felt like once we got past that, there was really no point to wait any longer [to announce the decision]—the decision was to keep him on, and to keep him on with full support.”

Many in the media presumed Schmid’s job was up in the air following a late-season collapse that ended with an ugly loss to the Portland Timbers in the conference semifinals, but both Hanauer and Roth made it sound like Schmid’s return was perhaps never truly in doubt.

“This was not about possible replacements,” Roth said when asked if the team had seriously considered other coaches. “John Wooden died a few years ago. Other than that I canโ€™t think of anyone.”

“In our meeting we heard that Sigi had the same commitment to the tough decisions ahead,” Hanauer added, “to the kind of soccer we want to play, and to the mentality that we want our team to represent for our brand and our fans.”

While noting that the entire coaching staff undergoes end-of-year review every season, Hanauer said he expects Schmid’s staff to return in full.

“It’s full steam ahead,” he said.

Both Hanauer and Roth portrayed the meeting as less of a typical performance review, and more of a joint attempt to make sense of a lost season and ensure the organization’s three leading men are on the same page moving forward.

โ€œWhatever team we put on the field next year, they will be the responsibility of Sigi,” Roth said. “I wanted to make sure [I understood] how that was going to go, and what his opinion was, and what his opinion was of the team that he had.”

โ€œIt was not an emotional meeting whatsoever,” Roth added. “It was a two-hour, very frank conversation about the disaster of winning one of our last 10 games.”

Asked why Schmid wasn’t on the conference call, Roth replied, “Weโ€™re here to support him. He doesn’t have to defend himself. Weโ€™re here to support him.โ€

While refusing to comment on reports the team is trying to trade forward Eddie Johnson, Hanauer acknowledged actively pursuing offseason changes.

“Weโ€™re busy at work,” he said, “and as we make decisions youโ€™ll become aware of them.”

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What do you think of the Sounders’ decision to keep Schmid? Think he deserves a chance to coach a full season with Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins? Wish Seattle had gone another direction?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Well if Bruce Arena can still keep his job after trading away Mike Magee and exiting during the same round as Seattle I suppose Sigi deserves a pass as well.

    Reply
  2. I could be wrong, but it seems obvious to me that with the forwards Sounders had Dempsey should have played LM. I can’t understand bringing Sigi back. That team has to win MLS Cup, not lose in the first round.

    Reply
  3. A couple of neutral perspective observations on the Sounders moves over the past year / year and a half, that I would like to point out..

    1 – I’m going all caps on this one.. SHALRIE JOSEPH..

    His salary at Chivas was *600k/year*. He took a pay cut (to allow the Dempsey move), and now he makes 100k / yr, while EJ makes the same amount of money. I get that Chivas paid a portion of his salary after his departure, but I don’t blame EJ for his “Pay me” antics with that in mind.

    2 – Mauro Rosales

    He comes into the league at 30 years old, and does a fantastic job as a supplier, wins “newcomer of the year”.. and then is rewarded with a DP slot. Annual salary is about 225,000

    3 – EJ

    If they let this man walk, they are nuts. As I mentioned, I’m not a fan of any particular MLS team, but as an American soccer fan, I support my domestic league above all others. My point is, as a club in a maturing league, you want your decision makers to make mature decisions.. signing Shalrie Joseph, and paying a 30 year old newcomer a designated player salary are not mature decisions.

    TLDR; my question to Sounders and MLS fans in general is: Was this season’s “failure” in Seattle about Sigi, or should it be equally attributed to personnel mistakes agreed to by the team’s ownership? Aka, should Joe Roth and Adrian Hanauer be held equally responsible for the season’s result?

    Cascadia fans, feel free to chime in ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Reply
    • They won’t “let this man walk,” they will look to trade EJ. It makes good sense:

      1) They can’t pay him what he wants (deserves?) to keep him happy.
      2) It’s not clear how he fits into a line-up with Dempsey and Martins, and they are both more skilled than he.
      3) It’d be nice to have someone like him on the bench, but see #1.
      4) Sounders need serious help at centerback. Other positions could also use some work (e.g., left back). Even if they could only trade EJ for a solid CB, it’d be a huge help.
      5) Rosales had 4 goals and 8 assists; EJ had 9 goals and 2 assists. They’re both about 30 yrs old, but they’re more likely to get a trade out of EJ.
      6) Reminder: #1.

      Reply
    • This season was about inconsistency due to the team constantly changing. The biggest change I saw on field came after Carrasco was traded for Moffatt. Everything seemed disjointed once AM came into the line-up. For me the bigger blame lies with Sigi in the playoffs with line-up, formation, and game plan decisions. Starting Joseph and Moffatt in the Rose City basically ensured a lack of attacking chances. We should have started Oba and Rosales in place of of SJ and AM IMO. As stated above, one of the biggest weaknesses is CB and defensive depth. Traore and Yedlin are there, Hurtado, Ianni, Scott, Burch, and Gonzalez (although Gonz had a better year this year) need to be replaced or step up their game considerably.

      Reply
    • Kevin,

      Appreciate your views….but this isn’t just about 1 season is it ? It has been 5.

      They have never really been the team that could win MLS. Maybe some disagree, but going into the playoffs, I have been on the correct side of that prediction. I think that against the best teams, Sigi is outcoached.

      So what ? many teams are not in position to win it all ? But many teams don’t have one of the most talented teams in MLS…and still not be in a position to win it.

      Not sure how anyone can disagree with that.

      Reply
  4. NOOOOOOOOOOOO,

    well, kinda noo. please just please tell me youll never play adam moffat again?? PLEAASE!!!

    WHEN YOU KNOW WE NEED GOALS YOU SHOULD KNOW EVANS AND FREAKING MOFFAT WILL NOT HELP US GET THEM!!! AHRHRHRHHAHGHGHGHGHGHH

    Reply
    • Brad Evans had 4 goals (2 from PKs) and 5 assists this season, plus 1 goal and 1 assist in the postseason. That puts him in the top 4-5 on the team. (If you want to base it on minutes played, he looks even better.)

      So yeah, don’t play Moffat and definitely don’t let ben coach. Ever.

      Reply
      • Lies, damn lies and stats. We need to him score PKs.

        Other than that Evans is a right back, or defensive mid.

      • “Pragmatism. Is that all you have to offer?”
        ~ Guildenstern

        Brad Evans is a defensive mid whose 6 assists were not part of helping his team score. Got it.

  5. Oba is leaving sooner than later, ej wil stay only if oba leaves and dempsey wll be the king in sounder land. Oba is another henry, beckham, keane who get frustrated with their teammates due to lack of experience and skills. MLS needs new coaches frim europe or south america and good well rounded american coaches.
    Also raise the salary cap and have more DPs in order to raise the skill in MLS with better players and coaches.
    As for sounders, you could of gotten ex revolution coaches, ex rapids coach, bielsa, that colombian coach who was with red bull, some top european assistant, some italian because they are everywhere.
    I feel bad for sounders, you will never get.a true soccer stadium, stuck with sigi, bad goal keeper, owners don’t understand soccer just the atmosphere aspect.

    Reply
    • ElPaso,

      Nice job. Not a lot of guys can keep the whining up until 11:57 at night.

      Putting in OT like that…wow, just wow.

      Reply
      • mountain time, keeping it classy and sexy for soccer………oh i wish we had a uslpro or nasl in el paso tx. El Paso tx is soccer city of texas and its a fact, we need a soccer team here but our city rather support triple a baseball, with a downtown stadium ๐Ÿ™
        google el paso patriots soccer and our history is pretty sweet.
        our sister border city juarez from chihuahua, used to have division 1 mexican soccer and it was just like tijuana with san diego ๐Ÿ™

  6. “Think he deserves a chance to coach a full season with Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins?”

    Yes.

    “Wish Seattle had gone another direction?”

    Despite my previous answer: also yes.

    Reply
  7. Wait, did they seriously compare Sigi Schmid with JOHN FREAKING WOODEN? Sigi hasn’t won a thing.

    John Wooden has 10 championships. 10. That’d be like winning every single MLS Cup and SS combined since the league’s inception.

    Reply
    • Not a Sigi fan but he has won numerous titles including 2 MLS cups, 3 US Open Cups, the old CONCACAF tournament. Clearly he is no John Wooden but lets not completely delete facts

      Reply
      • I was referencing his time at Seattle.

        To continue the analogy–the US Open Cup is like one of the early season tournaments in the NCAA where Kentucky plays MSU and Kansas plays Duke.

        Find it very hard to care about a tournament that involves beating maybe 1 or 2 MLS teams–and you’re lucky if they have an actual first team out there.

      • The US Open Cup involves all MLS teams, its just a matter of how seriously theytake it. I get what you are saying to an extent but all trophies are great, the only people who belittle them are the ones who dont win them.

      • Fact is most MLS teams don’t take the USOC as serious as the SS or MLS Cup. DCU was the worst team in MLS this season and won USOC. it is a trophy that many fans would be happy to win but it doesn’t mean much in terms of how good a coach is doing.

  8. I really thought Jason would go to sounder land and sigi to a new expansion team like Miami or Orlando. All I gotta say, sounders will have a tough year, too much pressure and MLS cup gets tougher to win every year, imagine when it expands to 22 then 24 teams. It’s going to be a fan year, but like 13 teams next year are goin to be super hungry to win, red bull to dc united and chivas USA, it’s going to be a fun season.

    Reply
    • No, Seattle has the most talent in the league. Like Arena, Sigi needs a more flexible approach to tactics. The old guard is getting left behind by the sales of Porter and Vermes. When Pareja had his distributor, Powers, they looked like a contender also.

      Reply
      • They don’t have any real wide mids.

        Rose outside? Moffat, Caskey, Burch?

        If their gonna go for a diamond nxt yr or if Eddies gone, a 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1, they need ppl who can hold their own on the outside.

        I agree on your theory regarding the older gen. of coaches though

      • Their talent is getting old, they need an infusion of young talent. Of their regulars this season only two are under the age of 28. By regulars I am being generous and counting anyone with 1000 minutes this season. Compare this to Portland who has an entire midfield of players under 28 and 8 players under 28 with 1000 minutes or more.

      • I don’t know too much about Sigi but Bruce doesn’t need more flexible tactics, he needs to stop smoking his crack pipe when making player moves. After bringing on Cuddicini and Rodgers I wonder what he has up his sleeve for next year?

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