SEATTLE — Sigi Schmid led the Columbus Crew to a Major League Soccer title, but didn’t get the contract offer he was hoping for after the season, so he ended up taking over as the coach of the expansion Seattle Sounders FC.
Brad Evans was a starter who played every minute of every playoff game last season for the Crew, yet he went unprotected in the expansion draft, which is how the midfielder wound up in Seattle.
Yet as both prepare to take on their former team tonight when the Crew comes to Qwest Field, both insist that there are no hard feelings towards the Crew.
“It was hard,” Schmid said of the decision to leave. “It was hard. Obviously it had taken us three years to put the team together. … And winning a championship always puts it in a special place. But the way things happened, it is what it is. I’m here now, and so we move forward.”
Schmid didn’t want to get into details this week of his departure from Columbus, saying: “That’s a front office decision and that’s the way the negotiations went. I try not to worry about that.”
And he even goes so far as to refer to his former employees as friends.
“I always have a saying that you always want to win when you play friends,” Schmid said. “If you’re playing somebody you don’t know, you only hear about it that day. If you’re playing friends, you hear about it for a long time.”
Sounders FC assistant Ezra Hendrickson played parts of eight seasons for Schmid, including last season at Columbus. He remembers getting off a plane after the Crew won a title and seeing fans holding signs imploring Schmid to stay.
“It wasn’t a secret that they were going through contract negotiations or whatever,” Hendrickson said. “He’s a loved man there. Great fans. They had been waiting for a championship for a while and he came there and within three years brought him a championship, so they were very happy with him. They would love to have him back. But at the same token, they’re happy with the coach they have now because he’s been in Columbus for a while. But I think they really, really wanted to keep Sigi there.”
Evans played a big role in Columbus’ title last season, but when it came time for the expansion draft, he wasn’t among the players the Crew protected. And just three days after Columbus’ MLS Cup win, Evans learned he was headed to Seattle.
But like his coach, Evans has positive memories of his time in Columbus.
“No,” Evans said when asked if holds a grudge towards Columbus for letting him go. “It was just a weird couple of days. We won on Sunday, then flew home on Monday, then it was announced on Wednesday, I was on a plane. It kind of came as a surprise, but they have team meetings and they explain why. You have some international players that have to be protected, and they’re trying to keep the best core that they can together. It was kind of between a couple of guys. I’m extremely happy to be here, that’s for sure.”
While Evans and Schmid say just getting back in the win column is the most important thing tonight — Seattle has tied four straight and now trails first-place Chivas by eight points in the Western Conference standings — this game promises to be a special occasion for both.
“He might downplay it a little bit, but I think he really, really wants this one,” Hendrickson said of Schmid.
And for Evans, the desire to beat his old team might even help him recover from an ankle injury that has his status for tonight in doubt.
“You always want to play against guys that you’ve been with for two years for sure,” he said. “Kind of show them what we’ve got here. So, it’s definitely a motivation factor for sure. It might help the healing process.”
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