TUKWILA — The only head coach the Seattle Sounders have known during their MLS history is the head coach no longer.
Sigi Schmid, who guided the Sounders since they arrived in the league in 2009, was fired Tuesday as Seattle attempts to rescue a season that’s on the brink of becoming the worst in franchise history.
The official announcement said the Sounders and Schmid “agreed to mutually part ways.” However, both Sounders owner Adrian Hanauer and general manager Garth Lagerwey were clear that they were ready for the organization to head in a different direction.
“He’s won a bunch of trophies, won a lot of games for us, had a lot of success, but the results just weren’t there this year,” said Hanauer, who as the team’s original GM was responsible for bringing the legendary Schmid to Seattle in the first place. “I think coaches get too much credit for wins and too much blame for losses, but it’s the careers they choose, and they’re the top of the spear when decisions like this have to be made.”
Neither Schmid nor any of Seattle’s players were made available to the media for comment Tuesday. However, in a press release Schmid was quoted saying: “I’m proud of the success we’ve achieved in winning five major trophies in Seattle, qualifying for the postseason for seven straight seasons. My only disappointment is that we were unable to bring home an MLS Cup to our tremendous fans, who have always been supportive through good times and bad.”
Brian Schmetzer, who served as Seattle’s top assistant coach throughout Schmid’s tenure, will take over as head coach on an interim basis. Hanauer said Schmetzer, a Seattle native who’s been a key figure in the local soccer community since playing for the NASL’s Sounders from 1980-83, would be among those considered to take over on a permanent basis. However, Hanauer said there is no timetable for finding a full-time successor to Schmid. Schmetzer is expected to remain in place through the rest of this season.
Schmid, 63, is among the most accomplished soccer coaches ever produced by the U.S. He’s the winningest coach in MLS history with 228 wins in 17 seasons, and he was named the MLS Coach of the Year in 1999 (with the Los Angeles Galaxy) and 2008 (with the Columbus Crew). During his seven-plus seasons with the Sounders he compiled a 115-79-56 record, finishing with a winning record and qualifying for the playoffs in each of the team’s first seven campaigns. Seattle claimed five trophies under Schmid’s leadership, winning four U.S. Open Cup championships (2009, 2010, 2011, 2014) and earning the MLS Supporter’s Shield in 2014 as the Sounders finished with the league’s best record.
However, this season has been unlike anything experienced by the Sounders. Seattle currently sits at 6-12-2 and in ninth place in the 10-team Western Conference. With 20 points the Sounders find themselves 10 points out of playoff position, with just 14 games remaining in the regular season with which to make up the gap.
Perhaps more damning has been Seattle’s ineptitude on offense. The Sounders suffered a mighty blow just before the season began when star striker Obafemi Martins abruptly left for a lucrative contract to play in China, leaving a gaping hole in the lineup that Seattle has been unable to fill. Through 20 games the Sounders scored just 20 goals, making them the lowest-scoring team in the conference. In comparison, Seattle was in the bottom half of the conference in scoring just once in the previous five seasons.
Speculation has swirled throughout the season about Schmid’s job security, and the final straw came with Sunday’s 3-0 loss at Sporting Kansas City, in which an abject Seattle team was dominated from start to finish and outshot 19-1.
Lagerwey praised Schmid’s service to the team, but he also insinuated that a lack of a defined playing style has played a role in this year’s struggles. This year the Sounders, in an effort to get the most out of their abundance of forwards, switched to a 4-3-3 formation after playing a 4-4-2 in the past. The formation change has not had the desired result.
“One of the things we’re going to try to move forward positively with is establishing a playing style, a playing identity,” Lagerwey said. “I think that is something that will help us long term, and it’s one of the things I know I look for in terms of building a team. There’s a lot of good players here. I don’t think we have last-place talent, and I think we have some pieces we can build around.”
The Sounders are hoping the coaching change will give the team the needed spark for extending its streak of making the playoffs in every season, as unlikely as that prospect may seem.
“We’re a few wins away from getting ourselves back in the playoff hunt, and we haven’t given up on the season,” Hanauer said.
For more on the Seattle sports scene, follow Nick Patterson on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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