Seattle Sounders FC held its Alliance Annual Business Meeting on Wednesday night, and the club used the occasion to announce Brian Schmetzer as the team’s permanent head coach.
Schmetzer had been serving as Seattle’s interim head coach since Sigi Schmid, the only head coach in franchise history, was dismissed in late July. At the time the Sounders were mired in ninth place in the MLS’s Western Conference and seemingly destined to miss the playoffs for the first time in the franchise’s eight seasons. However, the team turned things around under Schmetzer, going 8-2-4 in its final 14 games to earn the conference’s fourth seed to the playoffs. Seattle defeated Sporting Kansas City 1-0 in the first round, and the Sounders carry a commanding 3-0 lead over FC Dallas into Sunday’s second leg of the Western Conference semifinals.
Schmetzer is a career organization man. The Seattle native played for the NASL version of the Sounders in 1980, then coached the USL version of the team from 2002-08. He was an assistant under Schmid from the time the MLS Sounders began play in 2009.
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