Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Nos Audietis, Episode 235: The life of Brian (Schmetzer)
63 Plays9 years ago
We weren’t sure if we were going to record this week, especially since Aaron has a bit of a superstition about doing stuff like this in the middle of a series. But with Wednesday’s news that Brian Schmetzer was having the interim tag removed from his title, we felt we owed to all of you to focus on that especially since the next time we record that bit of news will likely be lost.
In order to relieve Aaron of his superstition, we brought on Richard Farley to discuss the hiring with Jeremiah. As usual, Richard gives us a bit more of a national perspective on the hiring.
One thing they focused on was how different the perception of the announcement was outside of Seattle. While here, it seemed to make a certain amount of sense to unveil Schmetzer in front of a massive group of fans, nationally it looked as if the Sounders buried the news by announcing on a weeknight while Game 7 of the World Series was being played.
Enjoy.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Services of Queen Anne Acupuncture
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of NOS Audiadis is sponsored by Queen and Acupuncture. Queen and Acupuncture has over a decade of experience healing the injuries of athletes. Marathon runners, snowboarders, yoga instructors and weekend warriors have all found relief from pain and have enhanced performance with the use of Acupuncture and Chinese medicine.
00:00:22
Speaker
Queen Anne acupuncture has treated players from many of the Seattle area's soccer leagues for a wide range of injuries. Acupuncture also happens to be one of the best treatments for stress. Credit cards are welcome but Queen Anne acupuncture is also in network with insurance plans including Primera, Aetna, LifeWise, Cigna and Group Health Cooperative.
00:00:45
Speaker
Located in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, you can conveniently book an appointment online today at QueenAnneAcupuncture.com.
00:01:28
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle. And the hills the greenest green in Seattle. Like a beautiful child growing up free and warm.
Brian Schmetzer's Permanent Appointment
00:01:46
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of NOS Adiatus, sponsored by Fullpool Wines, Constellation & Company, Queen Anne Acupuncture, Verdi Credit Union, and The Book Towards Cascadia. This is episode 235 and we're recording on Thursday, November
00:01:58
Speaker
3rd, 2016. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan, and joining me on the show today is Richard Farley. I'm back again. I know, again, again. You'll notice this doesn't have the normal cast. That's because it's not a full show. We're actually going to just do this one single segment and focus entirely on yesterday's news that Brian Schmetzer has had the interim tag removed from his title. So you and I were talking a little bit in the pre-production. That makes it sound really funny. In our virtual green room. Right, in our virtual green room.
00:02:28
Speaker
And like, well, I wanna start with this, the timing of this announcement. For me, as someone who was on the ground, who was someone that was anticipating it, who knew it was gonna, who had a very good sense that it was coming and was at the event, it felt like this huge, like powerful announcement. There's maybe 500 people in the room. They have, you know, people are giving them a standing ovation.
00:02:57
Speaker
like the audience is seemingly genuinely surprised at this news and it's like a huge deal. But then I got home and I realized that
00:03:09
Speaker
you know, the world, the world, the North American soccer world, maybe didn't quite see it that way. Like they saw a press release coming out at seven o'clock Pacific, 10 o'clock Eastern in the middle of the game set or yeah, in the middle of game seven of the world series. And no one's paying attention to soccer at that point. Certainly no one's looking for unexpected news.
00:03:31
Speaker
And so there's this perception that, wow, the sounders really buried this one. Why would they stash this away at seven o'clock on a Wednesday night? And I just thought that the kind of separation there was really jarring in a way that I don't know that I've ever experienced yet. And I'm sure it happens. It was just like a reminder that you can really get inside your own bubble.
00:03:55
Speaker
Well, I think it's also a reminder of how difficult it is for people that aren't on the ground or covering the teams or any team on a day to day basis, how difficult it is to empathize with the team and with the fan base. Because I think, you know, if you're anybody that even casually follows the sounders, you see what was building throughout the day yesterday and what happened at the meeting.
00:04:17
Speaker
And it becomes like this really enviable kind of celebration. You realize how much the fans actually had invested in Brian. It's great, especially for people that have been around The Sounders for a long time.
Fan-Centric Values vs. Media Spotlight
00:04:28
Speaker
Obviously, Brian is a very special person to the organization and maybe they didn't even realize how special he was to the organization until these last couple of months. But then from the outside, you have people questioning, well, why did they do this now?
00:04:41
Speaker
This was as much about Brian, like what's fair to Brian and what's best for the fans. I mean, at some point, like the organization has to care about those things more than, okay, well, how do we get the most national coverage out of this thing? The motivation last night was, you know, let's celebrate Brian. Let's, let's do this for the fans. This is a big event for the fans. Let's do this. And so to me, I mean, that's a pretty easy equation, like, okay, so we're not going to get, make this into a big national event. From the sounder's point of view, that's an easy trade-off to make.
00:05:11
Speaker
Yeah, and I think it's kind of an enviable, like you said, an enviable position to be in where you can afford to, like if you're FC Dallas, just to pick a name out of a hat that happens to be playing the Sounders in the Western Conference semi-finals, you probably can't afford to do it this way. Like you can't afford to have a fan event in which you make this big news announcement
00:05:36
Speaker
If that if the timing of that event is not like sensical from a I wasn't at the event perspective and and that the Sounders have I guess they have some reassurance they know that they're relevant enough that they can go ahead and announce that Brian Schmetzer has been named the head coach and they can go ahead and do it whenever they want they can do it for whatever audience they want and know that
00:05:59
Speaker
the people that need to know about it the next day are still gonna know about it the next day. You saw today, there is ESPN's reporting on it, everyone's reporting on it, 442. Every relevant
Sounders' Confidence in Relevance Without Media Hits
00:06:10
Speaker
soccer outlet is reporting on this thing, regardless of when it happened. And I don't know that they really, they didn't really need a bump from this. And it's, maybe they didn't drive a huge number of hits to their website that they could have driven, but they don't need to rely on this one day to do that.
00:06:29
Speaker
Yeah, and I think, you know, this sometimes sounds like lip service or it sounds almost like it's sports marketing cliche, but whether it is or not, the people in the organization really do believe this. They believe that the fans have a role in the Sounders. I mean, that's what that meeting last night's all about, right? So when you're going into these events, just like last year, they kind of announced the S2 partnership and
00:06:50
Speaker
No matter what you think about how that's turned out it is something that hey at this event We are going to have this piece of good news and celebrate it and it kind of end up overshadowing in some way some of the Negative stuff that happened at last year's meeting although people obviously talked about that too this year when they're coming to this meeting It's kind of like I can just imagine them going look
00:07:08
Speaker
Are we sure, are we sure we're going to hire Brian? Why don't we just do this now? The fans would love it. Brian deserves this spotlight, et cetera, et cetera. And maybe somebody like Garth is like, well, you know, we had this plan for getting through the playoffs and then evaluate things. But yeah, Brian's Brian's earned this. So why don't we just do this last night last night? Those kind of considerations really matter to people like Adrian and Drew and Bart and all these people that make the decisions within the organization. And I thought that was another interesting aspect of it is that, you know, we're talking about the timing of it being
00:07:38
Speaker
seven o'clock on a weekday. But the other part of it is timing it between legs of a conference semifinal, which I think is interesting in that I don't know if the score was one zero or if it was zero zero or what. I mean, my suspicion, and I don't know the answer to this, but my suspicion is that this was not a decision that was made between Sunday and yesterday. Like it was probably a decision made
00:08:07
Speaker
prior to Sunday's game. Maybe it was probably made after they qualified for the playoffs is my suspicion. They basically decided, okay, I think Brian's earned himself this job. That said, I thought it was interesting that they would go ahead and announce it in the middle of the series, and I do wonder if it would have been different if the score was not 3-0.
00:08:32
Speaker
I don't know, do you, do you think that there's any, is there any legitimate concern aside from like jinx, you know, like a jinxing like silliness, but do you think there's any legitimate concern that this is, is maybe a distraction from, from the very real, uh, game that they still have to play on Sunday and granted a three zero lead is, uh, math, you know, by, by history does not seem very likely to be overcome, has never been overcome, but yet three zero is not an impossible lead to overcome either.
00:09:02
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think it is a very legitimate concern and I think there are trade-offs that go along with this. I think it is very legitimate to look at the team since the end of July as being this kind of alchemy that you don't want to mess with this balance of not only performance but spirit within the team and the willingness to sacrifice to achieve some goals which at one point in time looked very far away and as we go on seem ever more realistic whether those goals be
00:09:28
Speaker
just making the playoffs or now making the conference final or now establishing themselves as an MLS cup contender. And I think there is a very real danger of looking at last night as a way for the entire group, Brian, the staff and the team to start reaping rewards from something when they
00:09:44
Speaker
would otherwise want to stay focused on the task at hand. Now,
Schmetzer's Coaching Journey and Team Continuity
00:09:47
Speaker
like you said, if they were only up one nothing, would they have risked messing with that alchemy by announcing Brian last night? It's an interesting hypothetical, but they do have a three goal lead. And there obviously was an even, I say this laughing because Sounder at Heart is a little bit leading this charge, but there has been the growing announced Schmetzer tweets after every single good performance. And so
00:10:11
Speaker
This is the sacrifice you make when you make this commitment to your members, to the Alliance, that you are part of the family, you are part of what we consider our business model, and I know a lot of people that buy in think that maybe the team isn't making enough sacrifices right now or making some decisions that they don't like, but then there are other instances like last night where they probably are influenced to do something for the fans that if the meeting wasn't on Wednesday or if the meeting was a little later, if there weren't a meeting like that at all,
00:10:40
Speaker
They probably would have waited until the playoff run was over. Yeah, and I think it's a really interesting I wrestled with this idea a lot yesterday in in writing the column I ended up putting out today is that on one hand you have what is In a vacuum a very easy decision. Oh, you're telling me that the that the longtime servant of Seattle soccer this guy who's been around the scene for
00:11:03
Speaker
his whole life. You're telling me that he was the assistant and we can promote him? Oh yeah, that's an easy decision. Let's just do that. I bet he costs less than whoever else is out there. But also with six years of head coaching experience too. Right, and he has seven years of head coaching experience.
00:11:23
Speaker
and uh and and here he is he's he's devoted to the team and it's like he checks all these boxes and it would be a really easy decision to make but yet i i do think the sounders were being honest when at the start of this they said we're gonna know we're gonna have a process we we believe that brian is a candidate for this job but he's a candidate for this job and and maybe he can win the job but we're gonna go and we're gonna interview all these
00:11:51
Speaker
They gave the impression that they were going to go out and interview all these people that they'd never really had a chance to do a coaching search like this. They'd certainly never had a chance to do a coaching search like this when the sounders are what they are today, which is maybe not a global brand, but a team that is going to peak the interest of a lot of qualified, highly qualified head coaches.
00:12:15
Speaker
and that they were basically given, in some ways, they were given no choice but to hire Schmetzer. I don't know, do you think, in your mind, when do you think that the process was kind of thrown out the window and it became, well, this is really Brian's job to lose at this point, and the only way we're not gonna give it to him is if he kind of, if this falls apart.
00:12:38
Speaker
I think making the playoffs was such a goal that they probably only seriously entertained forgoing the process once they were finally in the playoffs. Now, I think Brian was probably gonna be a candidate no matter what at that point. Like he would have been, if not in the discussion, a front runner in the discussion, even if Seattle had lost game 34 to RSL. But after they beat RSL and they beat Kansas City, and at the point that they go up three goals on Dallas, and you're kind of looking at this like,
00:13:05
Speaker
This is not only a turnaround, this is an opportunity to actually get farther than the team did last year, and to get as far as Sigi has ever taken this team. And Brian is doing this over the course of 16-18. Hopefully at the end, I guess it would be 21 games if Seattle, I guess, no, it would be 20 games if Seattle makes it all the way to the MLS Cup. At that point, you also start going, and this team was 6-12-2 when Brian took over, and they've lost Clint Dempsey, and they've had these injuries.
00:13:32
Speaker
you know, even though it's been a really easy incorporation, he's had to incorporate a new focal point into his attack. And at some point, you just kind of go to yourself, you know, worst case scenario, we hire Brian, it doesn't work out, and we go through the process that we're meaning to go through now, just a year or two into the future.
00:13:50
Speaker
And I think one thing that really dawns on me is, like you mentioned, I think that Garth really did have a vision in his mind as to how December would play out as far as interviewing candidates. He's talked
Evaluating Potential Coaching Candidates
00:14:02
Speaker
about the qualities that he would be looking for in candidates, some qualities which Brian doesn't necessarily hit. But Garth, I think,
00:14:10
Speaker
was smart enough to kind of go one of my other goals here is continuity and I've changed coaches so many times over the last four years of my professional life that if I have this person that is clearly dedicated to this job in a way that I can't get by bringing somebody else in, it's definitely worth the sacrifice of bringing in some of this outside knowledge or bringing in a proven track record of incorporating the type of talent that we're going to incorporate in the future for somebody who I think Brian is now 10, two and four since taking over.
00:14:39
Speaker
So at worst it's worth taking a chance on and if it doesn't work out then you just go through the same process next winter that you were prepared to undergo this winter.
00:14:47
Speaker
Yeah, and I gotta say, I think, I can't help but feel that part of this is, I think they had a really short list of who they thought might be an improvement over Brian. And I think, I don't know, I actually had some conversations yesterday. I was swayed from believing that Bob Bradley was really on that list. I think that maybe they saw him as a little bit more inclined to wanna
00:15:15
Speaker
you know, change the direction of that they've kind of already started along and that he would have kind of come in with some very different ideas. Yeah, even when Bob was in France, when I floated that idea, people were just kind of like, Oh, yeah, you know, he's he's got the kind of background where you'd want to at least talk to him. But there wasn't like any excitement about Yeah, we can go get a Bob Bradley.
00:15:32
Speaker
Right. But I do think, I still think Guillermo Barros' Shiloto was probably on that list. I feel pretty confident about that. He checks every box that they talk about. Yeah, exactly. And then, you know, one of the guys that, and I don't know, I haven't been able to confirm this, and it was someone that I guess you might pull, you might come up with, but Empire of Soccer.
00:15:53
Speaker
which is Dave Martinez's blog that covers the whole New York soccer scene. They said that Gio... No. Gio has an agent that tends to throw his name into a lot of conversations. Yeah, and I thought that was... The thing I thought was very interesting about that line was they said that the Sounders had considered Gio Savarisi
00:16:13
Speaker
I don't know what that means. Like, does that mean that the Sounders called up his agent and said, hey, we'd like to talk to him if Brian falls flat on his face? I mean, did they hire him in football manager? Like, what's the level? What does that mean? I don't want to totally dismiss the idea that Giovanni Savarisi would be linked to Seattle. But I know multiple jobs within MLS that Giovanni Savarisi's name has been linked to, who then people in the front offices at those places go,
00:16:39
Speaker
No, he wasn't really ever a real candidate for us. So either that's multiple organizations lying about something that they have no reason to lie about, or Giovanni Savarisi has representation or just has good relationships that wants to continue to make connections that maybe if they're there, they're just really so loose that, like you're saying, it could just be like they brought his name up in a boardroom.
00:17:03
Speaker
Right. So the other thing I think that I kind of started thinking about last night, and I'm really curious as to your perspective on this, because I don't know that there's a right answer. But I started thinking about
Internal vs External Hiring Perceptions
00:17:18
Speaker
this. And I think, you know, in 2009, they maybe considered Brian for the head coaching job. But I don't think that he was a serious candidate. I think they were pretty committed to bringing in someone with MLS experience.
00:17:32
Speaker
They wanted to bring in someone that had a little bit of a name that could potentially help sell tickets, not necessarily like, I'm gonna go watch Ziggy Smith coach a team, but I'm gonna, this is an organization that's clearly serious about winning out of the gate. And I think Ziggy checked all those boxes, and I don't know how seriously they considered Brian for that job, but they obviously wanted to keep him in the organization. But then as we move along, there's certain to become this perception that rightly or wrongly,
00:18:01
Speaker
that Brian is kind of Siggy's guy and how much can he really change if he's been the assistant coach? He's presumably been helping gameplan. He's been involved in a pretty high level with getting this team ready
00:18:15
Speaker
And I kind of wonder, was this maybe the only way that he could get the job, that he had to kind of step in with enough time to prove himself? And that, you know, let's just say Siggy had gotten fired at the end of the season or by the time the season was lost. Do you think that Brian would have been seriously considered under those circumstances?
00:18:40
Speaker
I just think it's so hard for MLS assistance right now to establish a resume that can compete with people that are coming in from outside the organization. I mean, even somebody like a Giovanni Savarese who has four years, I think at this point with the Cosmos has obviously a depth of experience in this part of the world, not only as a coach, but as a player, etc.
00:19:03
Speaker
Compared to like an MLS assistant where you just don't have that proof of concept I mean we saw what happened in Houston where Wade Barrett Personality wise one over so many people and they were just like we're still gonna go with this guy that we've had our eye on for a long time like Garth could have legitimately been like Brian you went eight six and two down the stretch that's great, but we're the sounders we have
00:19:25
Speaker
high expectations placed on ourselves not only from the outside and the inside, so we're going to go through this process. I almost think he had to go on this kind of run because that was the only way to make the postseason and then put up these results and then be able to say, look, I've taken us to where we've always been before and that's only been 16 games. I just can't imagine, especially with Garth being relatively new to the organization, Schmetzer winning this job any other way.
00:19:50
Speaker
Yeah. And that was kind of the thing I came with too. And the phrase I used was that he's cruelly too old and too inexperienced. Yeah. Like he's at 54, there's nothing shiny and bright and like, oh, this is the next great soccer mind. Like the reality is that whatever happens here, this may be his last head coaching job.
00:20:14
Speaker
Right. It's impossible to imagine him going anywhere else unless he decides to go down to U.S.L. again or go to, I guess, any U.S.L. is like, you know, electing to coach a gravestone at this point. Yeah, I don't. And I honestly, I mean, I could see him sticking around as an assistant potentially down the road or like I think the organization at this point feels like it has
00:20:36
Speaker
invested a lot in Brian Schmetzer. And yesterday, I really like to a degree that I don't know if I was totally aware of even that, you know, the way that Adrian Hanauer talked about him was not like
00:20:48
Speaker
Talking about anyone else that I've ever it's something that we didn't even mention over these last couple months the type of emotional connection Somebody like Adrian would have and Adrian obviously didn't make this decision, but I think he had a huge influence on it I think this was definitely if Garth wasn't on board Schmetzer is not getting hired, but you can imagine that Adrian is there making the case just kind of like look we've got this
00:21:10
Speaker
like Brian deserves this job okay they kind of agree to that look on Wednesday we have this thing coming up we owe this to Brian we owe this to the fans like those are the type of arguments that Adrian would make it's like these are the people that come these are these are people that have had to go through the good decisions the bad decisions for us over the last year let's give them this because that's what our organization should be about
00:21:30
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that it also helps people feel comfortable that this wasn't just to feel good higher. And I don't know how, honestly, I don't know how anyone could look at what happened over the last three or four months and come away with any conclusion other than
00:21:47
Speaker
Brian Schmester won this job. And I don't know that he was the favorite to win it from jump. I think that a lot of things could have gone wrong. But one of the things that he said to me in that interview that we infamously had to have cut off a couple months ago was, and this is off the air, but he said, I'm just glad that I have enough time to try to do something here. And I think that he felt like,
00:22:11
Speaker
whether it works out or whether it doesn't, at least he really got a shot. And I was really, I don't think at that time I necessarily thought that he was a favorite to win the job, but I wanted to believe that he had a real chance at winning it. I'm really glad.
Emotional Impact of Schmetzer's Appointment
00:22:27
Speaker
I was just, again, I was really kind of blown away at the universal approval that this seemed to get, at least in the room. And some of the words that people were using to describe Brian
00:22:40
Speaker
and the words that, you know, even Garth was saying were pretty powerful in kind of how he was won over and kind of buying into the Sounders as more than just a MLS franchise, that they are, you know, in a way that I don't know how many MLS teams are, but that they do see themselves as like a club in the traditional sense, that they aren't just, you know, a business entity, that they,
00:23:10
Speaker
actually have roots in the community that they have a sense of history that they you know Value loyalty in a way that I don't know that every every MLS team does and it was pretty cool to see I just thought it was a really great kind of experience and and Really like and and just kind of the emotion that that that Schmetzer
00:23:33
Speaker
is willing to share with it all. I guess today, I wasn't out of training, but today, apparently, a bunch of the coaches that he's coached with, guys like Jimmy Gabriel, Alan Hinton, were out of training. And apparently, he had to actually cut off the interview and gather himself, because he was so just moved by this outpouring of support.
00:23:57
Speaker
But yeah, and I guess but now but now the hard part starts right now He's got to prove that he deserves to keep the job, right? Well, I mean imagine being in Brian's position and you have this job that you've probably wanted ever since like 15 years
00:24:12
Speaker
become an MLS franchise, right? Once your playing career is done and eventually become the U.S.L. coach. But then, like you said, for logical reasons, he's not the head coach when they move to MLS. But in his mind, just as a competitive person and as a professional who's ambitious, that's the job that you want. But you reach a stage of your life where you're 54 years old and people that age don't usually get their first job at that time. And there's probably little part of him that thought he was never going to get his dream job.
00:24:37
Speaker
And then, over the course of two months, your life changes, and you not only got the job to try, you now have, what is it, a three-year contract or something like that? I mean, that's emotional. That has to be emotional for anybody. Like, even right now, I can only vaguely remember what it's like to have a dream job. Those emotions have been crushing me, throwing in the garbage. There's no dream job anymore. There's just like dream... There's just dream paying my rent. That's all there is, basically.
00:25:03
Speaker
Ryan not only got his dream job, but had thousands of people applauding for him, and then had this legacy of Job's past come and congratulate him in person, online, everything. I mean, that's a really emotional thing, even thinking about it right now. Go ahead.
00:25:18
Speaker
I was gonna say that you put it into a great perspective like how long or maybe you didn't you got me thinking about it this way anyway I don't know if you meant to put it this way but like how long does it stay a dream job like you once you get like you know at some point in our life we all have this job that we aspire to but then it becomes just your job yeah and well then it becomes your fear because now it is right or not being able to pull off your dream job
00:25:42
Speaker
Right, exactly. And so, you know, and I, as much as I think that that Schmetzer has proven that he can do this job, and as much as he's proven that he deserves this job, you know, I think that the real challenge is maybe even going to be no matter what they do this year, like, let's just say, hypothetic.
Challenges Ahead for Schmetzer
00:25:58
Speaker
Well, I don't even get into the hypothetical. Don't hate yourself, man. Right, exactly. But like, no matter what happens, you're kind of getting kind of close to those hypothetical scenarios at this point. I know. I find a little close to the sun here. Yeah. But I don't want to.
00:26:09
Speaker
I mean, regardless of what happens this year, like in a lot of ways,
00:26:15
Speaker
It's like, let's just, you know, it's just, there's only so much farther up that you can go. Like you've now established this really high, like even as of today, they're sitting in the conference finals, semi-finals, leading 3-0, there's only so much, there's only a couple more steps above this, at which point you're just like, well, okay, so it's all like, there's just nothing better that I can, I mean, and I think, you know, I guess at some point you establish yourself like a Bruce Arena and you win so much that,
00:26:45
Speaker
a down year doesn't mean as much as it might mean to other coaches. But then you have a guy like Ziggy Schmidt who won just about everything he could win except for the big thing. And there was like a constant, like every year was a constant thing of like, well, is Ziggy really gonna be around? And so I just wonder how he's gonna handle that pressure. But I will say that I've been very impressed by the handful of games this year where he's really been challenged, I think,
00:27:13
Speaker
tactically and and it's you know, it's one thing to to roll out Nicolas Ledera
00:27:20
Speaker
Yeah, so I think one of the things that, it's all fine and good, I guess, for the Sounders to be playing well when there's this base assumption that they have the best players. And it's been, I think, a tempting narrative for a lot of people to just point at, oh, well, they got Nicolas Ledero, and they got Roman Torres, and they got Alvaro Fernandez, and heck, even Siggy Schmidt has kind of
00:27:45
Speaker
I have fallen into that trap of saying, well, convenient. Yeah, exactly, convenient. Like kind of pointing out that they have this almost embarrassment of riches. And of course, Brian Schmetzer is going to play well. They have all these great players. But I think that it's really ignoring
Tactical Success and Team Dynamics
00:28:02
Speaker
some of the the games in which he's had to make genuine tactical adjustments. But let's also not forget that this is a team that had to play that hasn't had Clint Dempsey for the last 10 games of the regular season and the two games of the playoffs. They haven't had Brad Evans starting basically over the same period of time. They haven't had key players at various spots. They haven't had Andres Avonchitz
00:28:26
Speaker
for the last half of this run or so. I mean, there's a lot of pieces missing. And on Sunday, we saw a team that started Nelson Valdez, that started Eric Freiburg, that started Zach Scott, that had a lot of guys starting who were not penciled into the starting lineup under almost any circumstances.
00:28:46
Speaker
and they had one of their best performances of the year and it was against a guy who a lot of people think is one of the best tactical coaches in MLS in Oscar Preah.
00:28:57
Speaker
Yeah, I guess I just dismiss the notion that you can just look at the Sounders and say, oh, there's so much more talented than everybody else. All you have to do is take their 11s and stack them up against Dallas or even some teams that miss the playoffs, like Portland and Vancouver. And there's not just this overwhelming advantage there. There is something to saying that Seattle has these incredible resources that other teams don't that.
00:29:18
Speaker
except for like three or four other teams in the league don't. But the team right now that Schmetzer inherited is not reflecting those resources. And I think the team has been very open about that. I think the front office has been very open about the fact that they need to go out and replace some of the aging players on the roster, get another designated player in, et cetera, et cetera. So as far as the team that Brian inherited, I don't know that the typical view of Seattle really applies. But there is a talented team there. There's one that had Clint Dempsey for most of the season, or at least kind of
00:29:47
Speaker
touching yeah touch and go for considering also Copa this summer and stuff like that and we saw at the beginning of the season that this team that Maybe you can look at is saying which just as if not more talented than the team is playing now just didn't work And I think people really underestimate just how bad Seattle was when Brian came in I mean it got to the point where you would be in the press box at CenturyLink field you would get the 11 in your hand and
00:30:12
Speaker
And we would look around at each other and goes, is seeking really going to try to do this again? I mean, it was demoralizing just from kind of a just from a spectator perspective, from a somewhat neutral perspective. Just go, why does he keep thinking this is going to work? Now, Brian came in and just did the very basic stuff that you would think a coach would do. Let's put these players in the best positions that they can that where they're most likely to succeed. And as we saw with Clint Dempsey's performance at the beginning of the year, when you don't do that, you kind of risk losing the player.
00:30:40
Speaker
So Ryan deserves some credit for not trying to over complicate things. But then as you mentioned, too, he's been able to take that base and then make some meaningful tweaks, make some meaningful decisions that aren't always the easiest decisions and produce consistently good results. And then, you know, the number that I keep throwing out there, the team is plus 13 on goal difference since he took over in 16 and only 16 games. But plus 12 of that is in second half of games. That's that's an incredible adjustment.
00:31:10
Speaker
Yeah, well yeah my microphone there's been only one game where in the second half Seattle noticeably collapsed and that was the Dallas game and obviously there were some Decisions that didn't go Seattle's way in that one that happens sometimes as Kansas City fans still haven't come to grips with but
00:31:27
Speaker
Brian has consistently been able to, be it tactically or via motivation, be able to put out a better team in the last 45 minutes of games than the first 45 minutes of games. Now, I don't know if that means he's a better coach than whoever else you want to bring in there, but that is a standard that some people use. So hopefully, if those people that use that standard are being fair, they'll acknowledge that Brian has done an excellent job over this time he's been in charge.
00:31:55
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, I think all this comes down to is that there's a lot of reason to feel positive about this, to feel that it's more than just your average, you know, local boy made good, let's give him a shot type
Conclusion and Upcoming Match Against FC Dallas
00:32:08
Speaker
of situation. Like, I think that there's, you know, genuinely something here. There's genuinely, like, and I should say this, I think one of the maybe underrated
00:32:20
Speaker
But, you know, things that he did right this this offseason or this season. And one of the things that I think he's come under fire for is that he refused to write off Nelson Valdez as a lost asset. And I think that Siggy Schmidt had kind of gotten to the point where it's like, look, Nelson, I appreciate everything you're doing. But if you can't help me as a starter, you just can't, you know, I just don't really see a place for you.
00:32:44
Speaker
and Nelson Valdez had kind of really been allowed to wither and become almost a non-part of the team in some ways.
00:32:55
Speaker
Brian really insisted on using him virtually every game. Now it was off the bench and it was usually with very distinct roles of like, I just need you to harangue the center backs or whatever it might be. But I think it kept him involved and it's paid off huge. I can't imagine where the Sounders would be right now without Nelson Valdez. Even just the FC Dallas game, even if you figure, oh, the Sounders would have figured out how to beat Kansas City in overtime or something.
00:33:24
Speaker
The Dallas game, I think he was a huge part of it, just the fact that they could stick him in there. And, you know, there has been a lot of smart people that said, you know, those every minute that Nelson Valdez gets is a minute that someone else on this roster doesn't get, whether it be Alex Anderson, whether it be Darwin Jones, whether it be.
00:33:41
Speaker
I suppose even to some degree like a Vic Mans. There's younger players on this team who people have been pining to see more of and that Nelson Valdez is absolutely getting minutes instead of. But I think that what Brian saw was that Nelson Valdez was an important part of this team whether it be as a potential, I don't know that he saw him scoring two goals in the playoffs, but I think his personality he saw as being important and the reality is that
00:34:10
Speaker
for Zach Scott, for Brad Evans, for Nelson Valdez, for Roman Torres, for whoever it is, for them to have any kind of impact in the locker room, they need to be a part of the team in a meaningful way that's not just a cheerleader. And maybe it's the understanding of that, maybe the understanding of the player psyche that it's like, look, you know,
00:34:33
Speaker
We have this great asset in Nelson Valdez. Everyone loves him. But if we're, you know, kind of sticking him at the end of the bench and forgetting about him, we can't use them in the locker room because it's like everything he says is going to be ignored. Yeah, this kind of spoils something that I'm writing today, but I have something I'm working on that's basically about the guys in the team that make you want to put your boots on slower. So.
00:34:56
Speaker
You know, when you're going to a good locker room, guys are hanging around a little bit more. They're a little bit slower to put their clothes and their shoes on. They're talking to everybody else. They're talking to people about the music that's on. They're making jokes. They're trying to subvert other guys' interviews, stuff like that. When you're covering a bad team, the locker room empties quick and it's quiet.
00:35:17
Speaker
So all four guys that you mentioned are exactly the people that come to mind. Nelson, Roman, Brad, these type of people that you have to keep Zach, that you not only have to keep them engaged, but if you're taking a 5% sacrifice at their position on the field, but you're getting an emotional boost throughout the team,
00:35:37
Speaker
it's at least something that a coach has to consider. And I think that's why starting Zach Scott, starting Nelson Valdez, these were signs that, hey, we consider you not only a part of this team in name, you are an actual part of this team that's going to matter if we're going to do something this year. It's obviously a risk, but it's one that really paid off in spades on Sunday.
00:36:01
Speaker
Yeah, well, that feels like a pretty good place to go ahead and call it. Really appreciate you coming on here and giving me a little bit more of a, giving our listeners a little bit more of a perspective, a bigger perspective than just like, raw, raw, go Brian. But that's a, you know, that was an important part of this too. But hopefully we'll have some good stuff to talk about next week. The Sounders obviously are getting ready for a huge second leg against FC Dallas. They hold a 3-0 lead.
00:36:29
Speaker
And gosh, I really hope that we're still talking next week about good things because that would be really sad. Hopefully I don't have to bring any national perspective on because the only national perspective I could offer next week would be bad stuff.
00:36:45
Speaker
Yeah, this narrative could turn around, but let's not worry too much about that. But anyway, Richard, thanks a lot for coming on. Yeah, any time. In case you don't know, read Richard's stuff at 442, follow him on Twitter, at Richard Farley. I am Jeremiah O'Shan. Oh, I guess I should probably thank all our sponsors, Verity Credit Union, Full Pool Wines, Consolation & Company, Queen Anne Acupuncture, and The Book Towards Cascadia. This is no saudietis. Remember, you will never get alone.
00:37:16
Speaker
Green Douglas, where were the waters cut through? Down to wild mountains and tangents you flew. Canadian Northwest to the ocean so blue. It's Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll On, Columbia Roll On.