No coach who has taken his team to an MLS Cup championship has been more closely associated with his city than Seattle Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer.
The family’s SporthausSchmetzer was the Seattle area’s first soccer-only shop, opened in 1975, and all three of Walter Schmetzer‘s sons played pro soccer: Walter Jr., Andy and Brian.
BrianSchmetzer played for the original Sounders in the NASL, signing out of high school like all the top Seattle players did at the time. He did a long tour indoors in the MISL with San Diego, Tacoma andSt. Louis and finished up with the CISL Seattle SeaDogs.
He was working in construction in 2002 when he was hired as the head coach of the Sounders, who were then playing in the USLA-League, and he’s been with them ever since.
Schmetzer can become only the second coach — after Bruce Arena at D.C. United in the league’s first two seasons — to win MLS Cup titles in his first two seasons as a headcoach if the Sounders beat Toronto FC on Saturday.
He had been the Sounders top assistant coach since its launch in MLS in 2009 when Sigi Schmid was hired in July 2016 with theSounders in ninth place in the Western Conference.
Goalkeeper Stefan Frei says that how Schmetzer handled the team after he took over went a long way toward building the Soundersinto back-to-back MLS Cup finalists.
“I would say one of the more impressive things would be,” said Frei of Schmetzer, “is as a Seattleite to have control of the Seattle Sounders you’dwant to control everything. But he’s actually given us players so much trust. And last season he said to us, ‘This is our team, this is the players’ team, and what you want to do with this, whatyou want to achieve with this team, this is up to you.’”
Sounders players quickly bought into Schmetzer’s message. Seattle not only made the playoffs but they won its first MLS Cup overToronto FC in a shootout. It is 26-14-15 in the regular season and playoffs under Schmetzer and back in Toronto at another MLS Cup.
“Especially as a Seattleite, as someone who is verypassionate about being from there, who knows what the Sounders mean to the community,” added Frei, “to surround that control to the team is a extreme sign of respect for the players, and we noticethat.”
Schmetzer’s half-season was not long enough to warrant consideration for the top three for 2016 MLS Coach of the Year. Second in the Western Conference didn’t put him in the topsix in 2017 voting, but Clint Dempsey deserves Schmetzer with getting the Sounders to back-to-back finals.
“He is very competitive and wants to win and knows what makes himhappy,” he said. “He knows after a win he can go home and have a glass of wine with his Mrs. and relax. Having someone who is competitive like that and wants to win and motivates the team, people feedoff that. He’s a thinker, always studying tapes, trying to figure out what’s best for the team and how we are going to play our opponents. He’s done a great job being about to get to two finals in arow. Hats off to him.”