Listen to this This is so weird. This has kind of become like our annual thing, the season ends. We let the dust settle a little bit. Then we get to pick the mind of the great Brian Schmetzer. Schmetzer's team. I don't know where this combo is going to go. We're just going to talk about it. But, you know, we kind of have to just, we do have to reflect a bit just on the season.
And me and Brad sat here last week and we said, is it a successful season? And we both said, look, of course it is, but we're going to get Schmetz on here and he's going to say no because he's, it's trophies, the standard's high. And I get it. But here's where I'm saying it's successful, Schmidt. It's, you look at the group you had, the start you had, the amount of injuries and interruptions you had, and you end up getting to within one game.
of hosting mls cup went deep in both cup tournaments etc and very good again defensively you got a career year out of albert rusnak jordan was good again People like Rothrock, where the hell did he come from? He emerged. I mean, there's so many things there. How do you call that a failure? I'm not comfortable, but we're the Sounders. We need trophies. So I'm curious for how, and it's still soon for you, but how do you look back and assess?
You came in January or February and now we're in December. How did you assess the season? Well, you said it exactly the way I said it. It was not a success because, yes, we were. eight minutes from extra time uh we you know had a chance we were there couldn't score maybe that was the one you know leg nagging thing that was you know dragging us down the entire season. So, you know, no Cascadia Cup, Open Cup semifinals, Leagues Cup quarterfinals, semifinals of, you know, MLS Cup.
A lot of teams would love to have that record. A lot of teams would have loved to end up fourth in the competitive division. But, you know, no. And the fact of the matter is, is that the success is Steve. The way I look at them, and I'm actually glad you brought up Albert and Jordan because they had career years statistically. You know, statistically, I'm still going to poke and prod them because I think they need to do more.
Now that the team is kind of fully theirs, that is if Albert re-signs his contract. So we've got to make sure that we... put that into focus uh but look some of the successes were obet vargas i mean that kid has a ceiling up here georgie uh you know fantastic young talent uh
Jackson Reagan, you know, continued growth with Josh and Danny Leyva had made strides, although they didn't get a lot of, you know, print. You know, Kalani, our last draft pick. I don't know if we're going to talk about draft, but. That's tomorrow. Kalani was good, and we might sign him or take him to preseason. And then there's Paul Rothrock. I mean, there's maybe the story of the year.
And, Steve, I'll just tell you one side note story just to get us started. I mean, when we're on the bench that day when, you know, the kickoff against Minnesota, and they kicked the ball down the field. And Alex goes up and, you know, challenges for the ball and he lands on his head and concussion. We're like going, what the, you know, just happened. And who are we going to put in?
And we were going to be, you know me, I'm conservative, very conservative by nature. And we're kind of on the bench. We're talking. And I like, no, we're putting Rothrock in. It was kind of a long shot. It was like. You know, we weren't sure what we were going to get with the kid. But sure enough, I mean, there's opportunity and there's a kid who took full advantage of it. Unorthodox decision by me. And boom, it works.
You know, you guys can write the rest of the story because, you know, he's going to be here for a while. So we go back to the beginning of the season, the worst start in club history to a season.
and to to be there in that moment and put yourself back there and kind of envision did you really know that this club could do what they were capable of or were you kind of in that panic mode of like hey we need to get some players in here uh stat otherwise i'm in a contract year because you were certainly thinking about that and
Ultimately, I'm the first one to go. It's not going to be roster spot 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. It's going to be the head coach making a change. Where did that play into the season and where were you at in that moment? And when you reflect on that... where you are now so that's one of the many blessings that i've had in my career brad you know ziggy always ziggy always told me says you're hired to get fired
And I understand that. It's pro sports. We get it. Would I have, you know, been okay with it? Probably not. But, you know, that's the way life goes. Did I have faith and confidence in the group? Yes. You know, I'll go back to the USL days. Another thing that I accumulated over my years of coaching back in 2007 and somebody smarter than me can go back to that year.
2007, we were terrible as well. We were like, you know, one, three and five or something. And Taylor Graham, you know, Taylor, our Taylor Graham, we signed him from. When he got released, I think it was from Sporting KC or something like that. And we went on like an 18 match unbeaten streak. Back in the USL. And so, Brad, I wasn't in panic mode because I had been through some of that stuff. If you believe in what you're doing, if you believe that you have like a good squad, which we did.
We believed in the way we played because I thought our 3-2 build and, you know, some of the things we were trying to accomplish, that was all good. But so if you believed in all that sort of stuff, you know, there wasn't. Panic mode, there was a little bit of unsettling, Brad, if I'm being honest. There was some, you know, holy, what if we can't? But, you know, our preparation.
The way we coach, the way we present, all that sort of stuff. I had confidence we could pull out a season. I'm not so sure I would have said we were going to make it to within eight minutes of a final. That I didn't know. But again, that's credit to Albert, Jordan, Steph, you know, Jackson, Yaimar, you know, the whole crew, Christian, the whole crew. They came together. and made it a great season.
Yeah, I mean, second off of the year, I don't know how it ended exactly, but for a long time, it was Sounders and Miami as the two best teams in the league. Everyone's obviously watching Miami. They're winning every game, 6-3, 4-2, Suarez, Messi, but quietly... You were matching them result for result and nobody was really talking about it. And I'm kind of watching your team transform. I remember the game away to St. Louis. That's the game I remember covering with Danny Jackson.
And something clicked for Albert in that game. I think he got maybe a couple of assists. Maybe he may have scored. But wherever it was, we left there saying, that's the Albert you need. You've lost Nico. massive shoes to fill. Albert can't be Nico, nobody can, but he can do it in the Albert-Rusnac way. And I think he did. Something happened in that game. There was a game in Philly. I think it was Obed who scored. You had a couple of moments during the season where...
I would see glimpses of, OK, this team can do something. I wonder if there was a time for you and maybe a training session where you said, OK, oh, well, we've got something here. I don't know if there was a moment during the season where this team did something that was a result. And your belief was even reinforced of like, come on, guys, we have it. We can do it. For me, the set and the worst game. Well, yes, that was a very good performance early in the year. Kind of got us on the right track.
I think there are a couple of milestones. And, you know, I'll start with that game in DC where Steph's red card got rescinded. You know, and after the fact, the players were pissed in the locker room after the game. They were like, we got hosed, we got job. This is a bunch of crap. And, you know, that kind of galvanized them to Sounders against the world. And then we go to Philly.
And then we go to Philly and you have that performance. Yes, Ovid scored a goal. But, you know, Raul's ridiculous, you know, goal, you know, just again, actually, that made my decision harder to take Raul out of the lineup. You know, even though it might have been the best decision, but that certainly, you know, took me a little bit while longer after that performance. You know, the Dallas game.
You know, the Dallas game where we had a little bit of, you know, dust up in the locker room because Raul and Nuhu didn't celebrate with their teammates. I think that one was a big one, you know, because, you know, the team is... bigger than any single player. From a soccer perspective, was St. Louis a benchmark? Sure. But I think that Leeds Cup run was good.
You know, we got pounded by Nakaksa, but we came back and had some good performances. You know, finally getting the monkey off our back against LAFC, that whole storyline. because those losses to LAFC were gut checks. They were hard losses, especially the one at Starfire where we had the mystique and the history, and the team was able to overcome. and persevere, which is always my, you know, my, one of my markers for, you know, a strong team, a strong mental team.
so when you go back i mean i remember obviously being on the roster when you made that decision with clint a little bit different because of his you know he was battling like a little bit of a condition, but he was kind of on his way out also. Not to him. Well, not to him. But, you know, but my point is, you kind of reflect on that. Was that something you...
leaned on when it was time to make the decision on Raul? And did that give you kind of the gusto to make that decision for the team as well? Again, some of the hard decisions I've made over the years. you know, starting with Clint, starting with Zach Scott, starting with, you know, Roger Levesque and some of the experiences I've had with big players has helped me, Nico, last year.
Some of those conversations helped me with dealing with Raul. If you're comparing, you know, Clint and Raul, just because they were both two of the greatest goal scorers this club has ever had. Yeah, there were subtle differences. You know, it was. both players coming towards the end of their career and how did they fit within the team? And, you know, those were challenging decisions to say the least. You know, but look, at the end of the day, were good decisions.
Although they might not have been good decisions for those individual players. But my job isn't to, you know, my job isn't to make individual players happy. My job is to make sure that the collective is successful. So Clint, yes, with his heart. I always have a soft spot for Clint. I thought he was the best natural goal scorer that this country has ever produced, bar none. And I don't know if Pulisic will ever get there, but Clint can just do score goals like...
you know, whenever he wanted. And, you know, Raul is a killer. In his prime, inside the 18-yard box, there was nobody but Raul. Yeah. That one kind of leads me. to thinking that those have to be the toughest decisions that you've made as a coach? Would that be, suffice to say, that those moments of being a coach...
Does that stick out to you the most when you reflect on like, I'm a manager, I got to make these decisions? Do those ones pop into the brain first? Second part to that question, are you always getting support from the higher ups or are you getting that pushback from? whoever the GM is at the time, or Adrian? Well, I'm not going to divulge too much. Look, everybody has different opinions. Players, coaches, general managers, presidents, or owners.
There's never really any true moment where all six people, you know, a little bit more if you add the entire coaching staff to the whole mix, there's never usually a consensus. Sometimes decisions are hard. Sometimes, you know, even Brad, some of the decisions about not starting Danny Leyva in a game versus Josh versus Obed, that three-headed monster, those were hard decisions for me.
But yes, the bigger players always carry more weight, for sure. I felt like I have been supported by the club in most of the decisions. And, you know, it's just, again, it's just part of the gig. And, you know, it seems like we were just in LA playing the Galaxy and already we're looking ahead to next season. Tomorrow is the draft. I'm always going to be a fan of the draft. It helped me.
Of course you are. Number one. Yeah. Number one. I would say, I would say, you know, take me out of it in a sense. One of your, probably your best ever draft pick, I think, because of longevity has to be Christian Rodon. I mean, what? He fell to a number. I forget what he was, but what a player he's turned out to be. Is the draft still an avenue, a club like the Sounders? I'm looking at your background and I'm seeing Paris Saint-Germain.
I'm seeing a Texaco de Madrid. You're in with the big boys. And you're a team who next year, no matter how well you've done the last 10 years, Schmetz, I mean, four MLS Cup appearances, two wins, you won the Champions League. We're still going to judge you on next season. We're still going to say he needs to do more. It just never ends, right?
Is the draft still a way that a club like the Sounders should be going to try and build? Because I don't know college soccer that well anymore. I'm just curious if the league's gone too far, if you're still valuing it. Yeah.
So I think the club still holds value in it. Obviously, you mentioned Christian. You yourself could be number one. I might... keep you up there about the injury i think we know but anyway yeah well yes it's unfortunate that you had that injury you would have been you know in that same length of your career for sure but
You know, Christian, you, we've had good draft choices. You know, Kalani last year, Tina Lopez, they're good guys for Defiance. How does Defiance fill their roster? How do we make that jump? I would say that the draft is relevant. I mean, look, my good friend Oscar Pereja down in Orlando, he's had some good forwards, Duncan McGuire being the last one that has made it on a transfer over to...
you know, the championship, although it didn't go through because of whatever reason, but there's a young college kid. There's always a college player that's going to help. You know, Arston was one of the kids from the West Coast that Columbus picked up that Precky was always talking about. Oh, we got to get this. We got to find this kid. He's a tremendous player.
I mean, so there are nuggets and I know the staff does a good job. Corey does most of it. Henry does a lot of it. You know, Craig's keeping his pulse on it. The kid we picked up at the center back that we picked up is like our draft choice because he was a pen. you know all these you know defender of the year so we're excited about some of the college players now
Are they going to match up this year against PSG? I'm not so sure I can say that, Steve. It might even be hard for young Jackson, Reagan or Obed or, you know, Jordan or Albert to, you know, you know. match up against those teams but we're gonna we're gonna put our best foot forward yeah uh when i when i talk about sounders rosters i think I reflect on 2014 and that team that was able to be put together. And when I look down.
the bench right i just had kenny cooper calls me five days five days a week what it seems like he wants to talk and we always end up talking about 2014 and we talked about it the other night because it was chad barrett lamar i mean you just ran down the list of players
that were impact players coming off the bench. As you look towards 2025, are you trying to build a roster now like that where you can really just pluck guys off the bench that are going to be game changers? Because you could play... 45-50 games next year, realistically. You can't do that with a roster of 15. It's got to be impact players top to bottom.
We look at your roster now compared to a support, no surprise, Supporter Shield winners were that roster. And that's why, I think. So you've got a big year coming up. You've got a lot of trophies on the line. Where are you at in that process, in your thought process? You know, so Adrian and Ziggy in the earlier years, myself, you know, giving advice here and there, then Garth.
certainly had his pulse on the roster. You know, the roster builds for different seasons. You're right. 2014 was a great roster. I think 2016 was a great roster. You know, look. 2022, Garth had made like the starting 12 guys were all TAM level players. And then the rest of the roster might have been unproven players. Every year, it's a little different.
how you build a roster. It's not my job. I focus more on the coaching aspect. I give my opinion as to where the team needs to improve on in different areas. But Craig's got his work cut out for him. Because we do have guaranteed this year so far, 42 games. In 2012, that was the year where we had the most games ever as a club. And I think that was 46, if I can remember my stats right.
But right now we've got 42 guaranteed. So if we go further in any of the tournaments that we're in, we'll of course reach 46 or maybe even higher, hopefully higher. So the roster this year must include. Brad, you know, 15 to 18 really solid guys and a couple young guys that we hope would break through. That's got to be a bare minimum. Yeah. Speaking of along those lines, the last two years, one area.
your team cannot be questioned is how good you've been defensively. Just individually, I mean, Yemo, Jackson, take your pick for MLS best 11. Both have their shouts there. New who, you know, for all his new who-ness. Still one of the best lockdown defenders he is.
You've had people, you can tell me like Jonathan Bell, who comes in and gives you really big minutes when you need it. Nathan, people like that. Stephen Fry is still kicking strong. And Andrew Thomas comes in and has a world yet staffer when you need him. So defensively is not being your issue.
On the other side of the pitch, Jordan and Alba accounted for so much of this team's offense. How do you improve in that regard? For example, we haven't even discussed Pedro yet. He had a stop start, the injuries.
we began to see him towards his best. I remember the game, was it Colorado away towards the end? And he had a pretty good game. And I think sixth minute, we took him off and he was showing some emotion. And I loved that. I was like, okay, he wants it. He wants to be there. Georgie, we spoke about, you know, he's equal. quite ready for consistency. I hope so. I love watching him play rough rocks there. How do you kind of unlock? Because when I remember the early branch master teams.
I mean, it was champagne football, some of it. I mean, Nico in his prime route. Yes. And again, these are top level players. Victor Rodriguez. I mean, you had Brad Smith overlapping every now and then. It just was like, it just clicked. It just happened. And now it's almost like Albert or Jordan have to...
score if they don't where's it coming from whereas what brad was talking about you've had teams where six seven guys can win you a game and i'm curious how you kind of unlock your attack to match what you're doing defensively yeah I thought you were going to go first talking defensively question, but then you changed that into an attacking question. But I'll start back here. And you know this as well as anybody. You know, even when I was an assistant, we were talking.
You know, the defending starts from the front. You would have had to defend for me when you played. You did, you know, a zig. But, yeah, a lot of good performances on the defensive side of the bowl. You know, Yaimar, when we saw him down in... down in Argentina in 2019 when I went down there for a scouting trip. Chris Henderson had set me up to watch, you know, four or five center backs. We liked him. But the problem was...
When he played the game that we were at, he was the defender of the match. So his price went up by about $200,000 because the agents figured, hey, he just won defender of the match in one of the weekend's games. That cost us a few more dollars, but well worth it. Jackson, Andrew Thomas up and coming, Steph still like fine wine. It all went well defensively for us.
You know, JB and Nathan did a good job at centre-back. You know, kind of the unsung heroes. Nuhu, love Nuhu. I mean, we love him, but we hate him sometimes, but we love him. I mean, most of the time we love him.
But, you know, he can get on her nerves. It's like a child, my child, you know. But, yes, the majority of our thought process, even throughout Steve, the last... you know half of the season has been how do we unlock de la vega how do we unlock the defending or excuse me the attacking uh we just couldn't get it right yet so
Let's start with De La Vega because he's an interesting one. He's obviously a very high-value player for us. I think his season did get cut short. I don't think that if you look back... Nico, okay, fine. Fair enough. He came in and right away was impactful. Raul, the same. But if you look around the league...
There are players that it takes six months, even a season, before they get their feet wet because it's different. It's different travel. It's a different style of play. There's just nuances that we don't sometimes think about. We just expect, oh. We paid a lot of money for him. He better be good. So that has to happen with De La Vega. I think he's a better athlete now. I think the sports...
The fitness guys have done a good job. I think he will be healthy at the start of preseason. And this year, I will put a few more expectations on him than what I did last year when he came in. The other side of that is Jordan and Albert need to score in some of these big games. In these big games. So they had good seasons. Okay. And look, I'm not going to discount any.
of their play, any of their goals, any of their assists. But in the big critical games, that's where people, that's where the players make their money. That's why Nico was so good. That's why Raul's been good. That's why Clint was good. That's why everybody, you know, on that side of the ball, that's where you earn your paycheck. Okay, Oba, you know, he scored goals, you know, in big games.
You know, Raul, to me, still might, even when I mention all those names. I mean, Raul is the one that really works in the putter. How many times did, you know, he save us in big... Big games. I think he's a leading sporer against the Timbers, for example, against Portland. Yeah, he always showed up. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, if you look up here with Raul and you look back here with Steph making...
the biggest saves and the biggest gains. I mean, that's a pretty good starting point. Everybody fills in the gaps, but Jordan and Albert need to score in big games. That's critical. Number two is the roster build, because we do have some money available. And what Craig and Adrian and I discuss and what we do, that's going to be...
one of the major talking points in this offseason and in the buildup to the MLS season. Because look, Steve, I got to tell you guys, look, we're not building a roster to compete against Paris Saint-Germain because that would be foolish. We can't compete. So the people that are out there that say, oh, my God, we need to sign this, this, and this because we've got three Club World Cup games, people, look.
Let's be honest here. We're going to build a really competitive roster to try and be, you know. exciting and play with the best teams in the world. That's our objective, to make it a game so that they know that they're not just going to come here and roll over us. But we're building a roster to win MLS Cup.
and the Open Cup and Leagues Cup. And, you know, that's what Craig is going to do. So we need to add some attacking pieces. Right now there's a couple ones that we have up on the board, but we're not done searching. Okay. I know there's some rumors out there from various different players. Some are a little bit higher, some are a little bit lower as far as where they're at in the actual negotiations.
But we are going to continually look for good attacking talent because that's the number one need for the team. That would lead me to the next question. Is competition up front? And I think that that is something Steve and I have talked about. If we can unlock or I think Steve and I talked about it last week, what would be your dream signings? And I think both of us still even say like a pure number nine that is an absolute battler.
that can put the ball in the back of the net, like you said, and a winger that's going to have six, seven crosses a game and beat their defender. Those would just be literally the two pieces for us. But competition at a number nine. Jordan was pushing Clint, right? And then Clint left. Jordan was kind of going back and forth. Raul came and then Jordan started to push Raul. And now Jordan comes in last year and says, I'm the number nine.
Do you still feel like he has any competition and someone nipping at his heels right now? Or is it just, here, Jordan, here's the position. Prove us wrong or don't score for 10 games and we're going to have to make a decision. Hopefully he will have competition if Craig does the job. I mean, that's number one. Look, Jordan's not afraid of competition, you know, who we sign, what we sign. He has told me he wants to be the number nine.
OK, with that comes responsibility. We've had that conversation. He is aware that the club has been looking at different attacking pieces. Number nines, goal scoring wingers to make him better. There's been a lot of talk and Jordan knows exactly where he's at. Albert, same thing. You know, Albert's got to, you know, got to hear the same message. Competition at those spots, Brad, is exactly what I would like for two reasons.
Number one, like you said, like you mentioned, it is a long season. We have a lot of games. So I don't like we can't have just a. secondary number nine, who's maybe, you know, not as experienced or whatever, because we have too many competitions for that. So we need to get a guy that's going to push Jordan. That's gonna, you know.
You know, get us to a point where he does feel some of that pressure. You know, Raul in the beginning of the year was good for Jordan. Remember Raul scored goals. You know, they were penalties. Yeah, he was playing well. But he was playing well. And that made Jordan work harder. It made Jordan angry sometimes at training. I saw it. And then when I finally made the switch, Jordan was ready. Same principle.
I think, you know, De La Vega needs competition. Albert needs competition. You know, I think, you know, even in midfield, you know, where is JP going to land? How does that all work in midfield? You know, you brought up Christian. And look, he was one of the storylines this year of moving back to his original position. But even he needs competition. Him and Obed and JP, if he comes back, or a new number six, they need competition.
So, you know, those are all the things that are up on the table for Craig and Adrian and myself to figure out for next year. Schmitz, one thing I'm always curious about, whenever I hear you talk, we have conversations just so quick. And it's always been the case to give the credit. For example, I say, oh, that was a great pattern of play. Gonzo's got them doing this.
set pieces or andy rose has been you always very quick to kind of boost up your assistant coaches etc but don't give us the details but i know how coaches meetings can get i'm just curious practice not
Lacking opinions. You're not lacking opinions. Dutro will speak his mind. When you guys are in there trying to figure out, you know, how do we beat them up on LAFC, for example, who's beat four or five times. Everyone's going to have their input. Just what's the balance you take as the head coach where...
At the end of the day, we're going to blame you. Whether it was your idea or not, the team loses. Schmetzer out. That's what's happening on Twitter. Hashtag Schmetzer out. That's what they're saying. Where's the balance between taking the input from an Andy Rose, from a Prekkie, listening to them, and then... At the end of it, still trusting your gut and being, okay, here's what I think and we're going to go like this. So part of the reason why I'm very quick to, you know, give praise.
to my assistant coaches is because, A, number one, they deserve it. Okay, they deserve it. Throughout the years, I've had really good assistants. Number two is because they're loyal. Because here's a snippet. Here's a snippet of a coaches meeting. And yes, Brecky does a very strong opinion. You know, he and I were roommates, remember? So he and I can go at it.
you know, where the fireworks may be in there. We go back and forth because he can tell me whatever he wants. Now, Andy has to be careful sometimes. He's got to measure what his opinion is. He's got to wait till his turn comes up. Freddie is the one that I try and pull out of because Freddie is a really good assistant coach, but sometimes he's a little quiet. You know, he's a little humble.
And he waits for his moment, but he's got really good ideas. And, you know, Tommy is my conscience. Whenever I kind of lean over here and I say, well, other teams are doing this, you know, Tommy shoots back. Well, they're not the... We are. We do this. And, you know, that's Tommy. So we have a really good, balanced staff. And we have really hard conversations.
And then at the end of the day, when I make any sort of final decision, as soon as those coaches go out the door, we are 100% together. And the reason why that's important is you guys know it. You guys have been pros. Players can feel what the coaching staff feels sometimes. Players know when the coaches aren't on the same page or there's a little bit of a vibe that's not really truly in sync.
And it's critical for us that when we make a decision, when we made the decision to go back to a back line of five against LAFC, when we walked out of that room, those couple of training days, The team knew exactly what we wanted. I had individual conversations with the five or six senior players that were going to lead that charge that were going to echo my voice in that locker room. Then the assistants went out on the field.
and did a great job of implementing the ideas that we wanted to have happen. But there were people that didn't want to change. We didn't want to change. And then some injuries and some things that were out of our control pushed us into that lineup. But, you know, it worked. So credit to the staff and credit to the players. I want to be a little bit of a creep here but the last flight we took down south, I looked over your shoulder and you were playing Wordle and Connections.
on the New York Times app because I was doing the same thing and sometimes I have to look up and just get my brain off of my game that I'm playing. Is that your decompression mode when you jump on a flight or don't want to think about soccer or that training that day? Yes. You need to have a balanced life. There is pressure in my job. I will tell you, Brad, that I got wordled.
twice on one guess and you know you can get your stats you can get your stats on your phone you know but i'll show you i think one of the words was beach that i got in one guess and i can't remember the last one but Yeah, it's a stress reliever. Look, sometimes after games, I don't want to watch the film. Some of the assistants are right away on the plane ride back. They're going to sit there and watch the game. And it's a good use of their time because, you know, they got to.
you know think about their thing but i like just decompressing looking at things with a clear mind so i'll wait till the next day and then i'll pull the pull the game up i'll slept on a little bit can catch my thoughts and then Then I'll watch the games. I'm a normal guy. I mean, I read the newspaper. My wife, Christine, and I, we like to actually, on a Sunday, we have the New York Times and the Seattle Times delivered. We have the Seattle Times delivered every day.
We like to sit down and have our cup of tea and coffee and read the newspaper like normal people. Yeah, I remember those plane rides after games or the day after because we didn't charter at the time. And sometimes you'd be close enough to zig. and you just see him on the computer watching hitting rewind 15 times and then you just see the like leaning back the hands thrown up in the air on the airplane
That's the last thing you want to see. Even after a win, right? You're sitting there kind of scrapping. Why did he do that? Why did he do that? You got to have those. Oh, yeah. Look, again, coaches are different. Precky's the one that does that. Sometimes Precky gets his computer out and gets Obed over and says, hey, Obed, you should have done this better. And hey, Obed, what do you think? Sometimes they already start the process.
You know, the players themselves drive some of that. Like Obed was one of them. Paul Rothrock, right after the games, on the plane, they wanted to... Watch their clips. You know, our video guys do a good job. Every player after every game gets their entire touches. They get the physical report of how much they ran, how much they sprinted, what they did, your touches on the ball. The players get all of that after the game.
But some of them do a little bit more. Look, there's a card school up higher up to play, and they like to play cards and decompress. But there's a couple kids that come to the assistants even right after games and want to take a look.
Shemetz, my last one for you, I want to ask in this context. The league's changed since the day you were hired as a Sounders head coach to now. It's changed to the point where the league's been able to attract who we can probably agree is the greatest player of all time.
And he's coming and he's delivered. I mean, he's been pretty good. Then he brings, you know, other guys who've won so much around the world. Teams are better. Coaches are better. Tactics are better. You're coming up probably against teams and match-ups that maybe you didn't have to think about before.
I'm curious how you yourself have grown as a coach in that time. What have you had to adapt or adjust to as you've seen the league grow up? Because, you know, teams like Miami, how you game plan for Miami, there was no Miami. eight years ago, a team that can maybe book five or six.
every game if they wanted to. Columbus, you know, what Wilfred Nancy's done with that team, how they play. So, and you're facing somebody, maybe those on the East, not as much, but even outside in the West, how Greg Vanney's rebuilt the Galaxy. You know, you've had to solve the LAFC.
problem and you finally did in the moment that mattered but i wonder for yourself how you in the time you've been as the league has grown how has brian schmetzer had to grow as well as a coach well it's a it's a it's a fair question it's a good question I would answer it like this, Steve. So look, you always learn. I'm not stubborn. I can learn new things.
I am 62 years old, but when Andy comes with a good idea, Freddy, Frecky, when they come with ideas, I'm willing to listen. I always ask myself the same question. Precky has an idea. Sometimes we butt heads. But why did Precky ask me that question? What did he see that maybe I didn't see? And then I reflect on it and I say, OK, that's either a good idea or something we're not going to try.
Same with Freddie. Same with Andy. Same when Tommy talks about playing out from the back on goal kick. Tommy's way into that. So we sit there and we have these conversations. So I learned from... New ideas from the people that I work with. Number two, I do watch soccer. I do want to decompress, but there's games that I'll watch on TV. I will watch what other coaches in our league are doing.
So Steve Trumdelho is a great example. I think Steve's a tremendous coach in what he's done and kind of flipping back and forth and some of the ideas that he has. Obviously, Greg Vanney and I have had many, many... in battles across the years and what he did in Toronto. Is it similar to how he plays now? And I look at other coaches within our league to see what they're doing. And it's not...
It's just you want to learn and you want to see what other coaches are doing. Phil down in Portland, when he came to Portland, some of those first games, I was really in tune with our pregame preparation because it was a new coach. And he's obviously a big name. I mean, he's been a big player. He's been a good coach. So those are some of the moments where just keeping an open mind and making sure that I don't sit still.
I think it's a life lesson for people in many, many other occupations. So this year was the 50th year anniversary for the club. Two-part question. Can you reflect, what's the first memory that comes to your mind in the 50th anniversary? And then the flip side of that is entering 2025. Like you said, yeah. I mean, those games matter.
It's different than playing Barcelona at home, and we can say that we're not building a roster, but those are three key matchups that a lot of fans have bookmarked for the Sounders and I think around MLS. First part, first memory that comes to mind, 50th year anniversary, and then looking ahead to 2025, what excites you the most? So my first thought actually is... memories of my own childhood from 74, 75, 76 in Memorial Stadium. When the 50th anniversary came up,
I'm one of the lucky few that was able to go to those games, watch Pepe Fernandez. So Pepe Fernandez was a big influence in my life when I was a young player because he had... gotten injured, had a little bit of retirement, but came back, and he and I would be head tennis partners, and we would play head tennis for an hour after training. I was a young kid, so I had to do all the work. He stayed up at the net, but I had to run doggies, Brad.
We played head tennis against Alan Hudson and Ian Bridge and anybody that wanted to play. And so some of my own memories of the Sounders back in my formative years were the first thoughts that I had when the club announced the 50th anniversary. And those are. really good memories for me. I mean, going to Memorial Stadium on a sunny afternoon with my family and parents and watching soccer, those were good moments for me.
Obviously playing with the team in 1980. Certainly have, you know, fond memories of all that. And then, you know, fast forward a little bit, Brad, I think the 50 year anniversary. coinciding with the new building and the new facility uh you know and making some of the plans of the you know the hallway where the players come and some of those things that just connect these
players that we have now with the rich history that we do have as a club. I think those were really important moments for me to add some of those things. And so I appreciated the fact that I could. you know, help the club in some small way, making sure that the current players, you know, understand what the Sounders are all about.
Well, on behalf of Steven, I just want to say thanks for letting us dip into the locker room on occasion just to feel what it's like because I think that that's important. There's no other MLS coach that will ever have the... Tradition and history and the memories that you do and that is I think a testament to the success as well
No one can touch on that. And so to allow Steve and I to just, you know, come in and get a piece of that, you don't know how much it means to us. And Schmetz won't like this. That's why I don't like to say too much in front of Schmetz. I talk a lot behind Schmetz. Because if I say in front, but... Before every game, pretty much every home game, I sit by Schmetz. This is before, I mean, it could be a small game, big game, quote unquote.
And we'll talk 10, 15 minutes. And I'm like, he has a game coming up. Sometimes I think, has he forgot that? He's got a massive game coming up. The team's on a six-game losing streak. But whether they're doing well, doing bad. I can always count on walking down to the pitch before home-ups, sitting in Schmetz's chair, Schmetz sits next to me, and we just talk about what's happening with the team, why did you pick this line-up, what do you see?
I'm appreciative of that, Schmitz. I think I sent you a text. I told you after the LAFC win, I didn't hear back, but that's okay. You had to throw that in there. I'm joking. But no, we appreciate it, honestly. Look, let me repay the compliment because, Brad, look, you're obviously a super talented player, captain of this club. You know what it's like to wear the badge. You've had a great career. I enjoy working with you.
What you said there is important, though, because the connection of former players to current players I think is really critical. And you do a great job of making sure that you help. The messaging, you know, because I can't do it by myself. But you go down there and you'll tell stories to Paul Rothrock and Jackson Reagan. You know, some of the guys, oh, this is what we did in 29 and 10 and 12 and 14. You helped me in that endeavor. So thank you for that. And Steve.
The only reason why I talk to you is because I want to learn new ideas. You're an idea man. You're an idea man. I'm going to ask you some questions and you're going to give me the tactics for the next game.
That's one of the reasons why I love talking to you. I love it, Schmitz. No, Schmitz, we appreciate your time and we'll look forward to doing this again next year. Hopefully with some trophies in hand, but congrats on a great season from us. And as always, we're glad you're sticking around as well. Very glad. I'm happy I'm sticking around as well for another couple years. You know, just for the excitement of the fans.
These next two years, I can barely stand it. I mean, with the Club World Cup, that's going to be massive because we're actually entered into a tournament playing against the teams in the background. you know my backdrop there but then the build up to the world cup in 2026 i mean the soccer fans in seattle you know you you guys got to be excited i mean it's a really growth moment for the club and for soccer in this country. So I'm looking forward to the next couple of years.