Dallas celebrate their win / Photo: Dan McCooey
The demands for the removal of head coach Sigi Schmid were inevitable after Seattle’s MLS elimination.
Schmid had already made some foes among the fan base for six years’ worth of blaming referees for losses but this season’s long losing run had added new converts to the cause.
Among the biggest criticisms are the timing of his substitutions and his over cautious approach in playoff games. Others say his methods have not kept up with changes in MLS.
Over-riding that is the feeling that he has simply been around long enough and it is time for a change.
The success of new young coaches at the other Cascadian clubs have probably, though silently, fed into that feeling. Lastly, the sudden availability of former RSL head coach Jason Kreis after one miserable season at NYCFC has conjured up visions of rejoining the dream partnership between Kreis and Sounders GM Garth Lagerwey that gave low budget RSL years of success.
Together the two built the side that won MLS Cup in Seattle’s first season and made the final in 2013, as well as reaching a CCL final.
Luckily for Kreis, MLS Commissioner Don Garber seems to be carrying much of the blame for NYCFC’s abysmal first season. Kreis’ reputation appears to have emerged unscathed.
Firstly, it does have to be stated again that seven successive years of playoffs in the first seven years of the club is a huge achievement for Schmid. This is only slightly diminished by MLS expanding the post season to include a majority of clubs this year.
But it is no longer enough for Sounders FC to make the playoffs and then lose to a side that has been better than them all year. Fans can read league tables and they know that, if anything, FC Dallas should never have needed penalties to waltz into the Conference final.
In Seattle, referee Kevin Stott missed a Tyrone Mears handball which should have resulted in a Dallas penalty and the free kick from which Clint Dempsey scored the winner was a clean tackle. Had Stott decided otherwise on the night, this tie would have been over early.
In Dallas, only the heroics of Chad Marshall, Zach Scott and Stefan Frei prevented a hammering, with Scott arguably having his best game of the season perhaps his best ever in MLS.
With Osvaldo Alonso and Brad Evans missing, Dallas waltzed through the Sounders midfield, and watching the beleaguered Oniel Fisher trying to fend off the impressive array of weaponry on Dallas’ right flank was painful.
Some accused Schmid of bunkering down to defend the lead from the first leg. It is more likely the Sounders players did not have any choice. Wave after wave of quick fluid movement came at them through Mauro Diaz and Fabian Castillo. It’s shuddering to think that they are only 47 years old between them.
Ryan Hollingshead looks every part a likely international player, resembling Graham Zusi in style more with every passing game. His salary is only $60,000 according to the Players Union salary list. Sounders are paying Damian Lowe more than Hollingshead.
He also took a year out of football at the prime of his career to build a church in his home town of Sacramento. Yet he dominated his area of the field.
Dallas have had to endure the season without the regular services of likely first choice keeper Dan Kennedy.
Yet deputy Chris Seitz eventually faced a challenge from last night’s hero Jesse Gonzalez. Who could foresee Stefan Frei having to fight for his place after recovering from an injury?
This begs the question – where the hell are Dallas getting that quality of player so far down the depth chart from?
Stefan Frei watches on as Dallas academy product Jesse Gonzalez saves a penalty. But where is Frei’s competition for a place?
Their youth rearing has produced some of the team that outplayed Seattle last night.
Of their current roster, Victor Ulloa, Richard Sánchez, Moises Hernandez, Jonathan Top, Kellyn Acosta, Danny Garcia, London Woodberry and Bryan Leyva came from their academy.
Thereafter they signed keeper Gonzalez as the 10th Homegrown player. Three more Danny Garcia, Coy Craft and Alex Zendejas have been signed since. Finnish under-18 international Niko Hämäläinen is now furthering his education at Dagenham and Redbridge, on loan from QPR.
Hollingshead, Gonzalez, Ulloa and Acosta were key performers last night. Fabian Castillo is technically not a homegrown player but was just 18 when Dallas brought him in from Deportivo Cali.
There is talented youth already in their first team and a pipeline of more to follow and the team seem less dependent on the work, and the word, of football’s many agents than most.
However Dallas are not the only side to present a picture of how to do the player pipeline better.
Sporting Kansas City have been arguably the most injury ravaged club in the Western Conference.
At times deprived of seven starters, they were forced to delve deep into the roster. Names like
Saad Abdul-Salaam, Amadou Dia, Soni Mustivar and Connor Hallisey may have been unheard of last March outside Kansas City, but made such stellar appearances that the returning players had to struggle to regain their place. Kevin Ellis has had a magnificent season in defence scoring four goals in his 26 starts and regularly bailing out whatever goalkeeper he happened to have behind him. He is surely destined for greater things.
One to watch. Kevin Ellis (l) has had a breakout season
A mere look at the number of starts given to established players like Chance Myers, Marcel de Jong, and Roger Espinoza will tell you how fierce competition was not withstanding injury and other reasons for inavailability.
SKC only failed to progress in 2015 on penalty kicks after a second string goalkeeper failed to convert one. As if to labour the point, their 2015 USL Affiliate Oklahoma finished four places above S2 in the USL West.
It’s not just at the youth end of the spectrum where Sounders FC are not matching up to their competition.
No foreign import in the Emerald City has had the impact of Robbie Keane in LA, or Sebastian Giovinco in Toronto. Didier Drogba’s half season flourish may be a one off but yet, how much could such a cameo have benefited Sounders? Obafemi Martins has had a great season but at his age, who would be certain he can repeat it at that impressive level for two more?
Admittedly the signing of Steven Gerrard looks like a less successful enterprise which proves that all that glitters is not gold and even Bruce Arena makes mistakes.
While Sigi Schmid is an expert at signings from within MLS, and few do it better, the club has been shown up by local rivals when it comes to plundering the growing and now affordable market of South American nations Argentina and Uruguay.
Argentinian and Uruguayan players are now replacing Hondurans, Costa Ricans and Guatemalans as MLS clubs target area. Octavio Rivera, Matias Laba and Diego Valeri have all made impacts in the league and others such as Lucas Melano and Cristian Techera look set to.
Nelson Valdez from Paraguay, a smaller CONMEBOL nation, looks promising but it has to be stated that he was a summer panic buy as the side struggled to find answers to a shallow squad amid a losing streak.
In Sounders defence, there are two explanatory factors to explain a hit and miss signing policy.
Firstly, Garth Lagerwey’s existing RSL contract did not allow him a full off season to assess the squad. And he was rightly in no hurry to make snap decisions.
Secondly, the club’s off season inactivity could have been partly caused by the uncertainty over the strike. They may have been reticent to hire players amid that uncertainty. That, in hindsight, was an error but neither of those factors will be repeated this winter.
Lagerwey will get a clear run at the rebuild and has much work to do. He cannot turn Sounders youth into FC Dallas nor build a squad as deep as SKC’s overnight. But he has to start with the painful recognition that they are doing things better.
He also has to take a long look at the systems in place and sadly, the individuals who have held key posts in that system since 2009. If Sigi Schmid’s performance is to be examined, so must Chris Henderson’s, Ezra Hendrickson’s and Kurt Schmid’s among others.
Lagerwey may have to ask himself a difficult question.
“If I was hiring for open positions, would these men get the job?”
Lagerwey himself is absolved from blame (and credit) for where the club is now. However, he needs to bring some of the characteristic tough talking to some entrenched interests if the club is to progress.
That includes some new thinking such as admitting that the size of your attendance alone does not make you a big club. The number of players emerging from your academy, your ability to cope with injuries, the speed at which your foreign imports integrate, and the foresight of your scouts all play a part.
Recently the club sent out a press release observing that their attendances were bigger than Liverpool’s. Press releases boasting about attendances have been the mainstay of the club’s PR since 2009. And they may have led to a self-delusion as to the importance of this one, off-field, statistic.
A one year moratorium on talking about it would be welcomed. Do you think Liverpool will release a statement about overtaking Sounders FC if their attendances pick up?
On a pre-season PR organised trip to Dortmund, the club’s PR showed traveling foreign media their state of the art electronic training facilities, their shiny new shop, talked about low ticket prices, their youth academy, but never at any point mentioned their attendances although they are the highest in Europe.
They also refrained from comparing themselves to any other club.
Rather than looking at a foreign club in a foreign league and proclaiming how much bigger they are, Sounders might reflectively look at clubs in their own league and see where those clubs need to be emulated.
Scott should be the first Sounder on the Clink’s Ring of Honor
None of that directly addresses the issue of the day, Sigi Schmid’s future.
One can totally understand the frustration of the fans at another dismal elimination. They travel in great numbers and spend plenty on merchandise. They are loud and they are loyal. They have every right to have their say.
The arguments for a change are solid. Schmid has not been able to command great performances out of too many of the big players who have arrived.
But it is not all his fault that, while others sign total professionals like Keane and Drogba, he is landed with Blaise Nkufo, Shalrie Joseph, Freddy Ljungberg and Eddie Johnson whose commitment was always open to discussion. Nor is he to blame for Clint Dempsey’s petulance and salary and seemingly only fleeting occasional bouts of passion for the Sounders cause.
He has made some wise signings inside his MLS comfort zone, Brad Evans, Chad Marshall, Stefan Frei and James Riley for example. Only injury probably prevented Nate Jaqua and Pat Ianni joining that list. In that area, clearly he is not obsolete or out of his time.
But outside intra-MLS arrivals, the club has recruited less well than its rivals. They have over-relied on minimum wage Zach Scott and play anywhere Evans for too long. Both men have bailed out a weak roster more than the coach could ever have dreamed. He owes them both a big thank you. If Sounders are to be stuck at the CLink, it is high time a Sounders player was added to the Ring of Honor and that player should be Zach Scott as soon as he retires.
If Schmid is fired or resigns, that alone will not fix the deeper issues.
Lagerwey is entitled to embark on a wholesale review of how the club is run and ensure every individual in every post is there on merit.
That includes Sigi Schmid but if Jason Kreis’ tenure at NYCFC proves anything, it is that a good coach cannot succeed if the infrastructure under him is faulty.
If the infrastructure however is built on solid foundations, then any club can punch high above its weight.
Garth Lagerwey knows that better than anyone.
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Seattle Sounders FC player ratings vs FC Dallas
