It is not every day a coach makes the top-ten all-time list for most MLS regular season wins in their career.
Sounders Head Coach Brian Schmetzer reached this milestone last Saturday night, when the team defeated St. Louis CITY SC 4-1 at Lumen Field.
“What an honor,” said Assistant Coach Freddy Juarez. “Legend, a true legend…We're lucky to have him.”
With the three points over the Midwest side, Schmetzer now has 130 total wins since taking over for former Sounders Coach Sigi Schmid in 2016.
“It’s\] impressive,” said midfielder [Paul Rothrock. “It speaks to his success here at the club.”
To collect as many wins as Schmetzer has, is a daunting task — especially when it’s been at only one organization. But with two MLS Cups, a Concacaf Champions League title and four Western Conference Championships to show for, it is no surprise Schmetzer has reached such a feat.
“His tenure here has been long,” said Rothrock. “I think that's allowed us to have a lot of success in different ways. The stability of that has been really good for the players in the organization, crafting an identity as a club.”
Juarez said it is the “managing skills” he possesses that has allowed him to reach a milestone of this caliber.
“He holds everyone to a high standard, but he's also willing to allow people that he brings in to work to their strengths, and he's going to question you on your decision, and it gets that individual to think, ‘Am I actually doing the right thing?’ And then when you feel like you are, Schmetz then [puts] trust in you,” said Juarez. “He gets the best out of everyone.”
This, along with his calm, cool, collected mindset, has solidified his role at the club for nearly a decade.
“He reminds you, this is a job in moments,” said Juarez. “We've had some rough spells since I've been here. We've had some really highs-highs…We won the Champions League, and of course, he enjoyed it, [but] he just treated it like it was still business. So I respect that more than anything from him.”
Soccer is ever-changing. A coach must be willing to transform with the sport in order to evolve and maintain success. Along with Schmetzer’s consistency of being an “honest, hungry, and humble person,” according to Juarez, he’s shared an openness to new ideas, allowing him to have the decorated career he’s built at the Sounders.
“[He has] humility,” said Juarez. “The video analysts seeing new trends around the world, us bringing up those trends and how we can apply these with our current roster…[He’s] open minded to accept that. He's not stuck in the past.”
